A carbon quantum dot-decorated g-C3N4 composite as a sulfur hosting material for lithium-sulfur batteries.

Although lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted strong consideration regarding their fundamental mechanism and energy applications, the inferior cycling performance and low reaction rate caused by the "shuttling effect" and the sluggish reaction kinetics of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) impede their practical application. In this work, graphitic C3N4 (g-C3N4) assembled with highly-dispersed nitrogen-containing carbon quantum dots (CQDs) is designed as a cooperative catalyst to accelerate the reaction kinetics of LiPS conversion, the precipitation of Li2S during discharging, and insoluble Li2S decomposition during the charging process. Meanwhile, the introduction of CQDs improves the conductivity of the g-C3N4 substrate, showing great significance for the construction of high-performance electrocatalysts. As a result, the as-obtained composite shows efficient adsorption and electrochemical conversion of LiPSs, and the Li-S batteries assembled with CQDs/g-C3N4 exhibit an initial specific capacity of 1300.0 mA h g-1 at the current density of 0.1C and retain 582.3 mA h g-1 after 200 cycles. The electrode with the modified composite displays a greater capacity contribution of Li2S precipitation (175.7 mA h g-1), indicating an enhanced catalytic activity of g-C3N4 decorated by CQDs. The rational design of CQDs/g-C3N4 as a sulfur host could be an effective strategy for developing high performance Li-S batteries.

Endophytic Enterobacter sp. YG-14 mediated arsenic mobilization through siderophore and its role in enhancing phytostabilization.

Soil arsenic (As) phytoremediation has long faced the challenge of efficiently absorbing As by plant accumulators while maintaining their health and fast growth. Even at low doses, arsenic is highly toxic to plants. Therefore, plant growth-promoting microorganisms that can mediate As accumulation in plants are of great interest. In this study, the endophyte Enterobacter sp. YG-14 (YG-14) was found to have soil mobilization activity. By constructing a siderophore synthesis gene deletion mutant (ΔentD) of YG-14, the endophyte was confirmed to effectively mobilize Fe-As complexes in mining soil by secreting enterobactin, releasing bioavailable Fe and As to the rhizosphere. YG-14 also enhances As accumulation in host plants via extracellular polymer adsorption and specific phosphatase transfer protein (PitA) absorption. The root accumulation of As was positively correlated with YG-14 root colonization. In addition, YG-14 promoted plant growth and alleviated oxidative damage in R. pseudoacacia L. under arsenic stress. This is the first study, from phenotype, physiology, and molecular perspectives, to determine the role of endophyte in promoting As phytostabilization and maintaining the growth of the host plant. This demonstrated the feasibility of using endophytes with high siderophore production to assist host plants in As phytoremediation.

Antibiotic-Induced Recruitment of Specific Algae-Associated Microbiome Enhances the Adaptability of Chlorella vulgaris to Antibiotic Stress and Incidence of Antibiotic Resistance.

Insights into the symbiotic relation between eukaryotic hosts and their microbiome lift the curtain on the crucial roles of microbes in host fitness, behavior, and ecology. However, it remains unclear whether and how abiotic stress shapes the microbiome and further affects host adaptability. This study first investigated the effect of antibiotic exposure on behavior across varying algae taxa at the community level. Chlorophyta, in particular Chlorella vulgaris, exhibited remarkable adaptability to antibiotic stress, leading to their dominance in phytoplankton communities. Accordingly, we isolated C. vulgaris strains and compared the growth of axenic and nonaxenic ones under antibiotic conditions. The positive roles of antibiotics in algal growth were apparent only in the presence of bacteria. Results of 16S rRNA sequencing further revealed that antibiotic challenges resulted in the recruitment of specific bacterial consortia in the phycosphere, whose functions were tightly linked to the host growth promotion and adaptability enhancement. In addition, the algal phycosphere was characterized with 47-fold higher enrichment capability of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) than the surrounding water. Under antibiotic stress, specific ARG profiles were recruited in C. vulgaris phycosphere, presumably driven by the specific assembly of bacterial consortia and mobile genetic elements induced by antibiotics. Moreover, the antibiotics even enhanced the dissemination potential of the bacteria carrying ARGs from the algal phycosphere to broader environmental niches. Overall, this study provides an in-depth understanding into the potential functional significance of antibiotic-mediated recruitment of specific algae-associated bacteria for algae adaptability and ARG proliferation in antibiotic-polluted waters.

The Rice Endophyte-Derived α-Mannosidase ShAM1 Degrades Host Cell Walls To Activate DAMP-Triggered Immunity against Disease.

