Understanding the functional properties and mechanisms of biological macromolecules will help to demystify the drug properties and health benefits of TCM. © The Author(s) 2020.Background Exposure to airborne zinc oxide (ZnO) particles occurs in many industrial processes, especially in galvanizing and welding. Systemic inflammation after experimental inhalation of ZnO particles has been demonstrated previously, but little is known about the impact on the cardiovascular system, particularly on the autonomic cardiac system and the risk of arrhythmias. In this study we investigated the short-term effects of ZnO nanoparticles on heart rate variability (HRV) and repolarization in healthy adults in a concentration-dependent manner at rest and during exercise in a controlled experimental set-up. Methods Sixteen healthy subjects were exposed to filtered air and ZnO particles (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mg/m3) for 4 h, including 2 h of cycling at low workloads. Parameters were assessed before, during, immediately after, and about 24 h after each exposure. For each subject, a total number of 46 10-min-sections from electrocardiographic records were analyzed. Various parameters of HRV and QT interval were measured. Results Overall, no statistically significant effects of controlled ZnO inhalation on HRV parameters and QT interval were observed. Additionally, a concentration-response was absent. Conclusion Inhalation of ZnO nanoparticles up to 2.0 mg/m3 for 4 h does not affect HRV and cardiac repolarization in healthy adults at the chosen time points. This study supports the view that cardiac endpoints are insensitive for the assessment of adverse effects after short-term inhalation of ZnO nanoparticles. © The Author(s) 2020.Exercise-induced autophagy is associated with physiological left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), and a growing body of evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate autophagy-related genes. However, the precise role of miRNAs in exercise induced autophagy in physiological LVH has not been fully defined. In this study, we investigated the microRNA-autophagy axis in physiological LVH and deciphered the underlying mechanism using a rat swimming exercise model. Rats were assigned to sedentary control (CON) and swimming exercise (EX) groups; those in the latter group completed a 10-week swimming exercise without any load. For in vitro studies, H9C2 cardiomyocyte cell line was stimulated with IGF-1 for hypertrophy. We found a significant increase in autophagy activity in the hearts of rats with exercise-induced physiological hypertrophy, and miRNAs showed a high score in the pathway enriched in autophagy. Moreover, the expression levels of miR-26b-5p, miR-204-5p, and miR-497-3p showed an obvious increase in rat hearts. Adenovirus-mediated overexpression of miR-26b-5p, miR-204-5p, and miR-497-3p markedly attenuated IGF-1-induced hypertrophy in H9C2 cells by suppressing autophagy. Furthermore, miR-26b-5p, miR-204-5p, and miR-497-3p attenuated autophagy in H9C2 cells through targeting ULK1, LC3B, and Beclin 1, respectively. Taken together, our results demonstrate that swimming exercise induced physiological LVH, at least in part, by modulating the microRNA-autophagy axis, and that miR-26b-5p, miR-204-5p, and miR-497-3p may help distinguish physiological and pathological LVH. Copyright © 2020 Qi, Luo, Ma, Zhang, Li and Zhang.The molecular pathogenesis of hematological diseases is often driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations. Next-generation sequencing has considerably increased our genomic knowledge of these disorders becoming ever more widespread in clinical practice. In 2012 Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) released the MinION, the first long-read nanopore-based sequencer, overcoming the main limits of short-reads sequences generation. In the last years, several nanopore sequencing approaches have been performed in various "-omic" sciences; this review focuses on the challenge to introduce ONT devices in the hematological field, showing advantages, disadvantages and future perspectives of this technology in the precision medicine era. Copyright © 2020 Minervini, Cumbo, Orsini, Anelli, Zagaria, Specchia and Albano.The flesh color of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an important fruit quality trait that helps to determine fruit attractiveness and is potentially beneficial to human health. Previous inheritance analyses determined that a single dominant gene, Yscr , produces the scarlet red flesh color rather than the coral red flesh color in watermelon. However, no genomic region or gene-based molecular markers for the locus Yscr have been reported thus far. In the present study, two high-density genetic maps and whole-genome variation detection aided by genome resequencing were first map the flesh color locus Yscr to a small region on chromosome 6 based on two independent populations derived from two scarlet red-fleshed lines and two coral red-fleshed lines. Two major quantitative trait loci located in the same genomic regions were identified in the F2 and BC1P2 populations and explained 90.36% and 75.1% of the phenotypic variation in flesh color, respectively. Based on the genetic variation in the two parental lines, newly developed PCR-based markers narrowed the Yscr region to 40 Kb. Of the five putative genes in this region, four encoded glycine-rich cell wall structural proteins, which implied that a new regulatory mechanism might occur between scarlet red- and coral red-fleshed in watermelon. Moreover, the genotypes of two newly developed InDel markers (InDel27_fc6 and InDel28_fc6) were completely consistent with the phenotypes in the F2 and BC1P2 populations and all 56 scarlet red-fleshed watermelon accessions. The results presented here provide valuable information for marker-assisted selection of flesh color breeding and the functional validation of candidate genes in watermelon. Copyright © 2020 Li, Shang, Wang, Zhou, Li and Ma.All Hydrangea macrophylla cultivars tested to date are diploid or triploid and triploid H. macrophylla have thicker stems, larger flowers, and larger stoma compared to related diploids.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/tolebrutinib-sar442168.html  It is unknown whether interploidy crosses between diploid and triploid hydrangeas can be used to develop triploid varieties. The objective of this study was to compare pollen tube development, fruit formation, and seed viability among intra- and interploidy pollinations of H. macrophylla and evaluate the genome size and pollen viability of resultant progeny. By 24 h post-pollination, pollen tubes had reached the ovaries of diploid flowers in 48.7% of samples while pollen tubes reached the ovaries in only 8.7% of triploid flowers (χ 2 = 30.6, p less then 0.001). By 48 h post-pollination pollen tubes reached the ovaries of diploid and triploid flowers in 72.5% and 53.8% of samples, respectively (χ 2 = 26.5, p = 0.001). There was no difference in percentage of flowers with pollen tubes reaching the ovaries in diploid and triploid flowers at 72 h after pollination (χ 2 = 7.