Microplastics in soil-plant system: effects of nano/microplastics on plant photosynthesis,rhizosphere microbes and soil properties in soil with different residues

Plant and Soil - To investigate the effects of polystyrene microplastics (PS-beads) on the soil properties, photosynthesis of Flowering Chinese cabbage, the rhizosphere microbial community and...     

Complete Genome Sequence of Hepatitis E Virus from Rabbits in the United States

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a single-strand positive-sense RNA virus in the family Hepeviridae. The disease caused by HEV, hepatitis E, is an important public health problem in developing countries of Asia and Africa and is also endemic in many industrialized countries, including the United States. HEV has been identified from several other animal species in addition to humans, including the pig, chicken, mongoose, deer, rabbit, ferret, bat, and fish. Here we report the complete genome sequence of the first strain of HEV from rabbits in the United States. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that the U.S. rabbit HEV is a distant member of the zoonotic genotype 3 HEV, thus raising a concern for potential zoonotic human infection. A unique 90-nucleotide insertion within the X domain of the ORF1 was identified in the rabbit HEV, and this insertion may play a role in the species tropism of HEV.     

Evidence for Inbreeding and Genetic Differentiation among Geographic Populations of the Saprophytic Mushroom Trogia venenata from Southwestern China

During the past 40 years, more than 400 Sudden Unexplained Deaths (SUDs) have occurred in Yunnan, southwestern China. Epidemiological and toxicological analyses suggested that a newly discovered mushroom called Trogia venenata was the leading culprit for SUDs. At present, relatively little is known about the genetics and natural history of this mushroom. In this study, we analyzed the sequence variation at four DNA fragments among 232 fruiting bodies of T. venenata collected from seven locations. Our ITS sequence analyses confirmed that all the isolates belonged to the same species. The widespread presence of sequence heterozygosity within many strains at each of three protein-coding genes suggested that the fruiting bodies were diploid, dikaryotic or heterokaryotic. Within individual geographic populations, we found significant deviations of genotype frequencies from Hardy-Weinberg expectations, with the overall observed heterozygosity lower than that expected under random mating, consistent with prevalent inbreeding within local populations. The geographic populations were overall genetically differentiated. Interestingly, while a positive correlation was found between population genetic distance and geographic distance, there was little correlation between genetic distance and barium concentration difference for the geographic populations. Our results suggest frequent inbreeding, geographic structuring, and limited gene flow among geographic populations of T. venenata from southwestern China.     

Revealing Invisible Water: Moisture Recycling as an Ecosystem Service

An ecosystem service is a benefit derived by humanity that can be traced back to an ecological process. Although ecosystem services related to surface water have been thoroughly described, the relationship between atmospheric water and ecosystem services has been mostly neglected, and perhaps misunderstood. Recent advances in land-atmosphere modeling have revealed the importance of terrestrial ecosystems for moisture recycling. In this paper, we analyze the extent to which vegetation sustains the supply of atmospheric moisture and precipitation for downwind beneficiaries, globally. We simulate land-surface evaporation with a global hydrology model and track changes to moisture recycling using an atmospheric moisture budget model, and we define vegetation-regulated moisture recycling as the difference in moisture recycling between current vegetation and a hypothetical desert world. Our results show that nearly a fifth of annual average precipitation falling on land is from vegetation-regulated moisture recycling, but the global variability is large, with many places receiving nearly half their precipitation from this ecosystem service. The largest potential impacts for changes to this ecosystem service are land-use changes across temperate regions in North America and Russia. Likewise, in semi-arid regions reliant on rainfed agricultural production, land-use change that even modestly reduces evaporation and subsequent precipitation, could significantly affect human well-being. We also present a regional case study in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, where we identify the specific moisture recycling ecosystem services associated with the vegetation in Mato Grosso. We find that Mato Grosso vegetation regulates some internal precipitation, with a diffuse region of benefit downwind, primarily to the south and east, including the La Plata River basin and the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. We synthesize our global and regional results into a generalized framework for describing moisture recycling as an ecosystem service. We conclude that future work ought to disentangle whether and how this vegetation-regulated moisture recycling interacts with other ecosystem services, so that trade-offs can be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.     

Physiological and molecular analysis on root growth associated with the tolerance to aluminum and drought individual and combined in Tibetan wild and cultivated barley

Planta - The drought-stimulated gene expression of NCED, SUS, and KS - DHN and ABA signal cross-talk with other phytohormones maintains barley root growth under drought stress at pH 4.0 plus...