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The Hengduan Mountains (HDM) biodiversity hotspot exhibits exceptional alpine plant diversity. Here, we investigate factors driving intraspecific divergence within a HDM alpine species Salix brachista (Cushion willow), a common component of subnival assemblages. We produce a high - quality genome assembly for this species and characterize its genetic diversity, population structure and pattern of evolution by resequencing individuals collected across its distribution. We detect population divergence that has been shaped by a landscape of isolated sky island-like habitats displaying strong environmental heterogeneity across elevational gradients, combined with population size fluctuations that have occurred since approximately the late Miocene. These factors are likely important drivers of intraspecific divergence within Cushion willow and possibly other alpine plants with a similar distribution. Since intraspecific divergence is often the first step toward speciation, the same factors can be important contributors to the high alpine species diversity in the HDM. Exceptional alpine plant diversity exists in the Hengduan Mountains. Here, through genome assembly and population genomics studies, the authors find notable intraspecific divergence among Cushion willow populations isolated by the sky island-like habitats and consider it contributes to speciation and biodiversity.

The global expansion of domesticated plant and animal species has profoundly impacted biodiversity and ecosystem functions. However, the spillover effect of non-native honey bees from mass-flowering crops into adjacent natural vegetation on pollination function within plant communities remains unclear. To address this, we conduct field experiments to investigate the ecological impacts of honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) and a mass-flowering crop ( Brassica rapa var. oleifera ) on pollinator communities, plant-pollinator interactions, and reproductive performance of wild plants in 48 pollinator-limited alpine grasslands. Our findings indicate that the transition of dominant pollinators from flies to honey bees enhances visitation fidelity of pollinator species and reconfigures pollination interactions due to an increase in competition between honey bees and native pollinator species. Additionally, honey bees increase, decrease or do not alter plant reproductive success, depending on the plant species. Here, we report the mixed effects of honey bees on pollination function in pollinator-limited alpine grasslands. The spillover of non-native honey bees is thought to have a negative impact on pollination function of plant species. Here, Wang et al. reveal that honey bees can enhance the pollination function of plant communities in alpine agroecosystems.

The programmed cell death-1 receptor/programmed cell death-1 ligand (PD-1/PD-L1) pathway plays a crucial role in tumor evasion from host immunity. This study was designed to evaluate the association between circulating PD-L1/PD-1 and prognosis after cryoablation in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, 141 HBV-related HCC patients were enrolled and of those 109 patients received cryoablation. Circulating PD-L1/PD-1 expression was tested by flow cytometry, and 23 patients were simultaneously evaluated for intratumoral PD-L1 expression by immunohistochemical staining. Circulating PD-1/PD-L1 expression was associated with severity of diseases in patients with HCC, and the circulating PD-L1 expression was closely correlated with intratumoral PD-L1 expression. Of the clinical parameters, PD-1/PD-L1 expression was associated with tumor size, blood vessel invasion and BCLC staging. Moreover, PD-1/PD-L1 expression dropped after cryoablation while being elevated at the time of tumor recurrence. Patients with higher expression of circulating PD-L1, as well as circulating PD-1, had a significantly shorter overall survival and tumor-free survival than those with lower expression. Multivariate analysis confirmed that circulating PD-L1 could serve as an independent predictor of overall survival and tumor-recurrence survival in HCC patients after cryoablation. Upregulation of circulating PD-L1/PD-1 is associated with poor post-cryoablation prognosis in patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background Flower color plays a crucial role in attracting pollinators and facilitating environmental adaptation. Investigating the causes of flower color polymorphism and understanding their potential effects on both ecology and genetics can enhance our understanding of flower color polymorphism in wild plant. Results In this study, we examined the differences of potential male and female fitness between purple- and yellow- flower individuals in Iris potaninii on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and screened key genes and positively selective genes involved in flower color change. Our results showed that yellow flower exhibited a higher pollen-to-ovule ratio. Yellow flowers were derived from purple flowers due to the loss of anthocyanins, and F3H could be an essential gene affecting flower color variation though expression regulation and sequence polymorphism in this species. Furthermore, our findings suggest that genes positively selected in yellow-flowered I. potaninii might be involved in nucleotide excision repair and plant-pathogen interactions. Conclusions These results suggest that F3H induces the flower color variation of Iris potaninii , and the subsequent ecological and additive positive selection on yellow flowers may further enhance plant adaptations to alpine environments.

