The antagonistic activity of Streptomyces spiroverticillatus (No. HS1) against of poplar canker pathogen Botryosphaeria dothidea.

BACKGROUND: Poplar canker caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea is one of the most severe plant disease of poplars worldwide. In our study, we aimed to investigate the modes of antagonism by fermentation broth supernatant (FBS) of Streptomyces spiroverticillatus HS1 against B. dothidea. RESULTS: In vitro, the strain and FBS of S. spiroverticillatus HS1 significantly inhibited mycelial growth and biomass accumulation, and also disrupted the mycelium morphology of B. dothidea. On the 3rd day after treatment, the inhibition rates of colony growth and dry weight were 80.72% and 52.53%, respectively. In addition, FBS treatment damaged the plasma membrane of B. dothidea based on increased electrical conductivity in the culture medium, and malondialdehyde content of B. dothidea mycelia. Notably, the analysis of key enzymes in glycolysis pathway showed that the activity of hexokinase (HK), phosphofructokinase (PFK), and pyruvate kinase (PK), Ca2+Mg2+-ATPase were significantly increased after FBS treatment. But the glucose contents were significantly reduced, and pyruvate contents were significantly increased in B. dothidea after treatment with FBS. CONCLUSIONS: The inhibitory mechanism of S. spiroverticillatus HS1 against B. dothidea was a complex process, which was associated with multiple levels of mycelial growth, cell membrane structure, material and energy metabolism. The FBS of S. spiroverticillatus HS1 could provide an alternative approach to biological control strategies against B. dothidea.

Stabilizing the Ferroelectric Phase of Hf_{0.5}Zr_{0.5}O_{2} Thin Films by Charge Transfer.

Ferroelectric hafnia-based thin films have attracted significant interest due to their compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology (CMOS). Achieving and stabilizing the metastable ferroelectric phase in these films is crucial for their application in ferroelectric devices. Recent research efforts have concentrated on the stabilization of the ferroelectric phase in hafnia-based films and delving into the mechanisms responsible for this stability. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate that stabilization of the ferroelectric phase in Hf_{0.5}Zr_{0.5}O_{2} (HZO) can be controlled by the interfacial charge transfer and the associated hole doping of HZO. Using the meticulously engineered charge transfer between an La_{1-x}Sr_{x}MnO_{3} buffer layer with variable Sr concentration x and an HZO film, we find the optimal x=0.33 that provides the required hole doping of HZO to most efficiently stabilize its ferroelectric phase. Our theoretical modeling reveals that the competition of the hole distribution between the threefold and fourfold coordinated oxygen sites in HZO controls the enhancement or reduction of the ferroelectric phase. Our findings offer a novel strategy to stabilize the ferroelectric phase of hafnia-based films and provide new insights into the development of ferroelectric devices compatible with CMOS.

Plasmodesmata Function and Callose Deposition in Plant Disease Defense.

Callose, found in the cell walls of higher plants such as ß-1,3-glucan with ß-1,6 branches, is pivotal for both plant development and responses to biotic and abiotic stressors. Plasmodesmata (PD), membranous channels linking the cytoplasm, plasma membrane, and endoplasmic reticulum of adjacent cells, facilitate molecular transport, crucial for developmental and physiological processes. The regulation of both the structural and transport functions of PD is intricate. The accumulation of callose in the PD neck is particularly significant for the regulation of PD permeability. This callose deposition, occurring at a specific site of pathogenic incursion, decelerates the invasion and proliferation of pathogens by reducing the PD pore size. Scholarly investigations over the past two decades have illuminated pathogen-induced callose deposition and the ensuing PD regulation. This gradual understanding reveals the complex regulatory interactions governing defense-related callose accumulation and protein-mediated PD regulation, underscoring its role in plant defense. This review systematically outlines callose accumulation mechanisms and enzymatic regulation in plant defense and discusses PD's varied participation against viral, fungal, and bacterial infestations. It scrutinizes callose-induced structural changes in PD, highlighting their implications for plant immunity. This review emphasizes dynamic callose calibration in PD constrictions and elucidates the implications and potential challenges of this intricate defense mechanism, integral to the plant's immune system.

