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We conducted floristic and community analyses to compare the floristic composition, forest structure, taxonomic richness, and species diversity between two tiankeng (large doline, or sinkhole) habitats and two outside-tiankeng habitats of forest fragments in a degraded karst area in southwestern China. We found remarkably higher taxonomic richness in the tiankeng habitats than in the outside-tiankeng habitats at the species, generic, and familial levels. The inside-tiankeng habitats had higher floristic diversity but lower dominance. The remarkably higher uniqueness at all taxonomic levels and the much larger tree size in the two tiankeng habitats than in the outside-tiankeng habitats demonstrated the old-growth and isolated nature of the tiankeng flora. Plot-scale species richness, Shannon-Wiener index, Pielou’s evenness, and Berger-Parker dominance significantly differed across habitats. Heterogeneity in floristic composition at the species, generic, and familial levels was extremely significant across habitats. In pairwise comparisons, except for the Chuandong Tiankeng-Shenmu Tiankeng pair, all the pairs showed significant between-habitat heterogeneity in floristic composition. Our results suggest that as oases amidst the degraded karst landscape, tiankengs serve as modern refugia that preserve old-growth forest communities with their rich floristic diversity, and can provide a model for habitat conservation and forest restoration in that area.

Broomcorn millet ( Panicum miliaceum L.) is the most water-efficient cereal and one of the earliest domesticated plants. Here we report its high-quality, chromosome-scale genome assembly using a combination of short-read sequencing, single-molecule real-time sequencing, Hi-C, and a high-density genetic map. Phylogenetic analyses reveal two sets of homologous chromosomes that may have merged ~5.6 million years ago, both of which exhibit strong synteny with other grass species. Broomcorn millet contains 55,930 protein-coding genes and 339 microRNA genes. We find Paniceae-specific expansion in several subfamilies of the BTB (broad complex/tramtrack/bric-a-brac) subunit of ubiquitin E3 ligases, suggesting enhanced regulation of protein dynamics may have contributed to the evolution of broomcorn millet. In addition, we identify the coexistence of all three C 4 subtypes of carbon fixation candidate genes. The genome sequence is a valuable resource for breeders and will provide the foundation for studying the exceptional stress tolerance as well as C 4 biology. Broomcorn millet is one of the earliest domesticated plants and has the highest water use efficiency among cereals. Here, the authors report its genome assembly and annotation, which provides a valuable resource for breeders and paves the way for studying plant drought tolerance and C 4 photosynthesis.

C 4 photosynthesis exemplifies convergent evolution of complex traits. Herein, we construct chromosome-scale genome assemblies and perform multi-omics analysis for five Flaveria species, which represent evolutionary stages from C 3 to C 4 photosynthesis. Chromosome-scale genome sequence analyses reveal a gradual increase in genome size during the evolution of C 4 photosynthesis attributed to the expansion of transposable elements. Systematic annotation of genes encoding C 4 enzymes and transporters identify additional copies of three C 4 enzyme genes through retrotranspositions in C 4 species. C 4 genes exhibit elevated mRNA and protein abundances, reduced protein-to-RNA ratios, and comparable translation efficiencies in C 4 species, highlighting a critical role of transcriptional regulation in C 4 evolution. Furthermore, we observe an increased abundance of ethylene response factor (ERF) transcription factors and cognate cis -regulatory elements associated with C 4 genes regulation. Altogether, our study provides valuable genomic resources for the Flaveria genus and sheds lights on evolutionary and regulatory mechanisms underlying C 4 photosynthesis. C4 photosynthesis serves as a prominent example of convergent evolution in complex traits. Here, the authors construct chromosome-scale genome assemblies for five Flaveria species and investigate the genomic evolution of C4 photosynthesis. Their findings emphasize the roles of retrotransposition and transcriptional regulation in shaping C4 traits.

