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Carbon isotope discrimination (Delta) has been used widely to infer intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) of C-3 plants, a key parameter linking carbon and water fluxes. Despite the essential role of mesophyll conductance (g(m)) in photosynthesis and Delta, its effect on Delta-based predictions of iWUE has generally been neglected.Here, we derive a mathematical expression of iWUE as a function of Delta that includes g(m) (iWUE(mes)) and exploits the g(m)-stomatal conductance (g(sc)) relationship across drought-stress levels and plant functional groups (deciduous or semideciduous woody, evergreen woody and herbaceous species) in a global database. iWUE(mes) was further validated with an independent dataset of online-Delta and CO2 and H2O gas exchange measurements with seven species.Drought stress reduced g(sc) and g(m) by nearly one-half across all plant functional groups, but had no significant effect on the g(sc) : g(m) ratio, with a well supported value of 0.79 +/- 0.07 (95% CI, n = 198). g(m) was negatively correlated to iWUE. Incorporating the g(sc) : g(m) ratio greatly improved estimates of iWUE, compared with calculations that assumed infinite g(m).The inclusion of the g(sc) : g(m) ratio, fixed at 0.79 when g(m) was unknown, proved desirable to eliminate significant errors in estimating iWUE from Delta across various C-3 vegetation types.

Air pollution is an increasingly critical health issue responsible for numerous diseases and deaths worldwide. In China, to address severe air pollution in the Yangtze River Delta region, the local government has formulated Five-Year Plans to set the road map for air pollution control by phased targets in 2020, but the effectiveness of these policies is still uncertain. There is therefore a need for accurate prediction of control strategies. Here we present a computational evaluation of the predicted effectiveness of four emission control strategies: normal or enhanced emission reduction for industry and power plants, and normal or enhanced emission reduction for industry, power plants and transportation, designed on the basis of policies of the 13th Five-Year Plans. Effectiveness was tested on concentrations of PM2.5, e.g., particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm, using the two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting—Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model. Results show that by implementing the four emission control strategies, only Hangzhou with the strictest emission controls in four main cities (Hangzhou, Hefei, Nanjing and Shanghai) can meet the 20% reduction goals of PM2.5 concentrations in the 13th Five-Year Plan, indicating that current policies are not sufficient to control the severe air pollution in the Yangtze River Delta region. Sensitivity tests show that residential emissions have the highest contributions to the PM2.5 concentrations in January in the four main cities of Hangzhou, Hefei, Nanjing and Shanghai, followed by agriculture, industry, transportation and power plants. Predicted annual mean reduction percentages for PM2.5 are the highest in Hangzhou, from − 9.7 to − 20.1%, followed by Nanjing, from − 8.2 to − 18.7%, Shanghai, from − 7.4 to − 15.8%, and Hefei, from − 6.1 to − 13.8%. This finding highlights the predominance of residential emissions, which should be better controlled, notably coal burning. By comparison, predicted annual contributions of regional transport and natural sources to mean PM2.5 concentrations in four cities range from 29.2 to 36.6%. Overall, a major finding is that residential sources are of comparable importance to industrial, power plant and transportation sources to PM2.5 concentrations, especially for winter. This information will help governments of other regions of China, as well as other developing countries, to formulate more appropriate emission control strategies where coal is used for heating and cooking purposes in the developing countries.

Carbon isotope discrimination (Delta) has been used widely to infer intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) of C-3 plants, a key parameter linking carbon and water fluxes. Despite the essential role of mesophyll conductance (g(m)) in photosynthesis and Delta, its effect on Delta-based predictions of iWUE has generally been neglected.Here, we derive a mathematical expression of iWUE as a function of Delta that includes g(m) (iWUE(mes)) and exploits the g(m)-stomatal conductance (g(sc)) relationship across drought-stress levels and plant functional groups (deciduous or semideciduous woody, evergreen woody and herbaceous species) in a global database. iWUE(mes) was further validated with an independent dataset of online-Delta and CO2 and H2O gas exchange measurements with seven species.Drought stress reduced g(sc) and g(m) by nearly one-half across all plant functional groups, but had no significant effect on the g(sc) : g(m) ratio, with a well supported value of 0.79 +/- 0.07 (95% CI, n = 198). g(m) was negatively correlated to iWUE. Incorporating the g(sc) : g(m) ratio greatly improved estimates of iWUE, compared with calculations that assumed infinite g(m).The inclusion of the g(sc) : g(m) ratio, fixed at 0.79 when g(m) was unknown, proved desirable to eliminate significant errors in estimating iWUE from Delta across various C-3 vegetation types.