Generation of out-of-plane polarized spin current by non-uniform oxygen octahedral tilt/rotation.

The free-field switching of the perpendicular magnetization by the out-of-plane polarized spin current induced spin-orbit torque makes it a promising technology for developing high-density memory and logic devices. The materials intrinsically with low symmetry are generally utilized to generate the spin current with out-of-plane spin polarization. However, the generation of the out-of-plane polarized spin current by engineering the symmetry of materials has not yet been reported. Here, we demonstrate that paramagnetic CaRuO3 films are able to generate out-of-plane polarized spin current by engineering the crystal symmetry. The non-uniform oxygen octahedral tilt/rotation along film's normal direction induced by oxygen octahedral coupling near interface breaks the screw-axis and glide-plane symmetries, which gives rise to a significant out-of-plane polarized spin current. This spin current can drive field-free spin-orbit torque switching of perpendicular magnetization with high efficiency. Our results offer a promising strategy based on crystal symmetry design to manipulate spin current and could have potential applications in advanced spintronic devices.

On-Demand Elongation of Peptide Nanofibrils at Cellular Interfaces to Modulate Cell-Cell Interactions.

Natural cells can achieve specific cell-cell interactions by enriching nonspecific binding molecules on demand at intercellular contact faces, a pathway currently beyond synthetic capabilities. We are inspired to construct responsive peptide fibrils on cell surfaces, which elongate upon encountering target cells while maintaining a short length when contacting competing cells, as directed by a strand-displacement reaction arranged on target cell surfaces. With the display of ligands that bind to both target and competing cells, the contact-induced, region-selective fibril elongation selectively promotes host-target cell interactions via the accumulation of nonspecific ligands between matched cells. This approach is effective in guiding natural killer cells, the broad-spectrum effector lymphocytes, to eliminate specific cancer cells. In contrast to conventional methods relying on target cell-specific binding molecules for the desired cellular interactions, this dynamic scaffold-based approach would broaden the scope of cell combinations for manipulation and enhance the adjustability of cell behaviors for future applications.

Chiral multiferroicity in two-dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites.

Chiral multiferroics offer remarkable capabilities for controlling quantum devices at multiple levels. However, these materials are rare due to the competing requirements of long-range orders and strict symmetry constraints. In this study, we present experimental evidence that the coexistence of ferroelectric, magnetic orders, and crystallographic chirality is achievable in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites [(R/S)-ß-methylphenethylamine]2CuCl4. By employing Landau symmetry mode analysis, we investigate the interplay between chirality and ferroic orders and propose a novel mechanism for chirality transfer in hybrid systems. This mechanism involves the coupling of non-chiral distortions, characterized by defining a pseudo-scalar quantity, ξ = p ⋅ r ( p represents the ferroelectric displacement vector and r denotes the ferro-rotational vector), which distinguishes between (R)- and (S)-chirality based on its sign. Moreover, the reversal of this descriptor's sign can be associated with coordinated transitions in ferroelectric distortions, Jahn-Teller antiferro-distortions, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vectors, indicating the mediating role of crystallographic chirality in magnetoelectric correlations.

Air-Stable Wafer-Scale Ferromagnetic Metallo-Carbon Nitride Monolayer.

The pursuit of robust, long-range magnetic ordering in two-dimensional (2D) materials holds immense promise for driving technological advances. However, achieving this goal remains a grand challenge due to enhanced quantum and thermal fluctuations as well as chemical instability in the 2D limit. While magnetic ordering has been realized in atomically thin flakes of transition metal chalcogenides and metal halides, these materials often suffer from air instability. In contrast, 2D carbon-based materials are stable enough, yet the challenge lies in creating a high density of local magnetic moments and controlling their long-range magnetic ordering. Here, we report a novel wafer-scale synthesis of an air-stable metallo-carbon nitride monolayer (MCN, denoted as MN4/CNx), featuring ultradense single magnetic atoms and exhibiting robust room-temperature ferromagnetism. Under low-pressure chemical vapor deposition conditions, thermal dehydrogenation and polymerization of metal phthalocyanine (MPc) on copper foil at elevated temperature generate a substantial number of nitrogen coordination sites for anchoring magnetic single atoms in monolayer MN4/CNx (where M = Fe, Co, and Ni). The incorporation of densely populating MN4 sites into monolayer MCN networks leads to robust ferromagnetism up to room temperature, enabling the observation of anomalous Hall effects with excellent chemical stability. Detailed electronic structure calculations indicate that the presence of high-density metal sites results in the emergence of spin-split d-bands near the Fermi level, causing a favorable long-range ferromagnetic exchange coupling through direct exchange interactions. Our work demonstrates a novel synthesis approach for wafer-scale MCN monolayers with robust room-temperature ferromagnetism and may shed light on practical electronic and spintronic applications.

