Millions of tonnes of plastics have been released into the environment. Although the risk of plastics to humans is not yet resolved, microplastics, in the range of 1 μm -5 mm, have entered our bodies, originating either from ingestion via the food chain or from inhalation of air. Generally there are two sources of microplastics, either directly from industry, such as cosmetic exfoliants, or indirectly from physical, chemical and biological fragmentation of large (>5 mm) plastic residues. We have found that microplastics can be generated by simple tasks in our daily lives such as by scissoring with scissors, tearing with hands, cutting with knives or twisting manually, to open plastics containers/bags/tapes/ caps. These processes can generate about 0.46-250 microplastic/cm. This amount is dependent on the conditions such as stiffness, thickness, anisotropy, the density of plastic materials and the size of microplastics.This finding sends an important warning, that we must be careful when opening plastic packaging, if we are concerned about microplastics and care about reducing microplastics contamination.are still not fully understood. For example, rather than industry sources (primary one) or as the fragements of industial products (secondary one), do we generate microplastics by ourselves in our daily life? Here, we investigate the possible generation of microplastics during the opening of plastic packages. That is, microplastics could be generated every day, such as when we open a plastic bag to eat chocolate, cut or tear sealing tape to open a package, twist or open a bottle to drink water, beer, etc. We use quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) in combination with Raman and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) to chemically identify microplastic. In the meantime, we employ scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to physically visualise microplastics for further investigation of their morphology. Scientific RepoRtS |(2020) 10:4841 | https://doi.

Penicillium decumbens has been used in the industrial production of lignocellulolytic enzymes in China for more than 15 years. Conidiation is essential for most industrial fungi because conidia are used as starters in the first step of fermentation. To investigate the mechanism of conidiation in P. decumbens, we generated mutants defective in two central regulators of conidiation, FluG and BrlA. Deletion of fluG resulted in neither "fluffy" phenotype nor alteration in conidiation, indicating possible different upstream mechanisms activating brlA between P. decumbens and Aspergillus nidulans. Deletion of brlA completely blocked conidiation. Further investigation of brlA expression in different media (nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor) and different culture states (liquid or solid) showed that brlA expression is required but not sufficient for conidiation. The brlA deletion strain exhibited altered hyphal morphology with more branches. Genome-wide expression profiling identified BrlA-dependent genes in P. decumbens, including genes previously reported to be involved in conidiation as well as previously reported chitin synthase genes and acid protease gene (pepB). The expression levels of seven secondary metabolism gene clusters (from a total of 28 clusters) were drastically regulated in the brlA deletion strain, including a downregulated cluster putatively involved in the biosynthesis of the mycotoxins roquefortine C and meleagrin. In addition, the expression levels of most cellulase genes were upregulated in the brlA deletion strain detected by real-time quantitative PCR. The brlA deletion strain also exhibited an 89.1 % increase in cellulase activity compared with the wild-type strain. The results showed that BrlA in P. decumbens not only has a key role in regulating conidiation, but it also regulates secondary metabolism extensively as well as the expression of cellulase genes.

Growth performance and meat quality are important traits for the pig industry and consumers. Adipose tissue is the main site at which fat storage and fatty acid synthesis occur. Therefore, we combined high-throughput transcriptomic sequencing in adipose and muscle tissues with the quantification of corresponding phenotypic features using seven Chinese indigenous pig breeds and one Western commercial breed (Yorkshire). We obtained data on 101 phenotypic traits, from which principal component analysis distinguished two groups: one associated with the Chinese breeds and one with Yorkshire. The numbers of differentially expressed genes between all Chinese breeds and Yorkshire were shown to be 673 and 1056 in adipose and muscle tissues, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that these genes are associated with biological functions and canonical pathways related to oxidoreductase activity, immune response, and metabolic process. Weighted gene coexpression network analysis found more coexpression modules significantly correlated with the measured phenotypic traits in adipose than in muscle, indicating that adipose regulates meat and carcass quality. Using the combination of differential expression, QTL information, gene significance, and module hub genes, we identified a large number of candidate genes potentially related to economically important traits in pig, which should help us improve meat production and quality.

Traditional chemo‐immunotherapy can elicit T cell immune response by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), however, insufficient ICD limits the lasting antitumor immunotherapeutic efficacy. Herein, tadpole–ovoid manganese‐doped hollow mesoporous silica coated gold nanoparticles (Au@HMnMSNs) as biodegradable catalytic cascade nanoreactors are constructed to generate intratumoral high‐toxic hydroxyl radicals combined with DOX and Aspirin (ASA) for enhancing the induction of ICD and maturation of dendritic cells (DCs). The released Mn2+ can catalyze endogenous H2O2 to hydroxyl radicals, while internal gold nanoparticles mimetic glucose oxidase (GOx) converted glucose into H2O2 to accelerate the generation of hydroxyl radicals. On the other hand, tadpole oval‐structured Au@HMnMSNs can avoid the inactivation of gold nanoparticles due to strong protein adsorption. The introduction of ASA is to recruit DCs and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to tumor sites and restrain the intratumoral infiltration of immunosuppressive cells by decreasing the expression of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Accordingly, this work presents a novel insight to introduce GOx‐like catalytic cascade ICD nano‐inducer into antitumor immunotherapy for synergistic tumor therapy.