Plant-parasitic nematodes secrete numerous effectors to facilitate parasitism, but detailed functions of nematode effectors and their plant targets remain largely unknown. Here, we characterized four macrophage migration inhibitory factors (MIFs) in Meloidogyne incognita resembling the MIFs secreted by human and animal parasites. Transcriptional data showed MiMIFs are up-regulated in parasitism. Immunolocalization provided evidence that MiMIF proteins are secreted from the nematode hypodermis to the parasite surface, detected in plant tissues and giant cells. In planta MiMIFs RNA interference in Arabidopsis decreased infection and nematode reproduction. Transient expression of MiMIF-2 could suppress Bax- and RBP1/Gpa2-induced cell death. MiMIF-2 ectopic expression led to higher levels of Arabidopsis susceptibility, suppressed immune responses triggered by flg22, and impaired [Ca2+](cyt) influx induced by H2O2. The immunoprecipitation of MiMIF-2-interacting proteins, followed by co-immunoprecipitation and bimolecular fluorescence complementation validations, revealed specific interactions between MiMIF-2 and two Arabidopsis annexins, AnnAt1 and AnnAt4, involved in the transport of calcium ions, stress responses, and signal transduction. Suppression of expression or overexpression of these annexins modified nematode infection. Our results provide functional evidence that nematode effectors secreted from hypodermis to the parasite cuticle surface target host proteins and M. incognita uses MiMIFs to promote parasitism by interfering with the annexin-mediated plant immune responses.

Background: The nematode Trichinella pseudospiralis is an intracellular parasite of mammalian skeletal muscle cells and exists in a non-encapsulated form. Previous studies demonstrated that T. pseudospiralis could induce a lower host inflammatory response. Excretory-secretory (ES) proteins as the most important products of host-parasite interaction may play the main functional role in alleviating host inflammation. However, the ES products of T. pseudospiralis early stage are still unknown. The identification of the ES products of the early stage facilitates the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the immunomodulation and may help finding early diagnostic markers. Results: In this study, we used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE)-based western blotting coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF-MS/MS) to separate and identify the T. pseudospiralis adult worms ES products immunoreaction-positive proteins. In total, 400 protein spots were separated by 2-DE. Twenty-eight protein spots were successfully identified using the sera from infected pigs and were characterized to correlate with 12 different proteins of T. pseudospiralis, including adult-specific DNase II-10,poly-cysteine and histidine-tailed protein isoform 2, serine protease, serine/threonine-protein kinase ULK3, enolase, putative venom allergen 5, chymotrypsin-like elastase family member 1, uncharacterized protein, peptidase inhibitor 16, death-associated protein 1, deoxyribonuclease II superfamily and golgin-45. Bioinformatic analyses showed that the identified proteins have a wide diversity of molecular functions, especially deoxyribonuclease II (DNase II) activity and serine-type endopeptidase activity. Conclusions: Early candidate antigens from the ES proteins of T. pseudospiralis have been screened and identified. Our results suggest these proteins may play key roles during the T. pseudospiralis infection and suppress the host immune response. Further, they are the most likely antigen for early diagnosis and the development of a vaccine against the parasite.

The process of anthropogenic pedogenesis has necessarily become an important aspect of the study of today’s soils. The sustainable reclamation or remediation of soils degraded by industrial or mining activities is currently of great interest worldwide. In this field, the study of thin soil sections can provide relevant answers, particularly to questions concerning the evolution of these soils under the impact of reclamation practices. Here, we describe an experiment to reclaim former rare earth element mining sites in China using organic soil amendments and plantations of a local fiber plant, Boehmeria nivea. Two years after the start of the experiment, a study of soil structure, considered as an indicator of soil biofunctioning, was carried out on the different plots, supplemented by monitoring of physico-chemical properties. Morphological (light microscopy) and analytical (SEM-EDX, µ-XRF) characterization of thin sections allowed us to pinpoint some pedological processes as aggregation with particular reference to the contribution of biological factors and mineral species, highlighting the impact of the practices implemented. Using a soil micromorphology approach enabled us to track the rapid evolution of the early stages of pedogenesis of these Technosols and to provide insight into the potential for reclamation of these mined sites in the future.

