Decoding the Structural Diversity: A New Horizon in Antimicrobial Prospecting and Mechanistic Investigation.

The escalating crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) underscores the urgent need for novel antimicrobials. One promising strategy is the exploration of structural diversity, as diverse structures can lead to diverse biological activities and mechanisms of action. This review delves into the role of structural diversity in antimicrobial discovery, highlighting its influence on factors such as target selectivity, binding affinity, pharmacokinetic properties, and the ability to overcome resistance mechanisms. We discuss various approaches for exploring structural diversity, including combinatorial chemistry, diversity-oriented synthesis, and natural product screening, and provide an overview of the common mechanisms of action of antimicrobials. We also describe techniques for investigating these mechanisms, such as genomics, proteomics, and structural biology. Despite significant progress, several challenges remain, including the synthesis of diverse compound libraries, the identification of active compounds, the elucidation of complex mechanisms of action, the emergence of AMR, and the translation of laboratory discoveries to clinical applications. However, emerging trends and technologies, such as artificial intelligence, high-throughput screening, next-generation sequencing, and open-source drug discovery, offer new avenues to overcome these challenges. Looking ahead, we envisage an exciting future for structural diversity-oriented antimicrobial discovery, with opportunities for expanding the chemical space, harnessing the power of nature, deepening our understanding of mechanisms of action, and moving toward personalized medicine and collaborative drug discovery. As we face the continued challenge of AMR, the exploration of structural diversity will be crucial in our search for new and effective antimicrobials.

Modeling the Potential Distribution Patterns of the Invasive Plant Species Phytolacca americana in China in Response to Climate Change.

Phytolacca americana, introduced to China in the 20th century for its medicinal properties, has posed a significant ecological and agricultural challenge. Its prolific fruit production, high reproductive coefficient, adaptability, and toxic roots and fruits have led to the formation of monoculture communities, reducing native species diversity and posing threats to agriculture, human and animal health, and local ecosystems. Understanding its potential distribution patterns at a regional scale and its response to climate change is essential for effective monitoring, management, and control. In this study, we utilized the Maxent model to simulate potential habitat areas of P. americana across three timeframes (current, 2050s, and 2070s) under three climate change scenarios (SSP126, SSP245, and SSP585). Leveraging data from 556 P. americana sites across China, we employed ROC curves to assess the prediction accuracy. Our findings highlight key environmental factors influencing P. americana's geographical distribution, including the driest month's precipitation, the coldest month's minimum temperature, the wettest month's precipitation, isothermality, and temperature annual range. Under current climate conditions, P. americana potentially inhabits 280.26 × 104 km2 in China, with a concentration in 27 provinces and cities within the Yangtze River basin and its southern regions. While future climate change scenarios do not drastically alter the total suitable area, the proportions of high and low-suitability areas decrease over time, shifting towards moderate suitability. Specifically, in the SSP126 scenario, the centroid of the predicted suitable area shifts northeastward and then southwestward. In contrast, in the SSP245 and SSP585 scenarios, the centroid shifts northward.

Genetic characterization of 2 Ceutorhynchus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) weevils with mitogenomes and insights into the phylogeny and evolution of related weevils.

The rape stem weevil (Ceutorhynchus asper Roel.) and its close relatives primarily breed on cruciferous plants and cause severe damage to rapeseed production. However, their genetic and molecular information is still scarce. Here, we generated mitogenomes for both C. asper and Ceutorhynchus albosuturalis. The lengths of the 2 mitochondrial genomes are 14,207 bp (C. asper) and 15,373 bp (C. albosuturalis), and both weevils exhibit identical numbers of protein-coding genes with the absence of trnI. A + T contents for both mitogenomes are high (80% and 79.9%, respectively). Haplotype and genetic distance analyses showed that the genetic differentiation of C. asper populations in northwestern China is low. Based on 5 datasets from mitogenomes, phylogenetic analyses with maximum-likelihood and Bayesian methods show that both species (C. asper and C. albosuturalis) fall in the CCCMS clade (Curculioninae, Conoderinae, Cossoninae, Molytinae, and Scolytinae) of Curculionidae and belong to clades H and I of the genus Ceutorhynchus, respectively. Larvae of the clade H weevils mainly are borers in petioles or stems of cruciferous plants, while larvae of the clade I weevils mainly inhabit the fruits of the same plants, suggesting that ecological niche specialization can play a critical role in the diversification of Ceutorhynchus species. This study generates baseline molecular and genetic information for future research of Ceutorhynchus-related taxa and provides insights into the phylogeny and evolution of Curculionidae.

