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A plant protease named microcarpain was purified from the latex of Ficus microcarpa by acetonic (20–40 % saturation) precipitation, Sephadex G-75 filtration, and Mono Q-Sefinose FF chromatography. The protease was purified with a yield of 9.25 % and a purification factor of 8. The molecular weight of the microcarpain was estimated to be 20 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The purified enzyme showed maximum activity at pH 8.0 and at a temperature of 70 °C. Proteolytic activity was strongly inhibited by dithio-bis-nitrobenzoic acid (DTNB), Hg²⁺, and Cu²⁺. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified microcarpain “VPETVDWRSKGAV” showed high homology with a protease from Arabidopsis thaliana. Inhibition studies and N-terminal sequence classified the enzyme as a member of the cysteine peptidases family.

A new species of Mymaromma , M. menehune sp. nov. , is described from the Hawaiian Islands. It was found emerging as a solitary endoparasitoid from eggs of a Lepidopsocus sp. (Psocodea: Lepidopsocidae) on branches of Ficus microcarpa (Moraceae) on the island of O‘ahu. This the first host record for the superfamily Mymarommatoidea, coming almost exactly 100 years after the first extant species of Mymarommatidae was described.

Main conclusionEach β-1,3-glucanase with antifungal activity or yeast lytic activity hydrolyzes different structures of β-1,3-glucans in the fungal cell wall, respectively.Plants express several glycoside hydrolases that target chitin and β-glucan in fungal cell walls and inhibit pathogenic fungal infection. An antifungal β-1,3-glucanase was purified from gazyumaru (Ficus microcarpa) latex, designated as GlxGluA, and the corresponding gene was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The sequence shows that GlxGluA belongs to glycoside hydrolase family 17 (GH17). To investigate how GlxGluA acts to degrade fungal cell wall β-glucan, it was compared with β-1,3-glucanase with different substrate specificities. We obtained recombinant β-1,3-glucanase (designated as CcGluA), which belongs to GH64, from the bacterium Cellulosimicrobium cellulans. GlxGluA inhibited the growth of the filamentous fungus Trichoderma viride but was unable to lyse the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In contrast, CcGluA lysed yeast cells but had a negligible inhibitory effect on the growth of filamentous fungi. GlxGluA degraded the cell wall of T. viride better than CcGluA, whereas CcGluA degraded the cell wall of S. cerevisiae more efficiently than GlxGluA. These results suggest that the target substrates in fungal cell walls differ between GlxGluA (GH17 class I β-1,3-glucanase) and CcGluA (GH64 β-1,3-glucanase).

Theory identifies factors that can undermine the evolutionary stability of mutualisms. However, theory’s relevance to mutualism stability in nature is controversial. Detailed comparative studies of parasitic species that are embedded within otherwisemutualistic taxa (e.g., fig pollinator wasps) can identify factors that potentially promote or undermine mutualism stability. We describe results from behavioral, morphological, phylogenetic, and experimental studies of two functionally distinct, but closely related, Eupristina wasp species associated with the monoecious host fig, Ficus microcarpa, in Yunnan Province, China. One (Eupristina verticillata) is a competent pollinator exhibiting morphologies and behaviors consistent with observed seed production. The other (Eupristina sp.) lacks these traits, and dramatically reduces both female and male reproductive success of its host. Furthermore, observations and experiments indicate that individuals of this parasitic species exhibit greater relative fitness than the pollinators, in both indirect competition (individual wasps in separate fig inflorescences) and direct competition (wasps of both species within the same fig). Moreover, phylogenetic analyses suggest that these two Eupristina species are sister taxa. By the strictest definition, the nonpollinating species represents a “cheater” that has descended from a beneficial pollinating mutualist. In sharp contrast to all 15 existing studies of actively pollinated figs and their wasps, the local F. microcarpa exhibit no evidence for host sanctions that effectively reduce the relative fitness of wasps that do not pollinate. We suggest that the lack of sanctions in the local hosts promotes the loss of specialized morphologies and behaviors crucial for pollination and, thereby, the evolution of cheating.

Despite its importance for urban planning, landscape management, and water management, there are very few in situ estimates of urban-forest transpiration. Because urban forests contain an unusual and diverse mix of species from many regions worldwide, we hypothesized that species composition would be a more important driver of spatial variability in urban-forest transpiration than meteorological variables in the Los Angeles (California, USA) region. We used constant-heat sap-flow sensors to monitor urban tree water use for 15 species at six locations throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. For many of these species no previous data on sap flux, water use, or water relations were available in the literature. To scale sap-flux measurements to whole trees we conducted a literature survey of radial trends in sap flux across multiple species and found consistent relationships for angiosperms vs. gymnosperms. We applied this relationship to our measurements and estimated whole-tree and plot-level transpiration at our sites. The results supported very large species differences in transpiration, with estimates ranging from 3.2 ±± 2.3 kg··tree −−1 ··d −−1 in unirrigated Pinus canariensis (Canary Island pine) to 176.9 ±± 75.2 kg··tree −−1 ··d −−1 in Platanus hybrida (London planetree) in the month of August. Other species with high daily transpiration rates included Ficus microcarpa (laurel fig), Gleditsia triacanthos (honeylocust), and Platanus racemosa (California sycamore). Despite irrigation and relatively large tree size, Brachychiton populneas (kurrajong), B. discolor (lacebark), Sequoia sempervirens (redwood), and Eucalyptus grandis (grand Eucalyptus) showed relatively low rates of transpiration, with values < 45 kg··tree −−1 ··d −−1 . When scaled to the plot level, transpiration rates were as high as 2 mm/d for sites that contained both species with high transpiration rates and high densities of planted trees. Because plot-level transpiration is highly dependent on tree density, we modeled transpiration as a function of both species and density to evaluate a likely range of values in irrigated urban forests. The results show that urban forests in irrigated, semi-arid regions can constitute a significant use of water, but water use can be mitigated by appropriate selection of site, management method, and species.

