Biodiversity experiments have shown that species loss reduces ecosystem functioning in grassland. To test whether this result can be extrapolated to forests, the main contributors to terrestrial primary productivity, requires large-scale experiments. We manipulated tree species richness by planting more than 150,000 trees in plots with 1 to 16 species. Simulating multiple extinction scenarios, we found that richness strongly increased stand-level productivity. After 8 years, 16-species mixtures had accumulated over twice the amount of carbon found in average monocultures and similar amounts as those of two commercial monocultures. Species richness effects were strongly associated with functional and phylogenetic diversity. A shrub addition treatment reduced tree productivity, but this reduction was smaller at high shrub species richness. Our results encourage multispecies afforestation strategies to restore biodiversity and mitigate climate change.

SummaryWe demonstrate, using the seed-coating method, that melatonin promotes soybean growth, seed production, and stress tolerance by regulating cell division, photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, and ascorbate metabolism.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is an extremely aggressive malignancy with undifferentiated features, for which conventional treatments, including radioactive iodine ablation, are usually not effective. Recent evidence suggests that the Notch1 pathway is important in the regulation of thyroid cancer cell growth and expression of thyrocyte differentiation markers. However, drug development targeting Notch1 signaling in ATC remains largely underexplored. Previously, we have identified resveratrol out of over 7,000 compounds as the most potent Notch pathway activator using a high-throughput screening method. In this study, we showed that resveratrol treatment (10–50 μM) suppressed ATC cell growth in a dose-dependent manner for both HTh7 and 8505C cell lines via S phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Resveratrol induced functional Notch1 protein expression and activated the pathway by transcriptional regulation. In addition, the expression of thyroid-specific genes including TTF1, TTF2, Pax8 and sodium iodide symporter (NIS) were up-regulated in both ATC cell lines with resveratrol treatment. Notch1 siRNA interference totally abrogated the induction of TTF1 and Pax8 but not of TTF2. Moreover, Notch1 silencing by siRNA decreased resveratrol-induced NIS expression. In summary, our data indicate that resveratrol inhibits cell growth and enhances re-differentiation in ATC cells dependent upon the activation of Notch1 signaling. These findings provide the first documentation for the role of resveratrol in ATC re-differentiation, suggesting that activation of Notch1 signaling could be a potential therapeutic strategy for ATC patients, and thus warrants further clinical investigation.

The development of a safe and efficient dengue vaccine represents a global challenge in public health. Chimeric dengue viruses (DENV) based on an attenuated flavivirus have been well developed as vaccine candidates by using reverse genetics. In this study, based on the full-length infectious cDNA clone of the well-known Japanese encephalitis virus live vaccine strain SA14-14-2 as a backbone, a novel chimeric dengue virus (named ChinDENV) was rationally designed and constructed by replacement with the premembrane and envelope genes of dengue 2 virus. The recovered chimeric virus showed growth and plaque properties similar to those of the parental DENV in mammalian and mosquito cells. ChinDENV was highly attenuated in mice, and no viremia was induced in rhesus monkeys upon subcutaneous inoculation. ChinDENV retained its genetic stability and attenuation phenotype after serial 15 passages in cultured cells. A single immunization with various doses of ChinDENV elicited strong neutralizing antibodies in a dose-dependent manner. When vaccinated monkeys were challenged with wild-type DENV, all animals except one that received the lower dose were protected against the development of viremia. Furthermore, immunization with Chin-DENV conferred efficient cross protection against lethal JEV challenge in mice in association with robust cellular immunity induced by the replicating nonstructural proteins. Taken together, the results of this preclinical study well demonstrate the great potential of ChinDENV for further development as a dengue vaccine candidate, and this kind of chimeric flavivirus based on JE vaccine virus represents a powerful tool to deliver foreign antigens.