Bioinspired Gradient Covalent Organic Framework Membranes for Ultrafast and Asymmetric Solvent Transport.

Gradients play a pivotal role in membrane technologies, e.g., osmotic energy conversion, desalination, biomimetic actuation, selective separation, and more. In these applications, the compositional gradients are of great relevance for successful function implementation, ranging from solvent separation to smart devices; However, the construction of functional gradient in membranes is still challenging both in scale and directions. Inspired by the specific function-related, graded porous structures in glomerular filtration membranes, a general approach for constructing gradient covalent organic framework membranes (GCOMx) applying poly (ionic liquid)s (PILs) as template is reported here. With graded distribution of highly porous covalent organic framework (COF) crystals along the membrane, GCOMx exhibts an unprecedented asymmetric solvent transport when applying different membrane sides as the solvent feed surface during filtration, leading to a much-enhanced flux (10-18 times) of the "large-to-small" pore flow comparing to the reverse direction, verified by hydromechanical theoretical calculations. Upon systematic experiments, GCOMx achieves superior permeance in nonpolar (hexane ≈260.45 LMH bar-1) and polar (methanol ≈175.93 LMH bar-1) solvents, together with narrow molecular weight cut-off (MWCO, 472 g mol-1) and molecular weight retention onset (MWRO, <182 g mol-1). Interestingly, GCOMx shows significant filtration performance in simulated kidney dialysis, revealing great potential of GCOMx in bionic applications.

Simultaneous removal of nitrate nitrogen and orthophosphate by electroreduction and electrochemical precipitation.

Electrochemical methods can effectively remove nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) and orthophosphate phosphorus (PO4-P) from wastewater. This work proposed a process for the simultaneous removal of NO3-N and PO4-P by combining electroreduction with electrochemically-induced calcium phosphate precipitation, and its performance and mechanisms were studied. For the treatment of 100 mg L-1 NO3-N and 5 mg L-1 PO4-P, NO3-N removal of 60-90% (per cathode area: 0.25-0.38 mg h-1 cm-2) and 80-90% (per cathode area: 0.33-0.38 mg h-1 cm-2) could be acquired within 3 h in single-chamber cell (SCC) and dual-chamber cell (DCC), while P removal was 80-98% (per cathode area: 0.10-0.12 mg h-1 cm-2) in SCC after 30 min and 98% (per cathode area: 0.37 mg h-1 cm-2) in DCC within 10 min. The faster P removal in DCC was due to the higher pH and more abundant Ca2+ in the cathode chamber of DCC, which was caused by the cation exchange membrane (CEM). Interestingly, NO3-N reduction enhanced P removal because more OH- can be produced by nitrate reduction than hydrogen evolution for an equal-charge reaction. For 10 mg L-1 PO4-P in SCC, when the initial NO3-N was 0, 20, 100, and 500 mg L-1, the P removal efficiencies after 1 h treatment were < 10%, 45-55%, 86-99%, and above 98% respectively. An increase in Ca2+ concentration also promoted P removal. However, Ca and P inhibited nitrate reduction in SCC at the relatively low initial Ca/P, as CaP on the cathode limited the charge or mass transfer process. The removal efficiency of NO3-N in SCC after 3 h reaction can reduce by about 17%, 40%, and 34% for Co3O4/Ti, Co/Ti, and TiO2/Ti. The degree of inhibition of P on NO3-N removal was related to the content and composition of CaP deposited on the cathode. On the cathode, the lower the deposited Ca and P, and the higher the deposited Ca/P molar ratio, the weaker the inhibition of P on NO3-N removal. Especially, P had little or even no inhibition on nitrate reduction when treated in DCC instead of SCC or under high initial Ca/P. It is speculated that under these conditions, a high local pH and local high concentration Ca2+ layer near the cathode led to a decrease in CaP deposition and an increase in Ca/P molar ratio on the cathode. High initial concentrations of NO3-N might also be beneficial in reducing the inhibition of P on nitrate reduction, as few CaP with high Ca/P molar ratios were deposited on the cathode. The evaluation of the real wastewater treatment was also conducted.