Highly Efficient Spin Injection and Readout Across Van Der Waals Interface.

Spin injection, transport, and detection across the interface between a ferromagnet and a spin-carrying channel are crucial for energy-efficient spin logic devices. However, interfacial conductance mismatch, spin dephasing, and inefficient spin-to-charge conversion significantly reduce the efficiency of these processes. In this study, it is demonstrated that an all van der Waals heterostructure consisting of a ferromagnet (Fe3GeTe2) and Weyl semimetal enables a large spin readout efficiency. Specifically, a nonlocal spin readout signal of 150 mΩ and a local spin readout signal of 7.8 Ω is achieved, which reach the signal level useful for practical spintronic devices. The remarkable spin readout signal is attributed to suppressed spin dephasing channels at the vdW interfaces, long spin diffusion, and efficient charge-spin interconversion in Td-MoTe2. These findings highlight the potential of vdW heterostructures for spin Hall effect-enabled spin detection with high efficiency, opening up new possibilities for spin-orbit logic devices using vdW interfaces.

Survey of Heterodera glycines population abundance and virulence phenotypes during 2021-2022 in Heilongjiang Province.

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, poses a significant threat to global soybean production. Heilongjiang, the largest soybean-producing province in China, contributes over 40% to the country's total yield. This province has much longer history of SCN infestation. To assess the current situation in Heilongjiang, we conducted a survey to determine the SCN population density and virulence phenotypes during 2021-2022 and compared the data with a previous study in 2015. A total of 377 soil samples from 48 counties representing eleven major soybean-planting regions were collected. The prevalence of SCN increased from 55.4% in 2015 to 59% in the current survey. The population densities ranged from 80 to 26,700 eggs and juveniles per 100 cm3 of soil. Virulence phenotypes were evaluated for 60 representative SCN populations using the HG type test, revealing nine different HG types. The most common virulence phenotypes were HG types 7 and 0, accounting for 56.7% and 20% of all SCN populations, respectively. The prevalence of populations with a reproductive index (FI) greater than 10% on PI548316 increased from 64.5% in 2015 to 71.7%. However, the FI on the commonly used resistance sources PI 548402 (Peking) and PI 437654 remained low at 3.3%. These findings highlight the increasing prevalence and changing virulence phenotypes of SCN in Heilongjiang. They also emphasize the importance of rotating soybean varieties with different resistance sources and urgently identifying new sources of resistance to combat SCN.

Approaching the Ideal Linearity in Epitaxial Crystalline-Type Memristor by Controlling Filament Growth.

Brain-inspired neuromorphic computing has attracted widespread attention owing to its ability to perform parallel and energy-efficient computation. However, the synaptic weight of amorphous/polycrystalline oxide based memristor usually exhibits large nonlinear behavior with high asymmetry, which aggravates the complexity of peripheral circuit system. Controllable growth of conductive filaments is highly demanded for achieving the highly linear conductance modulation. However, the stochastic behavior of the filament growth in commonly used amorphous/polycrystalline oxide memristor makes it very challenging. Here, the epitaxially grown Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based memristor with the linearity and symmetry approaching ideal case is reported. A layer of Cu nanoparticles is inserted into epitaxially grown Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 film to form the grain boundaries due to the breaking of the epitaxial growth. By combining with the local electric field enhancement, the growth of filament is confined in the grain boundaries due to the fact that the diffusion of oxygen vacancy in crystalline lattice is more difficult than that in the grain boundaries. Furthermore, the decimal operation and high-accuracy neural network are demonstrated by utilizing the highly linear and multi-level conductance modulation capacity. This method opens an avenue to control the filament growth for the application of resistance random access memory (RRAM) and neuromorphic computing.