In recent years, the total GDP of myanmar has been increasing year by year. The year of 2018, the CPI growth rate reached 6.9%, although, the GDP growth rate of myanmar has increased to 6.8%, High economic growth and high inflation coexist. Myanmar’s unemployment rate is at a low level, stable at less than 2 percent. The import and export trade is in deficit. The net inflow of FDI is at a relatively stable low level. But there has been a big increase since 2010.In terms of international balance of payments, since 2012, with a large influx of foreign investment into myanmar’s infrastructure and other industries, the import demand for machinery and equipment has expanded significantly, and myanmar’s current account deficit has significantly expanded.

In recent years, the economy of Bangladesh has a rapid growth, with the total GDP increasing by years, reaching $274 billion in 2018. GDP per capita is relatively low, but it grows steadily every year. GDP growth has been above 7% since 2016, and reached 7.86% in 2018.Bangladesh’s unemployment rate remains around 4.2%; the rate of inflation is generally on the decline, and the total volume of imports and exports increases steadily. But, its import and export trade has been in deficit, and the deficit has been expanding by years. Foreign direct investment is at a low level, accounting for less than 2% of GDP. The current account balance fluctuates in a large range, and it ran a current account deficit in 2017.

Background Photosynthesis close interacts with respiration and nitrogen assimilation, which determine the photosynthetic efficiency of a leaf. Accurately quantifying the metabolic fluxes in photosynthesis, respiration and nitrogen assimilation benefit the design of photosynthetic efficiency improvement. To accurately estimate metabolic fluxes, time-series data including leaf metabolism and isotopic abundance changes should be collected under precisely controlled environments. But for isotopic labelled leaves under defined environments the, time cost of manually sampling usually longer than the turnover time of several intermediates in photosynthetic metabolism. In this case, the metabolic or physiological status of leaf sample would change during the sampling, and the accuracy of metabolomics data could be compromised. Results Here we developed an i ntegrated isotopic l abeling and freeze s ampling a pparatus (ILSA), which could finish freeze sampling automatically in 0.05 s. ILSA can not only be used for sampling of photosynthetic metabolism measurement, but also suit for leaf isotopic labeling experiments under controlled environments ([CO 2 ] and light). Combined with HPLC–MS/MS as the metabolic measurement method, we demonstrated: (1) how pool-size of photosynthetic metabolites change in dark-accumulated rice leaf, and (2) variation in photosynthetic metabolic flux between rice and Arabidopsis thaliana . Conclusions The development of ILSA supports the photosynthetic research on metabolism and metabolic flux analysis and provides a new tool for the study of leaf physiology.

From 2012 to 2018, the annual GDP growth rate of Cambodia exceeded 7%, maintaining rapid development for 7 consecutive years, and it is one of the fastest economic growth rates among developing countries in Asia in recent years. The overall unemployment rate is low, the inflation is moderate and controllable, the trade deficit between import and export, the net inflow of foreign direct investment is increasing by years, and the foreign exchange reserve is growing steadily. In the future, the macro economy of Cambodia will continue to maintain a strong growth momentum.

Long duration energy storage (LDES) is an economically attractive approach to accelerating clean renewable energy deployment. The newly emerged solid oxide iron–air battery (SOIAB) is intrinsically suited for LDES applications due to its excellent low‐rate performance (high‐capacity with high efficiency) and use of low‐cost and sustainable materials. However, rechargeability and durability of SOIAB are critically limited by the slow kinetics in iron/iron‐oxide redox couples. Here the use of combined proton‐conducting BaZr0.4Ce0.4Y0.1Yb0.1O3 (BZC4YYb) and reduction‐promoting catalyst Ir to address the kinetic issues, is reported. It is shown that, benefiting from the facilitated H+ diffusion and boosted FeOx‐reduction kinetics, the battery operated under 550 °C, 50% Fe‐utilization and 0.2 C, exhibits a discharge specific energy density of 601.9 Wh kg–1‐Fe with a round‐trip efficiency (RTE) of 82.9% for 250 h of a cycle duration of 2.5 h. Under 500 °C, 50% Fe‐utilization and 0.2 C, the same battery exhibits 520 Wh kg–1‐Fe discharge energy density with an RTE of 61.8% for 500 h. This level of energy storage performance promises that SOIAB is a strong candidate for LDES applications. Introducing proton conductor and active catalyst into nano‐Fe3O4 particles significantly boosts Fe3O4 reduction kinetics at intermediate temperature (500–550 °C), thus drastically improving the rechargeability of the solid oxide iron‐air battery (SOIAB). With this new energy storage unit (ESU) material, the SOIAB exhibits a remarkable 500‐h cycle life with a discharge energy density of 520 Wh kg–1‐Fe at 0.2 C and a round‐trip efficiency of 61.8%.