Mixed-Dimensional Partial Dealloyed PtCuBi/C as High-Performance Electrocatalysts for Methanol Oxidation with Enhanced CO Tolerance.

Developing efficient electrocatalysts for methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) is crucial in advancing the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Herein, carbon-supported 0D/2D PtCuBi/C (0D/2D PtCuBi/C) catalysts are fabricated through a solvothermal method, followed by a partial electrochemical dealloying process to form a novel mixed-dimensional electrochemically dealloyed PtCuBi/C (0D/2D D-PtCuBi/C) catalysts. Benefiting from distinctive mixed-dimensional structure and composition, the as-obtained 0D/2D D-PtCuBi/C catalysts possess abundant accessible active sites. The introduction of Cu as a water-activating element weakens the COads , and oxophilic metal Bi facilitates the OHads , thereby enhancing its tolerance to CO poisoning and promoting MOR activity. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) collectively reveal the electron transfer from Cu and Bi to Pt, the electron-enrichment effect induced by dealloying, and the strong interactions among Pt-M (Cu, Pt, and Bi) multi-active sites, which improve the tuning of the electronic structure and enhancement of electron transfer ability. Impressively, the optimized 0D/2D D-PtCuBi/C catalysts exhibit the superior mass activity (MA) of 17.68 A mgPt -1 for MOR, which is 14.86 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C. This study offers a proposed strategy for Pt-based alloy catalysts, enabling their use as efficient anodic materials in fuel cell applications.

Bismuth Incorporation in Palladium Hydride for the Electrocatalytic Ethanol Oxidation with Enhanced CO Tolerance.

Introducing nonmetal and oxophilic metal into palladium (Pd)-based catalysts is beneficial for boosting electrocatalysis, especially regarding the improvement of mass activity (MA) and CO tolerance. Herein, the stable bismuth-doped palladium hydride (Bi/PdH) networks have been successfully fabricated through a simple one-step method. The intercalation of interstitial H atoms expands the lattice of Pd, and the doping of oxophilic metal Bi restrains the adsorption of poisonous intermediates on the surface of Pd, thereby improving the activity and durability of the as-prepared catalysts in the ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR). The obtained Bi/PdH networks manifest a remarkable MA of 8.51 A·mgPd-1, which is 11.18 times higher than that of commercial Pd/C (0.76 A·mgPd-1). The CO-stripping analysis results indicate that Bi doping can significantly prohibit CO adsorption on the surface of the Bi/PdH networks. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations also reveal that Bi doping enhances the OH* adsorption on the catalyst surface and mitigates the interaction between Pd and CO* intermediates, providing deeper insights into the origin of the enhanced EOR activity and CO tolerance. This work describes an impactful path for producing high-performance and durable PdH-based nanocatalysts.

Poly (Ionic Liquid)-Metal Organic Framework-Derived Nanoporous Carbon Membranes: Facile Fabrication and Ultrahigh Areal Capacitance.

With the rapid development of energy storage technology, the operation of portable and wearable devices is inseparable from high energy density power supplies. However, the demand for high performance supercapacitors in movable smart electronics is still restrained by their insufficient areal capacitance and limited power/energy densities. In addition, some electroactive materials, including metal oxides, conductive polymers, graphene, porous carbons, etc., are inevitable to use extra adhesives for the preparation of electrode materials. In this work, integrated hierarchical graphitic porous carbon membranes used as the electrodes without adhesives are successfully synthesized, via pyrolyzing poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs)-metal organic frameworks (MOFs) composite membranes. The asymmetric supercapacitor is assembled by the carbonized PIL-MOF composite membrane and PILs-derived porous carbon membrane, and exhibits significant areal capacitance with remarkable power and energy densities. In the two-electrode system, the areal capacitance can reach 9.5 F cm-2 with an energy density of 1.91 mWh cm-2 . In the fabricated all-solid-state supercapacitors, the areal capacitance and energy density achieved 3.2 F cm-2 and 0.65 mWh cm-2 , respectively, exceeding most reported ones. Therefore, the integrated carbon membrane electrodes with high areal capacitance reveal great potential in miniaturized devices, and further show a wider application scope through regulating PILs.

