Henan Institute of Science & Technology

Supramolecular gels have been widely explored as functional materials; however, their performance often degrades upon solvent evaporation. Although many strategies seek to mitigate this instability, few have leveraged solvent loss as a functional driver. Herein, we present an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active supramolecular gel that exploits solvent evaporation for dynamic information encryption and anti-counterfeiting. In this multicomponent co-assembly, a phenylalanine-functionalized 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxamide derivative (C₃-Phe), sodium hyaluronate (HA), and Al³⁺ ions together immobilize the AIE luminogen 4,4'-(1,2-diphenylethene-1,2-diyl)dibenzoic acid (TPE-CA), enhancing its quantum yield from 1.91 % to 62.43 %. The introduction of fluorescent dyes 4,7-di(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (DBT) and rhodamine B (RhB) further establishes a cascade Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) platform to enable tunable multicolor emission. The controlled evaporation of water drives time-dependent fluorescence chromatic shifts and quenching, which are fully reversible upon water replenishment. This evaporation-coded reversible fluorescence behavior underpins a 4D encryption and anti-counterfeiting platform that features multistage authentication and self-erasing information, thereby offering a new paradigm for adaptive smart materials.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is a globally important staple crop that faces increasing challenges from climate change, particularly the combined effects of heat and drought stress. The BTB (Broad Complex, Tramtrack, and Bric-à-Brac) gene family is involved in diverse biological processes, including stress responses, but its characterization in T. aestivum remains limited. This study aimed to comprehensively investigate the BTB gene family in T. aestivum and identify key genes potentially involved in resilience to abiotic stress.In the current study, we identified 62 BTB genes in T. aestivum using BLAST and Hidden Markov Model (HMM) approaches. Phylogenetic analysis classified these genes into nine subgroups based on conserved domain architecture. Gene structure analysis revealed diverse exon-intron organizations, supporting evolutionary divergence among subgroups. Chromosomal mapping demonstrated an uneven distribution of BTB genes across the A, B, and D sub-genomes, with the highest number localized on sub-genome D. Cis-regulatory element analysis highlighted the presence of multiple stress-responsive motifs, particularly those associated with heat and drought responses, i.e., ABRE, G-box, CAAT-box, TATA-box. Expression profiling using transcriptome data from two T. aestivum varieties (Atay 85 and Zubkov) revealed differential regulation of BTB gene family members under drought, heat, and combined stress conditions. Furthermore, qRT-PCR validation showed that TaBTB11, TaBTB56, TaBTB57, and TaBTB58 were consistently regulated across all three stress conditions, highlighting their potential as key targets for stress-resilient T. aestivum breeding. Furthermore, Green fluorescent protein (GFP) localization confirmed that these genes were expressed in the nucleus.This study highlights key genes, i.e., TaBTB11, TaBTB56, TaBTB57, and TaBTB58, as potential targets for marker-assisted selection and genetic improvement of T. aestivum for enhanced resilience to combined heat and drought stress.

Although deep brain stimulation (DBS) is effective in treating Parkinson's disease (PD) related to bursting, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In the present paper, the dynamical and synaptic mechanisms are studied in a basal ganglia-thalamus model. Firstly, slow and large oscillations of synaptic gating variables/currents are identified as the cause of the irregular and non-synchronous bursting for PD, indicating that interruption of these slow modulations may be a feasible measure to treat PD. Secondly, strong DBS with high frequency applied to subthalamic nucleus (STN) can induce fast synchronous spiking in both STN and external globus pallidus (GPe), then interrupt the slow gating variables, thereby eliminating the irregular bursting. Meanwhile, the gating variables of the excitatory and inhibitory synapses respectively from STN and GPe to the internal globus pallidus (GPi) become fast. Finally, competition between these two opposite synapses can induce two manners to eliminate the bursting of GPi and restore the normal state, appearing in vast majority of parameter space composed of multiple synaptic conductances. One is the synchronous silence of GPi, and the other the synchronous regular fast spiking, which occurs for large conductance of the inhibitory and excitatory synapse, respectively. Both result in regular spiking of thalamus, via interrupting slow gating variables of synapse projected to thalamus. In addition, as the two conductances approach each other, the synaptic current to GPi oscillates around zero slowly, resulting in irregular firings of GPi and thalamus for PD in a narrow parameter space. Furthermore, the bursting observed in PD before DBS and three types of electrical activities of GPi during DBS are explained, using a saddle-node bifurcation of limit cycles and oscillation patterns of synaptic current. The distinction from the post inhibitory rebound bursting reported in previous studies is discussed. The results present the mechanisms for DBS to treat PD via eliminating bursting in wide parameter region.