Characteristics of the Perianthic Endophytic Fungal Communities of the Rare Horticultural Plant Lirianthe delavayi and Their Changes under Artificial Cultivation.

Flower endophytic fungi play a major role in plant reproduction, stress resistance, and growth and development. However, little is known about how artificial cultivation affects the endophytic fungal community found in the tepals of rare horticultural plants. In this research, we used high-throughput sequencing technology combined with bioinformatics analysis to reveal the endophytic fungal community of tepals in Lirianthe delavayi and the effects of artificial cultivation on the community composition and function of these plants, using tepals of L. delavayi from wild habitat, cultivated campus habitat, and cultivated field habitat as research objects. The results showed that the variety of endophytic fungi in the tepals of L. delavayi was abundant, with a total of 907 Amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) obtained from all the samples, which were further classified into 4 phyla, 23 classes, 51 orders, 97 families, 156 genera, and 214 species. We also found that artificial cultivation had a significant impact on the community composition of endophytic fungi. Although there was no significant difference at the phylum level, with Ascomycota and Basidiomycota being the main phyla, there were significant differences in dominant and unique genera. Artificial cultivation has led to the addition of new pathogenic fungal genera, such as Phaeosphaeria, Botryosphaeria, and Paraconiothyrium, increasing the risk of disease in L. delavayi. In addition, the abundance of the endophytic fungus Rhodotorula, which is typical in plant reproductive organs, decreased. Artificial cultivation also altered the metabolic pathways of endophytic fungi, decreasing their ability to resist pests and diseases and reducing their ability to reproduce. A comparison of endophytic fungi in tepals and leaves revealed significant differences in community composition and changes in the endophytic diversity caused by artificial cultivation. To summarize, our results indicate that endophytic fungi in the tepals of L. delavayi mainly consist of pathogenic and saprophytic fungi. Simultaneously, artificial cultivation introduces a great number of pathogenic fungi that alter the metabolic pathways associated with plant resistance to disease and pests, as well as reproduction, which can increase the risk of plant disease and reduce plant reproductive capacity. Our study provides an important reference for the conservation and breeding of rare horticultural plants.

Comparitive Analysis of the Chloroplast Genomes of Three Houpoea Plants.

The genus Houpoea belongs to the family Magnoliaceae, and the species in this genus have important medicinal values. However, the investigation of the correlation between the evolution of the genus and its phylogeny has been severely hampered by the unknown range of species within the genus and the paucity of research on its chloroplast genome. Thus, we selected three species of Houpoea: Houpoea officinalis var officinalis (OO), Houpoea officinalis var. biloba (OB), and Houpoea rostrata (R). With lengths of 160,153 bp (OO), 160,011 bp (OB), and 160,070 bp (R), respectively, the whole chloroplast genomes (CPGs) of these three Houpoea plants were acquired via Illumina sequencing technology, and the findings were annotated and evaluated. These three chloroplast genomes were revealed by the annotation findings to be typical tetrads. A total of 131, 132, and 120 different genes were annotated. The CPGs of the three species had 52, 47, and 56 repeat sequences, which were primarily found in the ycf2 gene. A useful tool for identifying species is the approximately 170 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that have been found. The border area of the reverse repetition region (IR) was studied, and it was shown that across the three Houpoea plants, it is highly conservative, with only changes between H. rostrata and the other two plants observed. Numerous highly variable areas (rps3-rps19, rpl32-trnL, ycf1, ccsA, etc.) have the potential to serve as the barcode label for Houpoea, according to an examination of mVISTA and nucleotide diversity (Pi). Phylogenetic relation indicates that Houpoea is a monophyletic taxon, and its genus range and systematic position are consistent with the Magnoliaceae system of Sima Yongkang-Lu Shugang, including five species and varieties of H. officinalis var. officinalis, H. rostrata, H. officinalis var. biloba, Houpoea obovate, and Houpoea tripetala, which evolved and differentiated from the ancestors of Houpoea to the present Houpoea in the above order. This study provides valuable information on the genus Houpoea, enriches the CPG information on Houpoea genus, and provides genetic resources for the further classification of and phylogenetic research on Houpoea.

BtsT/ BtsS is involved in glyoxylate transport in E. coli and its mutations facilitated glyoxylate utilization.

Glyoxylate is an important chemical and is also an intermediate involved in metabolic pathways of living microorganisms. However, it cannot be rapidly utilized by many microbes. We observed a very long lag phase (up to 120 h) when E. coli is growing in a mineral medium supplemented with 50 mM glyoxylate. To better understand this strange growth pattern on glyoxylate and accelerate glyoxylate utilization, a random genomic library of E. coli was transformed into E. coli BW25113, and mutants that showed significantly shortened lag phase on glyoxylate were obtained. Interestingly, mutations in BtsT/BtsS, a two component system that is involved in pyruvate transport, were found to be a common feature in all mutants retrieved. We further demonstrated, through reverse engineering, that the mutations in BtsT/BtsS can indeed increase glyoxylate uptake. Growth experiments with different concentration of glyoxylate also showed the higher the concentration of glyoxylate, the shorter the lag phase. These new findings thus increased our understanding on microbial utilization of glyoxylate.

A label-free visual platform for self-correcting logic gate construction and sensitive biosensing based on enzyme-mimetic coordination polymer nanoparticles.

In molecular logic gates, the occurrence of erroneous procedures is a frequently encountered and critical problem in data transmission, and thus it is highly desirable to develop novel logic systems with self-correction abilities. Herein, based on the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activity of the novel metal coordination polymer nanoparticles formed between Cu2+ and guanosine monophosphate (GMP), denoted as Cu-GMP CPNs, a label-free visual platform was constructed and successfully utilized for both self-correcting logic gate construction and sensitive biosensing. The HRP-mimicking ability of Cu-GMP CPNs was verified and utilized for the sensitive detection of both H2O2 and glucose. More importantly, a set of logic gates (AND, OR, NOR, INHIBIT, and XNOR) were fabricated, in which two intermediate outputs, i.e., color change and precipitate formation, were combined in an "AND" mode to produce the final output, and thus the as-proposed logic system exhibited the self-correction ability to automatically correct the erroneous intermediate outputs induced by interfering substances such as HRP. Moreover, in addition to the unique feature of self-correction, the as-proposed logic system also exhibited the advantages of simple operation, rapid response and easy detection of the visual outputs by the naked eye, thus expanding its practical applications to a variety of fields. Therefore, the label-free visual platform we have proposed here offers a promising strategy for logic gate fabrication and may pave the way for the development of novel molecular computing with self-correction abilities.