Coal is a major contributor to the global emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The NOx formation during coal utilization typically derives from the thermal decomposition of N-containing compounds (e.g., pyrrolic groups). NH3 and HCN are common precursors of NOx from the decomposition of N-containing compounds. The existence of H2O has significant influences on the pyrrole decomposition and NOx formation. In this study, the effects of H2O on pyrrole pyrolysis to form NOx precursors HCN and NH3 are investigated using the density functional theory (DFT) method. The calculation results indicate that the presence of H2O can lead to the formation of both NH3 and HCN during pyrrole pyrolysis, while only HCN is formed in the absence of H2O. The initial interaction between pyrrole and H2O determines the N products. NH3 will be formed when H2O attacks the C2 position of pyrrole with its hydroxyl group. On the contrary, HCN will be generated instead of NH3 when H2O attacks the C3 position of pyrrole with its hydroxyl group. In addition, the DFT calculations clearly indicate that the formation of NH3 will be promoted by H2O, whereas the formation of HCN is inhibited.

• A widely observed pollinator decline around the world has led to the prediction that terrestrial ecosystems could be disrupted as plant pollination suffers, but declining pollination success has not been tested rigorously in wild plants, and it still remains unclear how pollination success of plant species responds differently in the context of pollinator decline. • By viewing the number of seeds per pod as a quantitative measure of successful pollination, we examined seed pods in 4637 herbarium specimens of 109 obligately outcrossing legumes collected over the past century. • We found that only 13 species showed significant temporal change with nine of those as an increase. None of the three subfamilies of legumes showed a consistent trend, and the subfamily Papilionoideae with the most specialized flowers, had increasing seed number per pod more often than decreasing. • We conclude that legume pollination in China shows no sign of disruption and the effects of plant–pollinator disruption may be more complicated than simplistic predictions have allowed.

Eastern Asia (EA) is a key region for the diversification of flowering plants in the Northern Hemisphere, but few studies have focused on the biogeographic history within EA in the context of the other northern continents. Polygonatum is an important medicinal genus widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere with its highest species richness in EA, and it represents an excellent model for studying the evolution of biogeographic patterns in this region. Divergence time estimation was used to examine the biogeographic history of Polygonatum based on nuclear ITS and four plastid sequences (rbcL, matK, psbA-trnH and trnC-petN) from 30 Polygonatum species and 35 outgroup taxa. The ancestral area of Polygonatum and subsequent dispersal routes were inferred using Bayes-Lagrange. Polygonatum was estimated to have originated in southern EA during the middle Miocene (14.34-13.57 Ma) with subsequent south-to-north expansion in the late Miocene. Multiple intercontinental dispersal events were inferred between EA and Europe or North America, and all of them have occurred recently in the late Miocene to Pliocene. The separation of Polygonatum into the south and north lineages and their subsequent diversifications in the late Miocene supports the existence of a biogeographic divide between the northern and southern parts of EA that also coincides with the retreat and redevelopment of the arid zone in EA in the Neogene. Our results demonstrate the complexity of biogeographic history of Polygonatum in the Northern Hemisphere including early vicariance followed by frequent and recent dispersals in the Neogene.

