Insights from DNA Barcodes-Based Phylogenetic Analysis of Medicinal Plants and Estimation of Their Conservation Status: A Case Study in the Tianshan Wild Forest, China.

The Tianshan wild fruit forest region is a vital repository of plant biodiversity, particularly rich in the unique genetic resources of endemic medicinal plants in this ecological niche. However, human activities such as unregulated mining and excessive grazing have led to a significant reduction in the diversity of these medicinal plants. This study represents the first application of DNA barcoding to 101 medicinal plants found in the Tianshan wild fruit forests, using three genetic loci along with morphological identification methods.

Uncovering the Antifungal Potential of Plant-Associated Cultivable Bacteria from the Aral Sea Region against Phytopathogenic Fungi.

Two freshwater rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, flow into the Aral Sea, but they began to diminish in the early 1960s, and by the 1980s, the lake had nearly ceased to exist due to excessive water consumption for agriculture and the unsustainable management of water resources from rivers, which transformed the Aral Sea into a hypersaline lake. Despite this, the flora and fauna of the region began to evolve in the high-salinity seabed soil, which has received little attention in studies. In this study, we isolated approximately 1400 bacterial strains from the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of plant species of distinct families.

Distribution and Pathogenicity Differentiation of Physiological Races of from Cotton Stems in Western China.

Verticillium wilt, caused by the pathogenic fungus , has emerged as a severe threat to cotton globally. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of this pathogen in an infected single cotton plant. In this study, we isolated three new strains from the disease stems of from the cotton field in Western China and assessed their pathogenicity to the cotton cultivar Xinnongmian-1 and its two transgenic lines, as well as two laboratory strains, VD592 and VD991.

Multi-Omics Approaches Provide New Insights into the Identification of Putative Fungal Effectors from .

Pathogenic fungi secrete numerous effectors into host cells to manipulate plants' defense mechanisms. , a necrotrophic fungus, severely impacts apple production in China due to the occurrence of Valsa canker. Here, we predicted 210 candidate effector protein (CEP)-encoding genes from .

Uncovering the antifungal activities of wild apple-associated bacteria against two canker-causing fungi, Cytospora mali and C. parasitica.

Cytospora canker has become a devastating disease of apple species worldwide, and in severe cases, it may cause dieback of entire trees. The aim of this study was to characterize the diversity of cultivable bacteria from the wild apple microbiota and to determine their antifungal ability against the canker-causing pathogenic fungi Cytospora mali and C. parasitica.

An efficient screening system of disease-resistant genes from wild apple, Malus sieversii in response to Valsa mali pathogenic fungus.

For molecular breeding of future apples, wild apple (Malus sieversii), the primary progenitor of domesticated apples, provides abundant genetic diversity and disease-resistance traits. Valsa canker (caused by the fungal pathogen Valsa mali) poses a major threat to wild apple population as well as to cultivated apple production in China. In the present study, we developed an efficient system for screening disease-resistant genes of M.

Transcriptome Reveals the Molecular Mechanism of the Gene from the Desert Moss Conferring Resistance to Salt Stress in Cotton.

The desert moss has proven to be an excellent plant material for mining resistance genes. The ( gene from has been shown to confer tolerance to salt and drought, but it is unclear how the transgene regulates tolerance to abiotic stresses in cotton. In the present work, we studied the physiological and transcriptome analyses of non-transgenic (NT) and transgenic cotton (L96) at 0 day, 2 days, and 5 days after salt stress.

Fungal diversity notes 1387-1511: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa.

This article is the 13th contribution in the Fungal Diversity Notes series, wherein 125 taxa from four phyla, ten classes, 31 orders, 69 families, 92 genera and three genera are treated, demonstrating worldwide and geographic distribution. Fungal taxa described and illustrated in the present study include three new genera, 69 new species, one new combination, one reference specimen and 51 new records on new hosts and new geographical distributions. Three new genera, (), ( genus ) and () are introduced based on distinct phylogenetic lineages and unique morphologies.

Wild Apple-Associated Fungi and Bacteria Compete to Colonize the Larval Gut of an Invasive Wood-Borer in Tianshan Forests.

The gut microflora of insects plays important roles throughout their lives. Different foods and geographic locations change gut bacterial communities. The invasive wood-borer causes extensive mortality of wild apple, , which is considered a progenitor of all cultivated apples, in Tianshan forests.

