In this study, we isolated a novel mycovirus from Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae strain YY-1, which we named “Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae mycovirus 1” (LpMyV1). The complete genome of LpMyV1 is 2877 bp in length and contains two non-overlapping open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2). ORF1 encodes a putative protein of 316 amino acids with a molecular weight of 34.1 kDa that shares similarity with the coat proteins of several mycoviruses. ORF2 encodes a protein of 561 amino acids with a molecular weight of 63.2 kDa that contains a conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) domain. BLASTp results showed that the RdRp of LpMyV1 shares the highest similarity with those of non-segmented dsRNA viruses. A multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis indicated that LpMyV1 is a new member of the proposed genus “Unirnavirus”. This is the first report of a mycovirus from L. pseudotheobromae.

The ^12C+ ^12C fusion is one of the most important reactions in modern nuclear astrophysics. The trend and magnitude of the reaction rate within the Gamow window strongly influence various astrophysical processes. However, direct measurement of this reaction is extremely difficult, which makes it necessary to develop indirect methods. In this study, the ^23Na+p reaction system was used to study the compound nucleus ^24Mg . We employed a thick-target inverse kinematics method combined with the γ -charged-particle coincidence technique to measure the proton and α exit channels of ^24Mg . Technical details of the ^23Na+p thick-target inverse kinematics experiment and analysis are presented herein.

Calcium production and the stellar evolution of first-generation stars remain fascinating mysteries in astrophysics. As one possible nucleosynthesis scenario, break-out from the hot carbon–nitrogen–oxygen (HCNO) cycle was thought to be the source of the calcium observed in these oldest stars. However, according to the stellar modeling, a nearly tenfold increase in the thermonuclear rate ratio of the break-out ^19 F(p, γ ) ^20 Ne reaction with respect to the competing ^19 F(p, α ) ^16 O back-processing reaction is required to reproduce the observed calcium abundance. We performed a direct measurement of this break-out reaction at the China Jinping underground laboratory. The measurement was performed down to the low-energy limit of E_c.m. = 186 keV in the center-of-mass frame. The key resonance was observed at 225.2 keV for the first time. At a temperature of approximately 0.1 GK, this new resonance enhanced the thermonuclear ^19 F(p, γ ) ^20 Ne rate by up to a factor of ≈ 7.4, compared with the previously recommended NACRE rate. This is of particular interest to the study of the evolution of the first stars and implies a stronger breakdown in their “warm” CNO cycle through the ^19 F(p, γ ) ^20 Ne reaction than previously envisioned. This break-out resulted in the production of the calcium observed in the oldest stars, enhancing our understanding of the evolution of the first stars.

Bemisia tabaci is distributed globally and incurs considerable economic and ecological costs as an agricultural pest and viral vector. The entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae has been known for its insecticidal activity, but its impacts on whiteflies are understudied. We investigated how infection with the semi-persistently transmitted Cucurbit chlorotic yellows virus (CCYV) affects whitefly susceptibility to M. anisopliae exposure. We discovered that viruliferous whiteflies exhibited increased mortality when fungus infection was present compared to non-viruliferous insects. High throughput 16S rRNA sequencing also revealed significant alterations of the whitefly bacterial microbiome diversity and structure due to both CCYV and fungal presence. Specifically, the obligate symbiont Portiera decreased in relative abundance in viruliferous whiteflies exposed to M. anisopliae. Facultative Hamiltonella and Rickettsia symbionts exhibited variability across groups but dominated in fungus-treated non-viruliferous whiteflies. Our results illuminate triangular interplay between pest insects, their pathogens, and symbionts—dynamics which can inform integrated management strategies leveraging biopesticides This work underscores the promise of M. anisopliae for sustainable whitefly control while laying the groundwork for elucidating mechanisms behind microbe-mediated shifts in vector competence.

In thermonuclear reactions of nuclear astrophysical interest,some can produce short-lived products that emit positrons.These positrons will annihilate with electrons in the target and then produce a pair of 511 keV γ-rays,which can be used to determine the reaction yield and calculate the cross-section as well as the astrophysical S-factor.Recently,an in situ measurement method for positron annihilation on experimental terminals has been proposed.This method takes advantage of the characteristic opposite direction of the 511 keV γ-ray pairs and uses the opposite units in the detection array for spatial co-incidence measurements to suppress background.In this study,we investigated this method using the newly developed large modular BGO detector array LAMBDA-Ⅱ.The results show that the detection efficiency of LAMBDA-Ⅱ for in situ β+decay of reaction products is(7.6±0.2)％,which is in good agreement with the value given by Monte Carlo simulations.The yield of the 14N(p,γ)15O 259 keV resonance determined by in situ measurement agrees well with that derived from prompt γ-ray meas-urement,verifying the reliability of this method and providing a solid foundation for its further application in nuclear astro-physics research.