Endophytes play an important role in shaping plant growth and immunity. However, the mechanisms for endophyte-induced disease resistance in host plants remain unclear. Here, we screened and isolated the immunity inducer ShAM1 from the endophyte Streptomyces hygroscopicus OsiSh-2, which strongly antagonizes the pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. Recombinant ShAM1 can trigger rice immune responses and induce hypersensitive responses in various plant species. After infection with M. oryzae, blast resistance was dramatically improved in ShAM1-inoculated rice. In addition, the enhanced disease resistance by ShAM1 was found to occur through a priming strategy and was mainly regulated through the jasmonic acid-ethylene (JA/ET)-dependent signaling pathway. ShAM1 was identified as a novel α-mannosidase, and its induction of immunity is dependent on its enzyme activity. When we incubated ShAM1 with isolated rice cell walls, the release of oligosaccharides was observed. Notably, extracts from the ShAM1-digested cell wall can enhance the disease resistance of the host rice. These results indicated that ShAM1 triggered immune defense against pathogens by damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP)-related mechanisms. Our work provides a representative example of endophyte-mediated modulation of disease resistance in host plants. The effects of ShAM1 indicate the promise of using active components from endophytes as plant defense elicitors for the management of plant disease. IMPORTANCE The specific biological niche inside host plants allows endophytes to regulate plant disease resistance effectively. However, there have been few reports on the role of active metabolites from endophytes in inducing host disease resistance. In this study, we demonstrated that an identified α-mannosidase protein, ShAM1, secreted by the endophyte S. hygroscopicus OsiSh-2 could activate typical plant immunity responses and induce a timely and cost-efficient priming defense against the pathogen M. oryzae in rice. Importantly, we revealed that ShAM1 enhanced plant disease resistance through its hydrolytic enzyme (HE) activity to digest the rice cell wall and release damage-associated molecular patterns. Taken together, these findings provide an example of the interaction mode of endophyte-plant symbionts and suggest that HEs derived from endophytes can be used as environmentally friendly and safe prevention agent for plant disease control.

Improvement in Corrosion Resistance and Interfacial Contact Resistance Properties of 316L Stainless Steel by Coating with Cr, Ti Co-Doped Amorphous Carbon Films in the Environment of the PEMFCs.

In order to obtain films with high corrosion resistance and excellent interfacial contact resistance (ICR) on 316L stainless steel used for bipolar plates in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), Cr, Ti co-doped amorphous carbon films were prepared on 316L stainless steel. The preparation method for the coating was magnetron sputtering. The doping amount of the Ti element was controlled by a Cr target and a Ti target current. The change in the structure and properties of the coating after the change from Cr single-element doping to Cr and Ti co-doping was studied. The change rule of the structure and properties of the coating from Cr single-element doping to Cr and Ti co-doping was studied. An increase in the Ti content led to a decreased grain boundary, a flatter surface, and a higher sp2-hybridized carbon content. TiC and CrC nanocrystals were formed in the amorphous carbon structure together. The amorphous carbon films doped with Cr and Ti simultaneously achieved a low ICR and high corrosion resistance compared with single-Cr-doped amorphous carbon. The enhanced corrosion resistance was attributed to the decreasing grain boundary, the formation of the TiC crystal structure, and the smaller grain size. The best performance was obtained at a Ti target current of 2A. Compared with bare 316L stainless steel, the corrosion resistance of Cr, Ti co-doped amorphous carbon (Icorr = 5.7 × 10-8 A/cm2, Ti-2 sample) was greatly improved. Because Ti doping increased the content of sp2-hybridized carbon in the coating, the contact resistance of the coating decreased. Moreover, the interfacial contact resistance was 3.1 mΩ·cm2 in the Ti-2 sample, much lower than that of bare 316L stainless steel. After the potentiostatic polarization test, the coating still had excellent conductivity.

The Vital Role of ShTHIC from the Endophyte OsiSh-2 in Thiamine Biosynthesis and Blast Resistance in the OsiSh-2-Rice Symbiont.

Endophytes can benefit the growth and stress resistance of host plants by secreting bioactive components. Thiamine is an essential vitamin involved in many metabolic pathways and can only be synthesized by microbes and plants. In this study, we found that thiamine could inhibit the development of the phytopathogen Magnaporthe oryzae and decrease the rice blast index under field conditions. In the thiamine biosynthesis pathway, the key enzyme ShTHIC of an endophyte Streptomyces hygroscopicus OsiSh-2 and OsTHIC of rice (Oryza sativa) were highly homologous. Gene overexpression or knockout approaches revealed that both THIC contributed to thiamine synthesis and resistance to M. oryzae. Furthermore, S. hygroscopicus OsiSh-2 colonization led to a decrease in the thiamine synthesis level of rice but still maintained thiamine homeostasis in rice. However, inoculation with the ShTHIC knockout strain ΔTHIC reduced the thiamine content in rice, although the thiamine synthesis level of rice was increased. After infection with M. oryzae, blast resistance was dramatically improved in OsiSh-2-inoculated rice but decreased in ΔTHIC-inoculated rice compared with non-inoculated rice. This result demonstrated that ShTHIC could regulate thiamine biosynthesis and consequently assist blast resistance in the OsiSh-2-rice symbiont. Our results revealed a novel blast-resistance mechanism mediated by a key thiamine biosynthetic enzyme from an endophyte OsiSh-2.

Hollow-Structure Pt-Ni Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

An electrocatalyst with high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity and high stability during start-stop operation is necessary. In this paper, hollow-structure Pt-Ni electrocatalysts are investigated as ORR catalysts. After synthesis via sacrificial SiO2 template method, the electrocatalyst exhibits much higher specific activity (1.88 mA/cm2) than a commercial Pt/C catalyst. The mass activity (0.49 A/mg) is 7 times higher than the commercial Pt/C catalyst. The kinetics of the ORR is evaluated using Tafel and K-L plots. It also exhibits a higher durability than commercial Pt/C catalyst during accelerated durability test (ADT). Moreover, the electrocatalyst shows good resistance against accelerated durability test for start-stop, the specific activity and mass activity drops 34.6% and 40.8%, respectively, far better than the commercial catalyst.