Different phosphoinositides enriched at the membranes of specific subcellular compartments within plant cells contribute to organelle identity, ensuring appropriate cellular trafficking and function. During the infection of plant cells, biotrophic pathogens such as powdery mildews enter plant cells and differentiate into haustoria. Each haustorium is enveloped by an extrahaustorial membrane (EHM) derived from the host plasma membrane. Little is known about the EHM biogenesis and identity. Here, we demonstrate that among the two plasma membrane phosphoinositides in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), PI(4,5)P-2 is dynamically up-regulated at powdery mildew infection sites and recruited to the EHM, whereas PI4P is absent in the EHM. Lateral transport of PI(4,5)P-2 into the EHM occurs through a brefeldin A-insensitive but actin-dependent trafficking pathway. Furthermore, the lower levels of PI(4,5)P-2 in pip5k1 pip5k2 mutants inhibit fungal pathogen development and cause disease resistance, independent of cell death-associated defenses and involving impaired host susceptibility. Our results reveal that plant biotrophic and hemibiotrophic pathogens modulate the subcellular distribution of host phosphoinositides and recruit PI(4,5)P-2 as a susceptibility factor for plant disease.

The global retreat of glaciers is dramatically altering mountain and high-latitude landscapes, with new ecosystems developing from apparently barren substrates1–4. The study of these emerging ecosystems is critical to understanding how climate change interacts with microhabitat and biotic communities and determines the future of ice-free terrains1,5. Here, using a comprehensive characterization of ecosystems (soil properties, microclimate, productivity and biodiversity by environmental DNA metabarcoding6) across 46 proglacial landscapes worldwide, we found that all the environmental properties change with time since glaciers retreated, and that temperature modulates the accumulation of soil nutrients. The richness of bacteria, fungi, plants and animals increases with time since deglaciation, but their temporal patterns differ. Microorganisms colonized most rapidly in the first decades after glacier retreat, whereas most macroorganisms took longer. Increased habitat suitability, growing complexity of biotic interactions and temporal colonization all contribute to the increase in biodiversity over time. These processes also modify community composition for all the groups of organisms. Plant communities show positive links with all other biodiversity components and have a key role in ecosystem development. These unifying patterns provide new insights into the early dynamics of deglaciated terrains and highlight the need for integrated surveillance of their multiple environmental properties5.

Odorant receptors (ORs) are essential for plant-insect interactions. However, despite the global impacts of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) as major herbivores and pollinators, little functional data are available about Lepidoptera ORs involved in plant-volatile detection. Here, we initially characterized the plant-volatile-sensing function(s) of 44 ORs from the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera, and subsequently conducted a large-scale comparative analysis that establishes how most orthologous ORs have functionally diverged among closely related species whereas some rare ORs are functionally conserved. Specifically, our systematic analysis of H. armigera ORs cataloged the wide functional scope of the H. armigera OR repertoire, and also showed that HarmOR42 and its Spodoptera littoralis ortholog are functionally conserved. Pursuing this, we characterized the HarmOR42-orthologous ORs from 11 species across the Glossata suborder and confirmed the HarmOR42 orthologs form a unique OR lineage that has undergone strong purifying selection in Glossata species and whose members are tuned with strong specificity to phenylacetaldehyde, a floral scent component common to most angiosperms. In vivo studies via HarmOR42 knockout support that HarmOR42-related ORs are essential for host-detection by sensing phenylacetaldehyde. Our work also supports that these ORs coevolved with the tube-like proboscis, and has maintained functional stability throughout the long-term coexistence of Lepidoptera with angiosperms. Thus, beyond providing a rich empirical resource for delineating the precise functions of H. armigera ORs, our results enable a comparative analysis of insect ORs that have apparently facilitated and currently sustain the intimate adaptations and ecological interactions among nectar feeding insects and flowering plants.

About 1.6 billion tons of food are wasted worldwide annually, calling for advanced methods to recycle food waste into energy and materials. Anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste allows the efficient recovery of energy, and induces low-carbon emissions. Nonetheless, digestion stability and biogas production are variables, due to dietary habits and seasonal diet variations that modify the components of kitchen waste. Another challenge is the recycling of the digestate, which could be partly solved by more efficient reactors of anaerobic digestion. Here, we review the bottlenecks of anaerobic digestion treatment of kitchen waste, with focus on components inhibition, and energy recovery from biogas slurry and residue. We provide rules for the optimal treatment of the organic fraction of kitchen waste, and guidelines to upgrade the anaerobic digestion processes. We propose a strategy using an anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor to improve anaerobic digestion of kitchen waste, and a model for the complete transformation and recycling of kitchen waste, based on component properties.