The Microbiome Protocols eBook (MPB) serves as a crucial bridge, filling gaps in microbiome protocols for both wet experiments and data analysis. The first edition, launched in 2020, featured 152 meticulously curated protocols, garnering widespread acclaim. We now extend a sincere invitation to researchers to participate in the upcoming 2nd version of MPB, contributing their valuable protocols to advance microbiome research.

Root rot as a result of Salvia miltiorrhiza is a common root disease caused by Fusarium spp., which has become one of the main diseases affecting the production of S. miltiorrhiza. Currently, several hypovirulence-related mycoviruses have been identified in many phytopathogenic fungi, including Fusarium spp., which show potential as biological controls. In this study, we report a new mycovirus, Fusarium oxysporum partitivirus 1 (FoPV1), isolated from F. oxysporum strain FCR51, which is a causal agent of S. miltiorrhiza dry rot. The FoPV1 genome contains two double-stranded RNA segments (dsRNA1 and dsRNA2). The size of dsRNA1 is 1773 bp, and it encodes a putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). The dsRNA2 is 1570 bp in length, encoding a putative capsid protein (CP). Multiple sequence alignments and phylogenetic analyses based on the amino acid sequences of the RdRp and the CP proteins indicated that FoPV1 appears to be a new member of the family Partitiviridae that is related to members of the genus Gammapartitivirus. Pathogenicity assay showed that FoPV1 confers hypervirulence to its host, F. oxysporum. This is the first report of a partitivirus infecting F. oxysporum and the first hypovirulence-related mycovirus from the causal agent of S. miltiorrhiza dry rot.

Total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) is a powerful tool for measuring complex γ transitions, which has been effectively applied to the study of reactor decay heat. This paper presents the design of a new TAGS detector, the large-scale modular BGO detection array (LAMBDA), tailored for measuring β -decay intensity distributions of fission products. The modular design allows the LAMBDA detectors to be assembled in various configurations. The final version of LAMBDA consists of 102 identical 60 mm × 60 mm × 120 mm BGO crystals and exhibits a high full-energy peak efficiency exceeding 80 ∼ 8 MeV based on a Monte Carlo simulation. Currently, approximately half of the LAMBDA modules have been manufactured. Tests using γ -ray sources and nuclear reactions demonstrated favorable energy resolution, energy linearity, and efficiency uniformity across the modules. Forty-eight modules have been integrated into the prototype LAMBDA-I. The capability of LAMBDA-I in β -delayed γ -decay experiments was evaluated by commissioning measurements using the ^152 Eu source.

BackgroundThe global dissemination of the multidrug resistance efflux pump gene cluster tmexCD-toprJ has greatly weakened the effects of multiple antibiotics, including tigecycline. However, the potential origin and transmission mechanisms of the gene cluster remain unclear.MethodsHere, we concluded a comprehensive bioinformatics analysis on integrated 73,498 bacterial genomes, including Pseudomonas spp., Klebsiella spp., Aeromonas spp., Proteus spp., and Citrobacter spp., along with 1,152 long-read metagenomic datasets to trace the origin and propagation of tmexCD-toprJ.ResultsOur results demonstrated that tmexCD-toprJ was predominantly found in Pseudomonas aeruginosa sourced from human hosts in Asian countries and North American countries. Phylogenetic and genomic feature analyses showed that tmexCD-toprJ was likely evolved from mexCD-oprJ of some special clones of P. aeruginosa. Furthermore, metagenomic analysis confirmed that P. aeruginosa is the only potential ancestral bacterium for tmexCD-toprJ. A putative mobile genetic structure harboring tmexCD-toprJ, int-int-hp-hp-tnfxB-tmexCD-toprJ, was the predominant genetic context of tmexCD-toprJ across various bacterial genera, suggesting that the two integrase genes play a pivotal role in the horizontal transmission of tmexCD-toprJ.ConclusionsBased on these findings, it is almost certain that the tmexCD-toprJ gene cluster was derived from P. aeruginosa and further spread to other bacteria.