Overexpression of Calcineurin B-like Interacting Protein Kinase 31 Promotes Lodging and Sheath Blight Resistance in Rice.

A breakthrough "Green Revolution" in rice enhanced lodging resistance by using gibberellin-deficient semi-dwarf varieties. However, the gibberellic acid (GA) signaling regulation on rice disease resistance remains unclear. The resistance test showed that a positive GA signaling regulator DWARF1 mutant d1 was more susceptible while a negative GA signaling regulator Slender rice 1 (SLR1) mutant was less susceptible to sheath blight (ShB), one of the major rice diseases, suggesting that GA signaling positively regulates ShB resistance. To isolate the regulator, which simultaneously regulates rice lodging and ShB resistance, SLR1 interactors were isolated. Yeast two-hybrid (Y2H), bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC), and Co-IP assay results indicate that SLR1 interacts with Calcineurin B-like-interacting protein kinase 31 (CIPK31). cipk31 mutants exhibited normal plant height, but CIPK31 OXs showed semi-dwarfism. In addition, the SLR1 level was much higher in CIPK31 OXs than in the wild-type, suggesting that CIPK31 OX might accumulate SLR1 to inhibit GA signaling and thus regulate its semi-dwarfism. Recently, we demonstrated that CIPK31 interacts and inhibits Catalase C (CatC) to accumulate ROS, which promotes rice disease resistance. Interestingly, CIPK31 interacts with Vascular Plant One Zinc Finger 2 (VOZ2) in the nucleus, and expression of CIPK31 accumulated VOZ2. Inoculation of Rhizoctonia solani AG1-IA revealed that the voz2 mutant was more susceptible to ShB. Thus, these data prove that CIPK31 promotes lodging and ShB resistance by regulating GA signaling and VOZ2 in rice. This study provides a valuable reference for rice ShB-resistant breeding.

ParaCPI: A Parallel Graph Convolutional Network for Compound-Protein Interaction Prediction.

Identifying compound-protein interactions (CPIs) is critical in drug discovery, as accurate prediction of CPIs can remarkably reduce the time and cost of new drug development. The rapid growth of existing biological knowledge has opened up possibilities for leveraging known biological knowledge to predict unknown CPIs. However, existing CPI prediction models still fall short of meeting the needs of practical drug discovery applications. A novel parallel graph convolutional network model for CPI prediction (ParaCPI) is proposed in this study. This model constructs feature representation of compounds using a unique approach to predict unknown CPIs from known CPI data more effectively. Experiments are conducted on five public datasets, and the results are compared with current state-of-the-art (SOTA) models under three different experimental settings to evaluate the model's performance. In the three cold-start settings, ParaCPI achieves an average performance gain of 26.75%, 23.84%, and 14.68% in terms of area under the curve compared with the other SOTA models. In addition, the results of the experiments in the case study show ParaCPI's superior ability to predict unknown CPIs based on known data, with higher accuracy and stronger generalization compared with the SOTA models. Researchers can leverage ParaCPI to accelerate the drug discovery process.

High-spin Co3+ in cobalt oxyhydroxide for efficient water oxidation.

Cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) is a promising catalytic material for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In the traditional CoOOH structure, Co3+ exhibits a low-spin state configuration ([Formula: see text]), with electron transfer occurring in face-to-face [Formula: see text] orbitals. In this work, we report the successful synthesis of high-spin state Co3+ CoOOH structure, by introducing coordinatively unsaturated Co atoms. As compared to the low-spin state CoOOH, electron transfer in the high-spin state CoOOH occurs in apex-to-apex [Formula: see text] orbitals, which exhibits faster electron transfer ability. As a result, the high-spin state CoOOH performs superior OER activity with an overpotential of 226 mV at 10 mA cm-2, which is 148 mV lower than that of the low-spin state CoOOH. This work emphasizes the effect of the spin state of Co3+ on OER activity of CoOOH based electrocatalysts for water splitting, and thus provides a new strategy for designing highly efficient electrocatalysts.