Application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in wild apple (Malus sieverii) for paired sites gene editing.

Background: Xinjiang wild apple is an important tree of the Tianshan Mountains, and in recent years, it has undergone destruction by many biotic and abiotic stress and human activities. It is necessary to use new technologies to research its genomic function and molecular improvement. The clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) system has been successfully applied to genetic improvement in many crops, but its editing capability varies depending on the different combinations of the synthetic guide RNA (sgRNA) and Cas9 protein expression devices.

Characterization of the gut microbiota of invasive Agrilus mali Matsumara (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) using high-throughput sequencing: uncovering plant cell-wall degrading bacteria.

The genus Agrilus comprises diverse exotic and agriculturally important wood-boring insects that have evolved efficient digestive systems. Agrilus mali Matsumara, an invasive insect, is causing extensive mortality to endangered wild apple trees in Tianshan. In this study, we present an in-depth characterization of the gut microbiota of A.

Matsumara (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a new invasive pest of wild apple in western China: DNA barcoding and life cycle.

Matsumara (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) is a wood-boring beetle distributed to eastern China that occasionally injures apple species. However, this wood-boring beetle is new to the wild apple forests () of the Tianshan Mountains (western China) and has caused extensive tree mortality. The development of a biological control program for these wild apple forests is a high priority that requires exploration of the life cycle, DNA barcoding and taxonomic status of .

, an A-5c type of Gene of the Desert Moss , Confers Osmotic and Salt Tolerances to .

Drought and salinity are major factors limiting crop productivity worldwide. DREB (dehydration-responsive element-binding) transcription factors play important roles in plant stress response and have been identified in a wide variety of plants. Studies on DREB are focused on the A-1 () and A-2 () groups.

JA but not JA-Ile is the cell-nonautonomous signal activating JA mediated systemic defenses to herbivory in Nicotiana attenuata.

The whole-plant activation of defense responses to wounding and herbivory requires systemic signaling in which jasmonates (JAs) play a pivotal role. To examine the nature of the slower cell-nonautonomous as compared to the rapid cell-autonomous signal in mediating systemic defenses in Nicotiana attenuata, reciprocal stem grafting-experiments were used with plants silenced for the JA biosynthetic gene ALLENE OXIDE CYCLASE (irAOC) or plants transformed to create JA sinks by ectopically expressing Arabidopsis JA-O-methyltransferase (ovJMT). JA-impaired irAOC plants were defective in the cell-nonautonomous signaling pathway but not in JA transport.

Identification and profiling of miRNAs during herbivory reveals jasmonate-dependent and -independent patterns of accumulation in Nicotiana attenuata.

Background: Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in the transcriptional responses to environmental stresses. However, the role of miRNAs in responses to insect herbivory has not been thoroughly explored. To identify herbivory-responsive miRNAs, we identified conserved miRNAs in the ecological model plant Nicotiana attenuata whose interactions with herbivores have been well-characterized in both laboratory and field studies.

DICER-like proteins and their role in plant-herbivore interactions in Nicotiana attenuata.

DICER-like (DCL) proteins produce small RNAs that silence genes involved in development and defenses against viruses and pathogens. Which DCLs participate in plant-herbivore interactions remains unstudied. We identified and stably silenced four distinct DCL genes by RNAi in Nicotiana attenuata (Torrey ex.

Efficient screening of transgenic plant lines for ecological research.

Plants stably transformed to manipulate the expression of genes mediating ecological performance have profoundly altered research in plant ecology. Agrobacterium-mediated transformation remains the most effective method of creating plants harbouring a limited number of transgene integrations of low complexity. For ecological/physiological research, the following requirements must be met: (i) the regenerated plants should have the same ploidy level as the corresponding wild-type plant and (ii) contain a single transgene copy in a homozygous state; (iii) the T-DNA must be completely inserted without vector backbone sequence and all its elements functional; and (iv) the integration should not change the phenotype of the plant by interrupting chromosomal genes or by mutations occurring during the regeneration procedure.

Small RNA regulation of ovule development in the cotton plant, G. hirsutum L.

Background: The involvement of small RNAs in cotton fiber development is under explored. The objective of this work was to directly clone, annotate, and analyze small RNAs of developing ovules to reveal the candidate small interfering RNA/microRNAs involved in cotton ovule and fiber development.

Results: We cloned small RNA sequences from 0-10 days post anthesis (DPA) developing cotton ovules.