Soil eutrophication from atmospheric deposition and fertilization threatens biodiversity and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Increases in soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content can alter the biomass and structure of plant communities in grassland ecosystems; however, the impact of these changes on plant–pollinator interactions is not yet clear. In this study, we tested how changes in flowering plant diversity and composition due to N and P enrichment affected pollinator communities and pollination interactions. Our experiments, conducted in a Tibetan alpine grassland, included four fertilization treatments: N (10 g N m –2 year –1 ), P (5 g P m –2 year –1 ), a combination of N and P (N + P), and control. We found that changes in flowering plant composition and diversity under the N and P treatments did not alter the pollinator richness or abundance. The N and P treatments also had limited effects on the plant–pollinator interactions, including the interaction numbers, visit numbers, plant and pollinator species dissimilarity, plant–pollinator interaction dissimilarity, average number of pollinator species attracted by each plant species (vulnerability), and average number of plant species visited by each pollinator species (generality). However, the N + P treatment increased the species and interaction dissimilarity in flowering plant and pollinator communities and decreased the generality in plant–pollinator interactions. These data highlight that changes in flowering plants caused by N + P enrichment alter pollination interactions between flowering plants and pollinators. Owing to changes in flowering plant communities, the plant–pollinator interactions could be sensitive to the changing environment in alpine regions.

Floral ultraviolet (UV) patterns are visible to bee pollinators and can affect crop yields by impacting pollinator visitation. However, the mechanisms underlying the intraspecific variations of UV bullseye size remain largely unknown. We analyse the ecological consequences and genetic basis of floral UV bullseye size variation in an important oil crop at high altitudes, Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera (turnip rape). Flowers with larger UV bullseye attract more bees and produce more seeds. The transcription factor BrobZIP16 was newly identified as a key determinant of large UV bullseye, supported by evidence of its high expression and selective sweeps in plants with larger UV bullseye. BrobZIP16 regulates UV bullseye size by interacting with the known regulator BroMYB111 in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway and accumulating UV‐absorbing flavonols. Our results reveal the mechanisms underlying intraspecific UV bullseye size variations, and such ‘cryptic’ large bullseye can be targeted in molecular breeding to increase oilseed production.

Background The taxonomy and systematics of Salix subgenus Salix s.l. is difficult. The reliability and evolutionary implications of two important morphological characters (number of stamens, and morphology of bud scales) used in subgeneric classification within Salix remain untested, and a disjunct Old–New World distribution pattern of a main clade of subgenus Salix s.l., revealed by a previous study, lacks a reasonable explanation. To study these questions, we conducted phylogenetic analyses based on 4,688 bp of sequence data from four plastid ( rbcL , trnD–T , matK , and atpB–rbcL ) and two nuclear markers (ETS and ITS) covering all subgenera of Salix , and all sections of subgenus Salix s.l. Results Subgenus Salix came out as para- or polyphyletic in both nrDNA and plastid trees. The plastid phylogeny successfully resolved relationships among the major clades of Salix , but resolution within subgenus Salix s.l. remained low. Nevertheless, three monophyletic groups were identifiable in subgenus Salix s.l.: the ‘main clade’ of subgenus Salix s.l., with New and Old World species being reciprocally monophyletic; the section Triandroides clade; and the subgenus Pleuradenia clade. While nrDNA regions showed higher resolution within subgenus Salix s.l., they failed to resolve subgeneric relationships. Extensive, statistically significant gene-tree incongruence was detected across nrDNA–plastid as well as nrDNA ETS–ITS phylogenies, suggesting reticulate evolution or hybridization within the group. The results were supported by network analyses. Ancestral-state reconstructions indicated that multiple stamens and free bud scales represent the plesiomorphic states within Salix , and that several significant shifts in stamen number and bud scale morphology have occurred. Conclusions Subgenus Salix s.l. is not monophyletic, and the evolutionary history of the subgenus has involved multiple reticulation events that may mainly be due to hybridization. The delimitation of subgenus Salix s.l. should be redefined by excluding section Triandrae and subgenus Pleuradenia from it. The evolutionary lability of bud-scale morphology and stamen number means that these characters are unreliable bases for classification. The disjunct Old–New World distribution of subgenus Salix s.l. appears to be linked to the profound climatic cooling during the Tertiary, which cut off gene exchange between New and Old World lineages.