Coordination and divergence in community assembly processes across co-occurring microbial groups separated by cell size.

Setting the pace of life and constraining the role of members in food webs, body size can affect the structure and dynamics of communities across multiple scales of biological organization (e.g., from the individual to the ecosystem). However, its effects on shaping microbial communities, as well as underlying assembly processes, remain poorly known. Here, we analyzed microbial diversity in the largest urban lake in China and disentangled the ecological processes governing microbial eukaryotes and prokaryotes using 16S and 18S amplicon sequencing. We found that pico/nano-eukaryotes (0.22-20 µm) and micro-eukaryotes (20-200 µm) showed significant differences in terms of both community composition and assembly processes even though they were characterized by similar phylotype diversity. We also found scale dependencies whereby micro-eukaryotes were strongly governed by environmental selection at the local scale and dispersal limitation at the regional scale. Interestingly, it was the micro-eukaryotes, rather than the pico/nano-eukaryotes, that shared similar distribution and community assembly patterns with the prokaryotes. This indicated that assembly processes of eukaryotes may be coupled or decoupled from prokaryotes' assembly processes based on eukaryote cell size. While the results support the important influence of cell size, there may be other factors leading to different levels of assembly process coupling across size classes. Additional studies are needed to quantitatively parse the influence of cell size versus other factors as drivers of coordinated and divergent community assembly processes across microbial groups. Regardless of the governing mechanisms, our results show that there are clear patterns in how assembly processes are coupled across sub-communities defined by cell size. These size-structured patterns could be used to help predict shifts in microbial food webs in response to future disturbance.

Chemosensory proteins are associated with thiamethoxam tolerance in bird cherry-oat aphid Rhopalosiphum padi.

Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) is an important cosmopolitan pest of cereal crops. Thiamethoxam is widely used for control R. padi in some regions. Chemosensory proteins (CSPs) are a class of transporter proteins in arthropods which play a key role in various physiological processes including response to insecticide exposure. However, the role of R. padi CSPs (RpCSPs) in insecticide binding and susceptibility has not been well clarified. In this study, we found that the expression levels of RpCSP1, RpCSP4, RpCSP5, RpCSP7, RpCSP10 were dramatically upregulated after exposure to thiamethoxam. Suppression of RpCSP4 and RpCSP5 transcription by RNA interference significantly enhanced the susceptibility of R. padi to thiamethoxam. Molecular docking and fluorescence competitive binding showed that RpCSP4 and RpCSP5 had high binding affinity with thiamethoxam. The present results prove that RpCSP4 and RpCSP5 are related to insecticide resistance through high binding affinity to reduce the toxicity of insecticide.

Porous organic polycarbene nanotrap for efficient and selective gold stripping from electronic waste.

The role of N-heterocyclic carbene, a well-known reactive site, in chemical catalysis has long been studied. However, its unique binding and electron-donating properties have barely been explored in other research areas, such as metal capture. Herein, we report the design and preparation of a poly(ionic liquid)-derived porous organic polycarbene adsorbent with superior gold-capturing capability. With carbene sites in the porous network as the "nanotrap", it exhibits an ultrahigh gold recovery capacity of 2.09 g/g. In-depth exploration of a complex metal ion environment in an electronic waste-extraction solution indicates that the polycarbene adsorbent possesses a significant gold recovery efficiency of 99.8%. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy along with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy reveals that the high performance of the polycarbene adsorbent results from the formation of robust metal-carbene bonds plus the ability to reduce nearby gold ions into nanoparticles. Density functional theory calculations indicate that energetically favourable multinuclear Au binding enhances adsorption as clusters. Life cycle assessment and cost analysis indicate that the synthesis of polycarbene adsorbents has potential for application in industrial-scale productions. These results reveal the potential to apply carbene chemistry to materials science and highlight porous organic polycarbene as a promising new material for precious metal recovery.

Changes of the Freshwater Microbial Community Structure and Assembly Processes during Different Sample Storage Conditions.