Highly efficient and fast modulation of magnetic coupling interaction in the SrCoO2.5/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 heterostructure.

Effective manipulation of magnetic properties in transition-metal oxides is one of the crucial issues for the application of materials. Up to now, most investigations have focused on electrolyte-based ionic control, which is limited by the slow speed. In this work, the interfacial coupling of the SrCoO2.5/La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) bilayer is effectively modulated with fast response time. After being treated with diluted acetic acid, the bilayer changes from antiferromagnetic/ferromagnetic (AFM/FM) coupling to FM/FM coupling and the Curie temperature is also effectively increased. Meanwhile, the corresponding electric transport properties are modulated within a very short time. Combined with the structure characterization and X-ray absorption measurements, we find that the top SrCoO2.5 layer is changed from the antiferromagnetic insulator to the ferromagnetic metal phase, which is attributed to the formation of the active oxygen species due to the reaction between the protons in the acid and the SrCoO2.5 layer. The bottom LCMO layer remains unchanged during this process. The response time of the bilayer with the acid treatment method is more than an order of magnitude faster than other methods. It is expected that this acid treatment method may open more possibilities for manipulating the magnetic and electric properties in oxide-based devices.

Crystal Symmetry-Dependent In-Plane Hall Effect.

The Hall effect has played a vital role in unraveling the intricate properties of electron transport in solid materials. Here, we report on a crystal symmetry-dependent in-plane Hall effect (CIHE) observed in a CuPt/CoPt ferromagnetic heterostructure. Unlike the planar Hall effect (PHE), the CIHE in CuPt/CoPt strongly depends on the current flowing direction (ϕI) with respect to the crystal structure. It reaches its maximum when the current is applied along the low crystal-symmetry axes and vanishes when applied along the high crystal-symmetry axes, exhibiting an unconventional angular dependence of cos(3ϕI). Utilizing a symmetry analysis based on the Invariant Theory, we demonstrate that the CIHE can exist in magnetic crystals possessing C3v symmetry. Using a tight-binding model and realistic first-principles calculations on the metallic heterostructure, we find that the CIHE originates from the trigonal warping of the Fermi surface. Our observations highlight the critical role of crystal symmetry in generating new types of Hall effects.

Effective electrical manipulation of a topological antiferromagnet by orbital torques.

The electrical control of the non-trivial topology in Weyl antiferromagnets is of great interest for the development of next-generation spintronic devices. Recent studies suggest that the spin Hall effect can switch the topological antiferromagnetic order. However, the switching efficiency remains relatively low. Here, we demonstrate the effective manipulation of antiferromagnetic order in the Weyl semimetal Mn3Sn using orbital torques originating from either metal Mn or oxide CuOx. Although Mn3Sn can convert orbital current to spin current on its own, we find that inserting a heavy metal layer, such as Pt, of appropriate thickness can effectively reduce the critical switching current density by one order of magnitude. In addition, we show that the memristor-like switching behaviour of Mn3Sn can mimic the potentiation and depression processes of a synapse with high linearity-which may be beneficial for constructing accurate artificial neural networks. Our work paves a way for manipulating the topological antiferromagnetic order and may inspire more high-performance antiferromagnetic functional devices.

Tuning Rashba-Dresselhaus effect with ferroelectric polarization at asymmetric heterostructural interface.

The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) plays an essential role in materials properties, and controlling its intensity has great potential in the design of materials. In this work, asymmetric [(La0.7Sr0.3MnO3)8/(BaTiO3)t/(SrTiO3)2]8 superlattices were fabricated on (001) SrTiO3 substrate with SrO or TiO2 termination, labelled as SrO-SL and TiO2-SL, respectively. The in-plane angular magnetoresistance of the superlattices shows a combination of two- and four-fold symmetry components. The coefficient of two-fold symmetry component has opposite sign with current I along [100] and [110] directions for TiO2-SL, while it has the same sign for SrO-SL. Detailed study shows that the asymmetric cation inter-mixing and ferroelectricity-modulated electronic charge transfer induce asymmetric electronic potential for SrO-SL with dominating Rashba SOI, and symmetric electronic potential for TiO2-SL with dominating Dresselhaus SOI induced by BaTiO3. This work shows that the Rashba and Dresselhaus SOIs are sensitive to the ferroelectric polarization in the asymmetric structure.

