The higher rate of non-synonymous over synonymous substitutions (dN/dS) of the X chromosome compared with autosomes is often interpreted as a consequence of X hemizygosity. However, other factors, such as gene expression, are also known to vary between X and autosomes. Analysing 4800 orthologues in six mammals, we found that gene expression levels, associated with GC content, fully account for the variation in dN/dS between X and autosomes with no detectable effect of hemizygosity. We also report an extensive variance in dN/dS and gene expression between autosomes.

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Dragon fruit branches are an abundant and underutilized waste released from the annual pruning of dragon fruit. In this study, dragon fruit branches were used for the first time as a raw material for producing magnetic biochar through one-pot pyrolysis. The results showed that zero-valent iron and magnetite particles were generated in the carbon matrix, providing a saturation magnetization of 5.92 emu/g. Due to FeCl3 activation, magnetic biochar possessed a total pore volume of 0.15 cm3 /g and a specific surface area of 203 m2 /g. Subsequently, magnetic biochar was explored as a catalyst for enhanced ozonation of sunset yellow. 95% of sunset yellow (50 ppm) was treated within 80 min at pH 7.0. From the calculation results using pseudo-first-order kinetics, the sunset yellow decolorization constant was improved by 79% by using the magnetic biochar catalyst compared to ozone alone. Overall, dragon fruit branchderived magnetic biochar is a promising material, especially as a green catalyst, because of its magnetic separability and potential catalytic activity for the treatment of sunset yellow by ozone.