A long-standing dilemma for microbial analyses is how to handle and store samples, as it is widely assumed that the microbial diversity and community patterns would be affected by sample storage conditions. However, it is quite challenging to maintain consistency in field sampling, especially for water sample collection and storage. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of how sample storage conditions impact microbial community analyses and the magnitude of the potential storage effects, freshwater samples were collected and stored in bottles with lid closed and without lid at room temperature for up to 6 days. We revealed the dynamics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities under different storage conditions over time. The eukaryotic microbial communities changed at a faster rate than the prokaryotic microbial communities during storage. The alpha diversity of the eukaryotic microbial communities was not substantially influenced by container status or storage time for up to 12 h, but the beta diversity differed significantly between the control and all treatment samples. By contrast, no significant changes of either the alpha or beta diversity of the prokaryotic microbial communities were observed within 12 h of room-temperature storage, regardless of the container status. The potential interactions between microbial taxa were more complex when samples were stored in sealed bottles, and the deterministic processes played an increasingly important role in shaping the freshwater microbial communities with storage time. Our results suggest that water samples collected and stored without refrigeration for no more than 12 h may still be useful for downstream analyses of prokaryotic microbial communities. If the eukaryotic microbial communities are desired, storage of water samples should be limited to 3 h at room temperature.

The Effects of DNA Extraction Kits and Primers on Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Microbial Community in Freshwater Sediments.

DNA based sequencing technology has revolutionized the field of microbial ecology and environmental studies. However, biases can be introduced at all experimental steps and, thus, affect the interpretation of microbial community. So far, previous studies on the biases introduced from the key steps of DNA extraction and primer sets mainly focused on the bacterial communities in soil or sediment samples, while little is known about the effect on the eukaryotic microbial communities. Here, we studied the effects of three different DNA extraction kits on both prokaryotic and micro-eukaryotic communities by 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, and further disentangled the influence of primer choice on the micro-eukaryotic communities. Our results showed that the FastDNA SPIN Kit for Soil and DNeasy PowerSoil Kit produced much higher DNA yield with good reproducibility, and observed more eukaryotic OTUs compared to the MinkaGene DNA extraction kit, but all three kits exhibited comparable ability in recovering bacterial alpha diversity. Of the two primer sets, both targeting the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene, the TAR primer set detected higher number of unique OTUs than the EK primer set, while the EK primer set resulted in longer amplicons and better reproducibility between replicates. Based on our findings, we recommend using the DNeasy PowerSoil Kit with the EK primer set to capture the abundant micro-eukaryotic taxa from freshwater sediment samples. If a more complete picture of the eukaryotic microbial community is desired, the TAR primer set in combination with the FastDNA SPIN Kit is more efficient in this study.

Comparative and phylogenomic analyses of mitochondrial genomes in Coccinellidae (Coleoptera: Coccinelloidea).

The Coccinellidae are one of the most familiar beetle families, the ladybirds. Despite the great ecological and economic significance, the phylogenetic relationships of Coccinellidae remain poorly understood. One of the reasons is that the sequenced mitogenomes available for this family are very limited. We sequenced complete or nearly complete mitogenomes from seven species of the tribe Coccinellini with next-generation sequencing. All species have the same gene content and gene order as the putatively ancestral insect mitogenome. A large intergenic spacer region (> 890 bp) was found located between trnI and trnQ. The potential for using secondary structures of the large and small ribosomal subunits for phylogenetic reconstruction was predicted. The phylogenetic relationships were explored through comparative analyses across more than 30 coccinellid species. We performed phylogenetic analyses with both concatenation methods (Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference) and multispecies coalescent method (ASTRAL). Phylogenetic results strongly supported the monophyly of Coccinellidae. Within Coccinellidae, the Epilachnini and the Coccinellini including Halyziini were monophyletic, while the Scymnini and Coccidulini were non-monophyletic.

High salinity gradients and intermediate spatial scales shaped similar biogeographical and co-occurrence patterns of microeukaryotes in a tropical freshwater-saltwater ecosystem.

