Optically transparent antibacterial films capable of healing scratches and restoring transparency are fabricated by exponential layer‐by‐layer assembly of branched polyethylenimine (bPEI)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) films and post‐diffusion of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide micelles encapsulated with antibacterial agent triclosan. The triclosan‐loaded bPEI/PAA transparent films can effectively inhibit the growth of gram‐positive and gram‐negative bacteria by the sustained release of triclosan molecules. Healing of multiple scratches on the triclosan‐loaded bPEI/PAA films can be conveniently achieved by immersing the films in water or spraying water on the damaged films, which also fully restores their transparency. The self‐healing ability of these transparent antibacterial films originates from the ability of bPEI and PAA to flow and recombine in the presence of water. The triclosan‐loaded bPEI/PAA films have satisfactory mechanical stability under ambient conditions, and thus show potential for application as transparent protective films with antibacterial properties.

Polymeric antifogging/frost-resisting coatings are suitable for use on flexible substrates but are vulnerable to accidental scratches and cuts. To solve this problem, we present the fabrication of healable, highly transparent antifogging and frost-resisting polymeric coatings via the layer-by-layer assembly of poly­(ethylenimine) (PEI) and a blend of hyaluronic acid and poly­(acrylic acid) (HA-PAA). Due to their remarkable water-absorbing capability, the highly transparent and flexible (PEI/HA-PAA)*50 coatings show excellent antifogging and frost-resisting capabilities even under aggressive fogging and frosting conditions. Meanwhile, these coatings can conveniently and repeatedly heal scratches and cuts several tens of micrometers deep and wide in the same region upon exposure to water because of the dynamic nature of the PEI/HA-PAA coatings. The healability of the (PEI/HA-PAA)*50 coatings provides a new way to design transparent antifogging/frost-resisting polymeric coatings with high flexibility, enhanced reliability, and extended service life.

Salinity is one of the most common abiotic stresses in agriculture production. Salt tolerance of rice (Oryza sativa) is an important trait controlled by various genes. The mechanism of rice salt tolerance, currently with limited understanding, is of great interest to molecular breeding in improving grain yield. In this study, a gene regulatory network of rice salt tolerance is constructed using a systems biology approach with a number of novel computational methods. We developed an improved volcano plot method in conjunction with a new machine-learning method for gene selection based on gene expression data and applied the method to choose genes related to salt tolerance in rice. The results were then assessed by quantitative trait loci (QTL), co-expression and regulatory binding motif analysis. The selected genes were constructed into a number of network modules based on predicted protein interactions including modules of phosphorylation activity, ubiquity activity, and several proteinase activities such as peroxidase, aspartic proteinase, glucosyltransferase, and flavonol synthase. All of these discovered modules are related to the salt tolerance mechanism of signal transduction, ion pump, abscisic acid mediation, reactive oxygen species scavenging and ion sequestration. We also predicted the three-dimensional structures of some crucial proteins related to the salt tolerance QTL for understanding the roles of these proteins in the network. Our computational study sheds some new light on the mechanism of salt tolerance and provides a systems biology pipeline for studying plant traits in general.

A facile and convenient synthesis of substituted pyridines has been developed via a one-pot multicomponent reaction of easily available 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds, aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile and alcohol in the presence of NaOH under mild conditions. A series of functionalized pyridines were thus obtained by this multicomponent reaction, in which four new bonds were formed in a highly chemo- and regioselective manner, and alcohol played dual roles as both reactant and reaction medium. Particularly valuable features of this protocol including mild conditions, simple execution, broad substrate scope, and good yields of products make it an efficient and promising synthetic strategy to build pyridine skeleton.