Global integrative meta-analysis of the responses in soil organic carbon stock to biochar amendment.

Applying biochar to soil has been recognized as a promising practice of climate-smart agriculture, with considerable potential in enhancing soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. Previous studies showed that biochar-induced increases in SOC stock varied substantially among experiments, while the explanatory factors responsible for such variability are still not well assessed. Here, we conducted an integrative meta-analysis of the magnitude and efficiency of biochar-induced change in SOC stock, using a database including 476 field measurements at 101 sites across the globe. Biochar amendment increased SOC stock by 6.13 ± 1.62 (95% confidence interval, CI) and 7.01 ± 1.11 (95% CI) Mg C ha-1, respectively, compared to their unfertilized (R0) and mineral nitrogen (N) fertilized (Rn) references. Of which approx. 52% (R0) and 50% (Rn) were contributed directly by biochar-C input. Corresponding biochar carbon efficiencies in R0 and Rn datasets were estimated as 58.20 ± 10.37% and 65.58 ± 9.26% (95% CI), respectively. The change magnitude of SOC stock increased significantly (p < 0.01) with the increasing amount of biochar-C input, while carbon efficiency of biochar showed an opposite trend. Biochar amendment sequestered larger amounts of SOC with higher efficiency in acidic and loamy soils than in alkaline and sandy soils. Biochar amendments with higher C/N ratio caused higher SOC increase than those with lower C/N ratio. Random forest (RF) algorithm showed that accumulative biochar-C input, soil pH, and biochar C/N ratio were the three most-important factors regulating the SOC stock responses. Overall, these results suggest that applying high C/N ratio biochar in acidic soils is a recommendable agricultural practice from the perspective of enhancing organic carbon.

Highly Energy-Efficient Spin Current Generation in SrIrO3 by Manipulating the Octahedral Rotation.

Materials with strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) have been continuously attracting intensive attention due to their promising application in energy-efficient, high-density, and nonvolatile spintronic devices. Particularly, transition-metal perovskite oxides with strong SOC have been demonstrated to exhibit efficient charge-spin interconversion. In this study, we systematically investigated the impact of epitaxial strain on the spin-orbit torque (SOT) efficiency in the SrIrO3(SIO)/Ni81Fe19(Py) bilayer. The results reveal that the SOT efficiency is strongly related to the octahedral rotation around the in-plane axes of the single-crystal SIO. By modulating the epitaxial strain using different substrates, the SOT efficiency can be remarkably improved from 0.15 to 1.45. This 10-fold enhancement of SOT efficiency suggests that modulating the epitaxial strain is an efficient approach to control the SOT efficiency in complex oxide-based heterostructures. Our work may have the potential to advance the application of complex oxides in energy-efficient spintronic devices.

Large Electromechanical Response in a Polycrystalline Alkali-Deficient (K,Na)NbO3 Thin Film on Silicon.

The demand for large electromechanical performance in lead-free polycrystalline piezoelectric thin films is driven by the need for compact, high-performance microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based devices operating at low voltages. Here we significantly enhance the electromechanical response in a polycrystalline lead-free oxide thin film by utilizing lattice-defect-induced structural inhomogeneities. Unlike prior observations in mismatched epitaxial films with limited low-frequency enhancements, we achieve large electromechanical strain in a polycrystalline (K,Na)NbO3 film integrated on silicon. This is achieved by inducing self-assembled Nb-rich planar faults with a nonstoichiometric composition. The film exhibits an effective piezoelectric coefficient of 565 pm V-1 at 1 kHz, surpassing those of lead-based counterparts. Notably, lattice defect growth is substrate-independent, and the large electromechanical response is extended to even higher frequencies in a polycrystalline film. Improved properties arise from unique lattice defect morphology and frequency-dependent relaxation behavior, offering a new route to remarkable electromechanical response in polycrystalline thin films.