Motivation Ovarian cancer (OC) is a highly lethal gynecological malignancy. Extensive research has shown that OC cells undergo significant metabolic alterations during tumorigenesis. In this study, we aim to leverage these metabolic changes as potential biomarkers for assessing ovarian cancer. Methods A functional module-based approach was utilized to identify key gene expression pathways that distinguish different stages of ovarian cancer (OC) within a tissue biopsy cohort. This cohort consisted of control samples ( n  = 79), stage I/II samples ( n  = 280), and stage III/IV samples ( n  = 1016). To further explore these altered molecular pathways, minimal spanning tree (MST) analysis was applied, leading to the formulation of metabolic biomarker hypotheses for OC liquid biopsy. To validate, a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) based quantitative LCMS/MS method was developed. This method allowed for the precise quantification of targeted metabolite biomarkers using an OC blood cohort comprising control samples ( n  = 464), benign samples ( n  = 3), and OC samples ( n  = 13). Results Eleven functional modules were identified as significant differentiators (false discovery rate, FDR < 0.05) between normal and early-stage, or early-stage and late-stage ovarian cancer (OC) tumor tissues. MST analysis revealed that the metabolic L-arginine/nitric oxide (L-ARG/NO) pathway was reprogrammed, and the modules related to \"DNA replication\" and \"DNA repair and recombination\" served as anchor modules connecting the other nine modules. Based on this analysis, symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) and arginine were proposed as potential liquid biopsy biomarkers for OC assessment. Our quantitative LCMS/MS analysis on our OC blood cohort provided direct evidence supporting the use of the SDMA-to-arginine ratio as a liquid biopsy panel to distinguish between normal and OC samples, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 98.3%. Conclusion Our comprehensive analysis of tissue genomics and blood quantitative LC/MSMS metabolic data shed light on the metabolic reprogramming underlying OC pathophysiology. These findings offer new insights into the potential diagnostic utility of the SDMA-to-arginine ratio for OC assessment. Further validation studies using adequately powered OC cohorts are warranted to fully establish the clinical effectiveness of this diagnostic test.

Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is a rare type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that affects brain parenchyma, eyes, cerebrospinal fluid, and spinal cord. Diagnosing PCNSL can be challenging because imaging studies often show similar patterns as other brain tumors, and stereotactic brain lesion biopsy conformation is invasive and not always possible. This study aimed to validate a previous proteomic profiling (PMID: 32610669) of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and develop a CSF-based proteomic panel for accurate PCNSL diagnosis and differentiation. CSF samples were collected from patients of 30 PCNSL, 30 other brain tumors, and 31 tumor-free/benign controls. Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry targeted proteomics analysis was used to establish CSF-based proteomic panels. Final proteomic panels were selected and optimized to diagnose PCNSL from tumor-free controls or other brain tumor lesions with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.873 (95%CI: 0.723-0.948) and 0.937 (95%CI: 0.807- 0.985), respectively. Pathways analysis showed diagnosis panel features were significantly enriched in pathways related to extracellular matrices-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, and PI3K-Akt signaling, while prion disease, mineral absorption and HIF-1 signaling were significantly enriched with differentiation panel features. This study suggests an accurate clinical test panel for PCNSL diagnosis and differentiation with CSF-based proteomic signatures, which may help overcome the challenges of current diagnostic methods and improve patient outcomes.