South China University of Technology

About: South China University of Technology is a education organization based out in Guangzhou, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Adsorption. The organization has 62343 authors who have published 69468 publications receiving 1251592 citations. The organization is also known as: SCUT & Huánán Lǐgōng Dàxué.

Ultrathin N-Doped Mo2C Nanosheets with Exposed Active Sites as Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

Abstract: Probing competent electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of water splitting is one of the most hopeful approaches to confront the energy and environmental crisis. Herein, we highlight ultrathin N-doped Mo2C nanosheets (N-Mo2C NSs) in the role of greatly efficient platinum-free-based electrocatalysts for the HER. The transformation of crystal phase and structure between MoO2 nanosheets with a thickness of ∼1.1 nm and N-Mo2C NSs with a thickness of ∼1.0 nm is studied in detail. Structural analyses make clear that the surfaces of the N-Mo2C NSs are absolutely encompassed by apical Mo atoms, hence affording an ideal catalyst prototype to expose the role of Mo atoms for the duration of HER catalysis. Theoretical calculations demonstrate that the nanosheet structure, N doping, and particular crystalline phase of Mo2C produce more exposed Mo active sites, including Mo atoms on the C plane and doped N atoms. Through detailed electrochemical investigations, N-Mo2C NSs possess HER activity with an o...

Epigenetic modification and inheritance in sexual reversal of fish

Abstract: Environmental sex determination (ESD) occurs in divergent, phylogenetically unrelated taxa, and in some species, co-occurs with genetic sex determination (GSD) mechanisms. Although epigenetic regulation in response to environmental effects has long been proposed to be associated with ESD, a systemic analysis on epigenetic regulation of ESD is still lacking. Using half-smooth tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis) as a model-a marine fish that has both ZW chromosomal GSD and temperature-dependent ESD-we investigated the role of DNA methylation in transition from GSD to ESD. Comparative analysis of the gonadal DNA methylomes of pseudomale, female, and normal male fish revealed that genes in the sex determination pathways are the major targets of substantial methylation modification during sexual reversal. Methylation modification in pseudomales is globally inherited in their ZW offspring, which can naturally develop into pseudomales without temperature incubation. Transcriptome analysis revealed that dosage compensation occurs in a restricted, methylated cytosine enriched Z chromosomal region in pseudomale testes, achieving equal expression level in normal male testes. In contrast, female-specific W chromosomal genes are suppressed in pseudomales by methylation regulation. We conclude that epigenetic regulation plays multiple crucial roles in sexual reversal of tongue sole fish. We also offer the first clues on the mechanisms behind gene dosage balancing in an organism that undergoes sexual reversal. Finally, we suggest a causal link between the bias sex chromosome assortment in the offspring of a pseudomale family and the transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of sexual reversal in tongue sole fish.