Highly Efficient Candlelight Organic Light-Emitting Diode with a Very Low Color Temperature

Low color temperature candlelight organic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are human and environmentally friendly because of the absence of blue emission that might suppress at night the secretion of melatonin and damage retina upon long exposure. Herein, we demonstrated a lighting device incorporating a phenoxazine-based host material, 3,3-bis(phenoxazin-10-ylmethyl)oxetane (BPMO), with the use of orange-red and yellow phosphorescent dyes to mimic candlelight. The resultant BPMO-based simple structured candlelight organic LED device permitted a maximum exposure limit of 57,700 s, much longer than did a candle (2750 s) or an incandescent bulb (1100 s) at 100 lx. The resulting device showed a color temperature of 1690 K, which is significantly much lower than that of oil lamps (1800 K), candles (1900 K), or incandescent bulbs (2500 K). The device showed a melatonin suppression sensitivity of 1.33%, upon exposure for 1.5 h at night, which is 66% and 88% less than the candle and incandescent bulb, respectively. Its maximum power efficacy is 23.1 lm/W, current efficacy 22.4 cd/A, and external quantum efficiency 10.2%, all much higher than the CBP-based devices. These results encourage a scalable synthesis of novel host materials to design and manufacture high-efficiency candlelight organic LEDs.

A Two-Color Haploid Genetic Screen Identifies Novel Host Factors Involved in HIV-1 Latency

A reservoir of latently HIV-1-infected cells persists in the presence of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), representing a major obstacle for viral eradication. Reactivation of the latent HIV-1 provirus is part of curative strategies which aim to promote clearance of the infected cells.

Evolution of parasitoid host preference and performance in response to an invasive host acting as evolutionary trap

The invasion of a novel host species can create a mismatch in host choice and offspring survival (performance) when native parasitoids attempt to exploit the invasive host without being able to circumvent its resistance mechanisms. Invasive hosts can therefore act as evolutionary trap reducing parasitoids’ fitness and this may eventually lead to their extinction. Yet, escape from the trap can occur when parasitoids evolve behavioural avoidance or a physiological strategy compatible with the trap host, resulting in either host-range expansion or a complete host-shift. We developed an individual based model to investigate which conditions promote parasitoids to evolve behavioural preference that matches their performance, including host-trap avoidance, and which conditions lead to adaptations to the unsuitable hosts. One important aspect of these conditions was reduced host survival during incompatible interaction, where a failed attempt by a parasitoid resulted in host killing. This non-reproductive host mortality had a strong influence on the likelihood of establishment of novel host-parasitoid relationship. Killing unsuitable hosts can constrain adaptation under conditions which in fact promoted adaptation when parasitoids would leave the trap host unharmed and survive parasitoid attack. Moreover, our model revealed that host-search efficiency and genetic variation in host-preference play a key role in the likelihood that parasitoids will include the suboptimal host in their host range, or will evolve behavioural avoidance resulting in specialization and host-range conservation, respectively. Hence, invasive species might change the evolutionarily trajectory of native parasitoid species, which is important for predicting biocontrol ability of native parasitoids towards novel hosts.

Discovery of the new Coptotriche species in China revealed two novel host-plant families and host-plant orders for Tischeriidae, a family of stenophagous, leaf-mining lepidopterans

The article describes three new species of Coptotriche Walsingham, 1890 from China and adjacent northern Vietnam: C. camptotheca Xu & Dai, sp. nov. feeding on Camptotheca acuminata Decne. (Nyssaceae); C. turpinia Xu & Dai, sp. nov. feeding on Turpinia arguta (Lindl.) Seem. (Staphyleaceae); and C. asiana Diškus & Stonis, sp. nov. The latter appeared to be a narrow oligophagous species feeding on various Symplocos Jacq.: S. sumuntia Buch.-Ham. ex D. Don, S. poilanei Guill., and Symplocos glauca (Thunb.) Koidz. (Symplocaceae). Nyssaceae and Staphyleaceae are novel host-plant families of Tischeriidae. The new species are illustrated with photographs of adults, male and female genitalia, and leaf mines. The article also briefly discusses about the proportion of monophagous and oligophagous species of Tischeriidae.

The Novel Agrotis ipsilon Nora Virus Confers Deleterious Effects to the Fitness of Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

In the present study, we identified a novel, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus in the Chinese black cutworm, Agrotis ipsilon. It has a genome length of 11,312 nucleotides, excluding the poly(A) tails, and contains five open reading frames. The ORF2 encodes the conserved domains of RNA helicase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, while ORF4 and 5 encode three viral proteins. Herein, the A. ipsilon virus was clustered with a Helicoverpa armigera Nora virus and was thus provisionally named “Agrotis ipsilon Nora virus” (AINV). AINV was successfully transmitted into a novel host, Spodoptera frugiperda, through injection, causing a stable infection. This found the possibility of horizontal AINV transmission among moths belonging to the same taxonomic family. Nonetheless, AINV infection was deleterious to S. frugiperda and mainly mediated by antiviral and amino acid metabolism-related pathways. Furthermore, the infection significantly increased the S. frugiperda larval period but significantly reduced its moth eclosion rate. It suggests that AINV is probably to be a parasitic virus of S. frugiperda.

Proximity-Labeling Reveals Novel Host and Parasite Proteins at the Toxoplasma Parasitophorous Vacuole Membrane

Toxoplasma is an intracellular pathogen which resides and replicates inside a membrane-bound vacuole in infected cells. This vacuole is modified by both parasite and host proteins which participate in a variety of host-parasite interactions at this interface, including nutrient exchange, effector transport, and immune modulation.

Dense granule protein, GRA64 interacts with host cell ESCRT proteins during Toxoplasma gondii infection

The intracellular parasite Toxoplasma gondii adapts to diverse host cell environments within a replicative compartment that is heavily decorated by secreted proteins. In attempts to identify novel parasite secreted proteins that influence host cell activity, we identified and characterized a trans-membrane dense granule protein dubbed GRA64 (TGME49_202620). We found that GRA64 is on the parasitophorous vacuolar membrane (PVM) and is partially exposed to the host cell cytoplasm in both tachyzoite and bradyzoite parasitophorous vacuoles. Using co-immunoprecipitation and proximity-based biotinylation approaches, we demonstrate that GRA64 appears to interact with certain components of the host Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport (ESCRT). Genetic disruption of GRA64 does not affect acute Toxoplasma virulence in mice nor encystation as observed via tissue cyst burdens in mice during chronic infection. However, ultrastructural analysis of Dgra64 tissue cysts using electron tomography revealed enlarged vesicular structures underneath the cyst membrane, suggesting a role for GRA64 in organizing the recruitment of ESCRT proteins and subsequent intracystic vesicle formation. This study uncovers a novel host-parasite interaction that contributes to an emerging paradigm in which specific host ESCRT proteins are recruited to the limiting membranes (PVMs) of tachyzoite and bradyzoite vacuoles formed during acute and chronic Toxoplasma infection.