Genomic insights into adaptive evolution of the species-rich cosmopolitan plant genus Rhododendron.

The species-rich cosmopolitan genus Rhododendron offers a good system for exploring the genomic mechanisms underlying adaptation to diverse habitats. Here, we report high-quality chromosomal-level genome assemblies of nine species, representing all five subgenera, different altitudinal distributions, and all flower color types of this genus. Further comprehensive genomic analyses indicate diverse adaptive strategies employed by Rhododendron, particularly adaptation to alpine and subalpine habitats by expansion/contraction of gene families involved in pathogen defense and oxidative phosphorylation, genomic convergent evolution, and gene copy-number variation.

Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Global Species Diversity of Rhododendron.

Evolutionary radiation is a widely recognized mode of species diversification, but its underlying mechanisms have not been unambiguously resolved for species-rich cosmopolitan plant genera. In particular, it remains largely unknown how biological and environmental factors have jointly driven its occurrence in specific regions. Here, we use Rhododendron, the largest genus of woody plants in the Northern Hemisphere, to investigate how geographic and climatic factors, as well as functional traits, worked together to trigger plant evolutionary radiations and shape the global patterns of species richness based on a solid species phylogeny.

Coding Anisotropic Metasurface with Integrated Broadband Tunable Radiation and Low-Scattering Performance.

In this paper, we propose a coding electromagnetic metasurface (EMMS) with integrated broadband tunable radiation and low-scattering performance. Anisotropic elements demonstrating opposite phases under x- and y-polarized incidence are investigated and coded as "0" and "1" basic elements. These elements are then arranged in an optimized layout using a simulated annealing algorithm to perform the EMMS.

Angular- and Polarization-insensitive Ultrathin Double-layered Metamaterial Absorber for Ultra-wideband Application.

We proposed an ultra-thin polarization-insensitive metamaterial absorber (MMA) for ultra-wideband and wide incident angle operation. The MMA is composed of double-layer symmetric split rings (SSRs) connected with two orthogonally-arranged bars and the ground metallic plane separated by two identical substrates. Multiple metallic layers and scalabilities are employed to provide broadband absorptivity based on the cooperated mechanisms of the Ohmic loss and the Fabry-Perot interference.

[Quasispecies sequence analyses of envelope protein E1/E2 coding genes from four Chinese HCV patients and identification of a novel insertion mutation of HCV].

This paper investigated the envelope protein E1/E2 quasispecies genetic characterization of 4 HCV positive sera (Genotype 1b: 274, 366, 383; Genotype 2a: 283) in China. Nucleotide acid was extracted and glycoprotein E1/E2 (191-764aa) coding genes were obtained by RT-PCR, positive clones were randomly selected for sequencing. The phylogenetic relationships and the homology of nucleotide and amino acid were analyzed based on E1/E2 coding genes, and some vital functional regions of E1/E2 were characterized.