Previous studies have suggested that endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) is one of the mechanisms responsible for the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Histone acetylation modification can regulate the transcription of genes and is involved in the regulation of ERS. Valproate (VPA), a nonselective histone deacetylase inhibitor, has been reported to have a protective role in kidney tissue injury, however, whether VPA can prevent DN remains to be elucidated. In the present study, it was found that VPA increases the expression of glucose-regulated protein (GRP78) and reduces the protein expression of C/EBP-homologous protein (CHOP), growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible gene 153 and caspase-12 in a rat model of DN. VPA can reduce renal cell apoptosis and alleviate proteinuria and alterations in serum creatinine. VPA also upregulates the acetylation level of histone H4 in the promoter of GRP78 and downregulates the acetylation level of histone H4 in the promoter of CHOP. Collectively, the data indicate that VPA can relieve ERS and reduce renal cell apoptosis, and thus attenuate renal injury in a rat model of DN by regulating the acetylation level of histone H4 in ERS-associated protein promoters.

Developing high-performance non-noble-metal electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which can be stably operated under various conditions is highly required in realistic production. In this work, a hierarchical architecture consisting of MoS 2 and Co 9 S 8 anchored on a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) substrate was first synthesized, then by introducing blank graphene oxide (GO) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), interconnected three-dimensional (3D) composite aerogels with high conductivity were obtained, showing a high activity for the HER, with low overpotentials (η 10 ) at about 90 mV (0.5 M H 2 SO 4 ), 176 mV (1.0 M PBS), and 102 mV (1.0 M KOH). The high performance might be caused by special hierarchical 3D structures maximally exposing the active edges of both MoS 2 and Co 9 S 8 . Additionally, 3D MoS 2 /Co 9 S 8 /rGO-CNTs showed a superior stability and could work stably under different conditions for more than 20 h or 1000 cycles, which is attributed to the good crystallinity after annealing, the highly symmetrical structures between Co 9 S 8 and MoS 2 , and robust protection provided by the 3D carbon substrate. The results presented herein may provide an effective way to develop nonnoble-metal electrocatalysts for different fields including the HER.

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Connected ramets of colonal plants often suffer from different environmental conditions such as light, nutrient, and stress. Colonal Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon [L.] Pers.) can form interconnected ramets and this connection facilitates the tolerance to abiotic stress, which is a kind of physiological integration. However, how bermudagrass responds to heterogeneously distributed salt stress needs to be further elucidated. Here, we demonstrated that severance of stolons aggravated the damage of salt‐stressed ramets, displaying higher relative electrolytic leakage (EL), lower content of chlorophyll, higher accumulation of Na+, and serious oxidative damages. This finding implied the positive effects of the physiological integration of bermudagrass on salt tolerance. The unstressed ramets connected with the stressed one were mildly injured, implying the supporting and sacrifice function of the unstressed ramets. Physiological integration did not mediate the translocation of Na+ among ramets, but induced a higher expression of salt overly sensitive (SOS) genes in the stressed ramets, consequently reducing the accumulation of Na+ in leaves and roots. In addition, physiological integration upregulated the genes expression and enzymes activity of catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) in both stressed and unstressed ramets. This granted a stronger antioxidant ability of the whole clonal plants under salt stress. Enhanced Na+ transfer and increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging are mechanisms that likely contribute to the physiological integration leading to the salt tolerance of bermudagrass.

Bermudagrass is one of the most extensively used warm‐season grasses. It is widely used in landscaping, stadium construction and soil remediation due to its excellent regeneration, trampling and stress tolerances. However, studies on its regulatory mechanism and variety improvement by genetic engineering are still at a standstill, owing to its genetic variability and intrinsic limits linked with some resistance to Agrobacterium infection. In this study, we established a higher efficient Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation via screening for vital embryogenic callus and improving infection efficiency. The superior callus was light yellow, hard granular and compact, determined with a differentiation rate of more than 95%. The optimized infestation courses by gentle shaking, vacuuming and sonicating were used. The infested calluses were co‐cultured for 3 days, followed by desiccation treatments for 1 day to get higher infection efficiency. Then the CdHEMA1 gene, essential for chlorophyll biosynthesis, was cloned and transferred into bermudagrass to validate the aforementioned optimization procedures integrally. Molecular‐level analyses indicated that the CdHEMA1 gene had successfully integrated and was greatly increased in transgenic seedlings. Results of the photosynthetic capacity assessment showed that CdHEMA1 overexpression may considerably enhance the contents of photosynthetic pigments, OJIP curve and reaction center density (RC/CSo) to absorb (ABS/CSo, ABS/CSM) and capture (TRo/CSo) more light energy, hence improve the performance indices PIABS and PICS compared to the wild type. The successful completion of this project would provide a solid platform for further gene function study and molecular breeding of bermudagrass.