The genus Ficus is an evergreen plant, the most numerous species in the family Moraceae, and is often used as a food and pharmacy source. The phylogenetic relationships of the genus Ficus have been debated for many years due to the overlapping phenotypic characters and morphological similarities between the genera. In this study, the eight Ficus species (Ficus altissima, Ficus auriculata, Ficus benjamina, Ficus curtipes, Ficus heteromorpha, Ficus lyrata, Ficus microcarpa, and Ficus virens) complete chloroplast (cp) genomes were successfully sequenced and phylogenetic analyses were made with other Ficus species. The result showed that the eight Ficus cp genomes ranged from 160,333 bp (F. heteromorpha) to 160,772 bp (F. curtipes), with a typical quadripartite structure. It was found that the eight Ficus cp genomes had similar genome structures, containing 127 unique genes. The cp genomes of the eight Ficus species contained 89–104 SSR loci, which were dominated by mono-nucleotides repeats. Moreover, we identified eight hypervariable regions (trnS-GCU_trnG-UCC, trnT-GGU_psbD, trnV-UAC_trnM-CAU, clpP_psbB, ndhF_trnL-UAG, trnL-UAG_ccsA, ndhD_psaC, and ycf1). Phylogenetic analyses have shown that the subgenus Ficus and subgenus Synoecia exhibit close affinities and based on the results, we prefer to merge the subgenus Synoecia into the subgenus Ficus. At the same time, new insights into the subgeneric classification of the Ficus macrophylla were provided. Overall, these results provide useful data for further studies on the molecular identification, phylogeny, species identification and population genetics of speciation in the Ficus genus.

Species of Sporocadaceae have often been reported as plant pathogens, endophytes or saprophytes and are commonly isolated from a wide range of plant hosts. The isolated fungi were studied through a complete examination, based on multilocus phylogenies from combined datasets of ITS/ tub2 / tef1 , in conjunction with morphological characteristics. Nine strains were isolated from Ficus microcarpa , Ilex chinensis and Schima superba in China which represented four species, viz. , Monochaetia schimae sp. nov. , Neopestalotiopsis haikouensis sp. nov. , Neopestalotiopsis piceana and Pestalotiopsis licualicola . Neopestalotiopsis piceana was a new country record for China and first host record from Ficus macrocarpa. Pestalotiopsis licualicola was first report from Ilex chinensis in China.

Complementary DNA encoding the antifungal chitinase of gazyumaru (Ficus microcarpa), designated GlxChiB, was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli cells. The results of cDNA cloning showed that the precursor of GlxChiB has an N-terminal endoplasmic reticulum targeting signal and C-terminal vacuolar targeting signal, whereas mature GlxChiB is composed of an N-terminal carbohydrate-binding module family-18 domain (CBM18) and a C-terminal glycoside hydrolase family-19 domain (GH19) with a short linker. To clarify the role of the CBM18 domain in the antifungal activity of chitinase, the recombinant GlxChiB (wild type) and its catalytic domain (CatD) were used in quantitative antifungal assays under different ionic strengths and microscopic observations against the fungus Trichoderma viride. The antifungal activity of the wild type was stronger than that of CatD under all ionic strength conditions used in this assay; however, the antifungal activity of CatD became weaker with increasing ionic strength, whereas that of the wild type was maintained. The results at high ionic strength further verified the contribution of the CBM18 domain to the antifungal ability of GlxChiB. The microscopic observations clearly showed that the wild type acted on both the tips and the lateral wall of fungal hyphae, while CatD acted only on the tips. These results suggest that the CBM18 domain could contribute to the antifungal ability of chitinase through its affinity to the fungal lateral wall by hydrophobic interactions.

Individual structural parameters of trees, such as forest stand tree height and biomass, serve as the foundation for monitoring of dynamic changes in forest resources. Individual tree structural parameters are closely related to individual tree crown segmentation. Although three-dimensional (3D) data have been successfully used to determine individual tree crown segmentation, this phenomenon is influenced by various factors, such as the (i) source of 3D data, (ii) the segmentation algorithm, and (iii) the tree species. To further quantify the effect of various factors on individual tree crown segmentation, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and image-derived points were obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Three different segmentation algorithms (PointNet++, Li2012, and layer-stacking segmentation (LSS)) were used to segment individual tree crowns for four different tree species. The results show that for two 3D data, the crown segmentation accuracy of LiDAR data was generally better than that obtained using image-derived 3D data, with a maximum difference of 0.13 in F values. For the three segmentation algorithms, the individual tree crown segmentation accuracy of the PointNet++ algorithm was the best, with an F value of 0.91, whereas the result of the LSS algorithm yields the worst result, with an F value of 0.86. Among the four tested tree species, the individual tree crown segmentation of Liriodendron chinense was the best, followed by Magnolia grandiflora and Osmanthus fragrans, whereas the individual tree crown segmentation of Ficus microcarpa was the worst. Similar crown segmentation of individual Liriodendron chinense and Magnolia grandiflora trees was observed based on LiDAR data and image-derived 3D data. The crown segmentation of individual Osmanthus fragrans and Ficus microcarpa trees was superior according to LiDAR data to that determined according to image-derived 3D data. These results demonstrate that the source of 3D data, the segmentation algorithm, and the tree species all have an impact on the crown segmentation of individual trees. The effect of the tree species is the greatest, followed by the segmentation algorithm, and the effect of the 3D data source. Consequently, in future research on individual tree crown segmentation, 3D data acquisition methods should be selected based on the tree species, and deep learning segmentation algorithms should be adopted to improve the crown segmentation of individual trees.