Microeukaryotes play key ecological roles in the microbial web of aquatic ecosystems. However, large knowledge gaps urgently need to be filled regarding the biogeography with associated shaping mechanisms and co-occurrence patterns of microeukaryotes under freshwater-saltwater gradients, especially true in tropical regions. Here, we investigated microeukaryotes of six mixed freshwater-saltwater regions in the Pearl River Estuary and surrounding coasts in southern China, with salinity ranging 0.1-32.0% and distances spanned up to 500 km, using molecular ecological methods. Results indicate that the biogeography of abundant and rare microeukaryotic communities was similar, both their co-occurrence patterns and biogeographical patterns were driven by deterministic and stochastic processes. The environmental factors with higher selective pressure than dispersal limitation meant that the role of deterministic process in structuring communities was more significant than that of stochastic process, and salinity played important role in structuring both microeukaryotic communities and networks. The abundant communities had stronger influence on entire microeukaryotic communities and seemed to be more sensitive to environmental changes than their rare counterparts, while rare ones had stronger interspecific relationships. Finally, the geographic scale and environmental gradients of study regions should firstly be clarified in future research on the ecological processes of microeukaryotes before conclusions are drawn.

Host development overwhelms environmental dispersal in governing the ecological succession of zebrafish gut microbiota.

Clarifying mechanisms underlying the ecological succession of gut microbiota is a central theme of gut ecology. Under experimental manipulations of zebrafish hatching and rearing environments, we test our core hypothesis that the host development will overwhelm environmental dispersal in governing fish gut microbial community succession due to host genetics, immunology, and gut nutrient niches. We find that zebrafish developmental stage substantially explains the gut microbial community succession, whereas the environmental effects do not significantly affect the gut microbiota succession from larvae to adult fish. The gut microbiotas of zebrafish are clearly separated according to fish developmental stages, and the degree of homogeneous selection governing gut microbiota succession is increasing with host development. This study advances our mechanistic understanding of the gut microbiota assembly and succession by integrating the host and environmental effects, which also provides new insights into the gut ecology of other aquatic animals.

Mitochondrial genomes of stick insects (Phasmatodea) and phylogenetic considerations.

Phasmatodea represents an order of hemimetabolous insects. This group includes species with extreme forms of masquerade crypsis, whereby they imitate twigs, bark, lichen, moss, and leaves. In this study, we sequenced and annotated three mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from Phasmatodea. The lengths of the novel mitogenomes range from 14,162 bp to 15,879 bp. The gene content and organization correspond to those inferred for the ancestral insect. We conducted phylogenetic analyses together with the existing mitogenomes of polyneopterans and mayflies. In most cases, the Phasmatodea was non-monophyletic, with Embioptera and Zoraptera nested inside. The mitogenome sequences from Embioptera and Zoraptera suffered from high substitution rates and displayed very long branches in phylogenetic trees. The monophyletic Phasmatodea was recovered only when the analysis employed the site-heterogeneous CAT-GTR model in PhyloBayes and used the nucleotide dataset PCG_nt. The Euphasmatodea was well established by various data types and inference methods. In addition, the clade Heteropterygidae and the subfamilies Lonchodinae and Necrosciinae were strongly supported. The Australasian clade Lanceocercata was recovered across analyses. However, the Clitumninae was non-monophyletic.

The Mitochondrial Genome of the Phytopathogenic Fungus Bipolaris sorokiniana and the Utility of Mitochondrial Genome to Infer Phylogeny of Dothideomycetes.

A number of species in Bipolaris are important plant pathogens. Due to a limited number of synapomorphic characters, it is difficult to perform species identification and to estimate phylogeny of Bipolaris based solely on morphology. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Bipolaris sorokiniana, and presented the detailed annotation of the genome. The B. sorokiniana mitochondrial genome is 137,775 bp long, and contains two ribosomal RNA genes, 12 core protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes. In addition, two ribosomal protein genes (rps3 gene and rps5 gene) and the fungal mitochondrial RNase P gene (rnpB) are identified. The large genome size is mostly determined by the presence of numerous intronic and intergenic regions. A total of 28 introns are inserted in eight core protein-coding genes. Together with the published mitochondrial genome sequences, we conducted a preliminary phylogenetic inference of Dothideomycetes under various datasets and substitution models. The monophyly of Capnodiales, Botryosphaeriales and Pleosporales are consistently supported in all analyses. The Venturiaceae forms an independent lineage, with a distant phylogenetic relationship to Pleosporales. At the family level, the Mycosphaerellaceae, Botryosphaeriaceae. Phaeosphaeriaceae, and Pleosporaceae are recognized in the majority of trees.