Bitter gourd wilt, a severe vascular disease triggered by the soilborne pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. momordicae (FOM), markedly constrains bitter gourd yield. In this study, a novel strain BF19 of Brevibacillus brevis was isolated and identified, exhibiting strong antimicrobial activity against FOM through in vivo and in vitro experiments. To comprehensively assess the biocontrol potential of strain BF19, we conducted phenotypic, phylogenetic, and comparative genomics analyses. Phenotypic analysis revealed that BF19 exhibited 53.33

Plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi pose a significant threat to agricultural production. This study reports on a strain YBS22 with broad-spectrum antifungal activity that was isolated and identified, and its active metabolites were purified and systematically studied. Based on a whole genome sequence analysis, the new strain YBS22 was identified as Streptomyces melanogenes. Furthermore, eight gene clusters were predicted in YBS22 that are responsible for the synthesis of bioactive secondary metabolites. These clusters have homologous sequences in the MIBiG database with a similarity of 100%. The antifungal effects of YBS22 and its crude extract were evaluated in vivo and vitro. Our findings revealed that treatment with the strain YBS22 and its crude extract significantly reduced the size of necrotic lesions caused by Magnaporthe oryzae on rice leaves. Further analysis led to the isolation and purification of an active compound from the crude extract of the strain YBS22, identified as N-formylantimycin acid methyl ester, an analog of antimycin, characterized by NMR and MS analyses. Consistently, the active compound can significantly inhibit the germination and development of M. oryzae spores in a manner that is both dose- and time-dependent. As a result, we propose that the strain YBS22 could serve as a novel source for the development of biological agents aimed at controlling rice blast disease.

Fusarium oxysporum causes vascular wilt in more than 100 plant species, resulting in massive economic losses. A deep understanding of the mechanisms of pathogenicity and symptom induction by this fungus is necessary to control crop wilt. The YjeF protein has been proven to function in cellular metabolism damage-repair in Escherichia coli and to play an important role in Edc3 (enhancer of the mRNA decapping 3) function in Candida albicans, but no studies have been reported on related functions in plant pathogenic fungi. In this work, we report how the FomYjeF gene in F. oxysporum f. sp. momordicae contributes to conidia production and virulence. The deletion of the FomYjeF gene displayed a highly improved capacity for macroconidia production, and it was shown to be involved in carbendazim's associated stress pathway. Meanwhile, this gene caused a significant increase in virulence in bitter gourd plants with a higher disease severity index and enhanced the accumulation of glutathione peroxidase and the ability to degrade hydrogen peroxide in F. oxysporum. These findings reveal that FomYjeF affects virulence by influencing the amount of spore formation and the ROS (reactive oxygen species) pathway of F. oxysporum f. sp. momordicae. Taken together, our study shows that the FomYjeF gene affects sporulation, mycelial growth, pathogenicity, and ROS accumulation in F. oxysporum. The results of this study provide a novel insight into the function of FomYjeF participation in the pathogenicity of F. oxysporum f. sp. momordicae.

Abstract Fusarium pseudograminearum is a pathogenic fungus causeing crown rot. Only two mycovirus have been reported in F. pseudograminearumthus far. Here, we report a fungal virus (mycovirus), Fusarium pseudograminearum fusarivirus 1 (FpFV1), isolated from the F. pseudograminearum strain ZZ-1. FpFV1 has a single-stranded positive-sense RNA (+ssRNA) genome of 6622 nucleotides containing four open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes for a large 1,550 amino acids (aa) polypeptide with a conserved RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and two helicase domains. The ORF2, ORF3 and ORF4 have overlapping regions and encode putative proteins of 154 aa, 53aa and 429aa, respectively. All three ORFs have unknown functions. Based on the genomic structure, homology searches, and phylogenetic analysis, FpFV1 could be a new member of the proposed “Fusariviridae”. This is the first report of a fusarivirus that infects F. pseudograminearum.

The ^{18}O(α,γ)^{22}Ne reaction is critical for AGB star nucleosynthesis due to its connection to the abundances of several key isotopes, such as ^{21}Ne and ^{22}Ne. However, the ambiguous resonance energy and spin-parity of the dominant 470 keV resonance leads to substantial uncertainty in the ^{18}O(α,γ)^{22}Ne reaction rate for the temperature of interest. We have measured the resonance energies and strengths of the low-energy resonances in ^{18}O(α,γ)^{22}Ne at the Jinping Underground Nuclear Astrophysics experimental facility (JUNA) with improved precision. The key 470 keV resonance energy has been measured to be E_{α}=474.0±1.1 keV, with such high precision achieved for the first time. The spin-parity of this resonance state is determined to be 1^{-}, removing discrepancies in the resonance strengths in earlier studies. The results significantly improve the precision of the ^{18}O(α,γ)^{22}Ne reaction rates by up to about 10 times compared with the previous data at typical AGB temperatures of 0.1-0.3 GK. We demonstrate that such improvement leads to precise ^{21}Ne abundance predictions, with an impact on probing the origin of meteoritic stardust SiC grains from AGB stars.

Proposed mechanisms for the production of calcium in the first stars (population III stars)—primordial stars that formed out of the matter of the Big Bang—are at odds with observations1. Advanced nuclear burning and supernovae were thought to be the dominant source of the calcium production seen in all stars2. Here we suggest a qualitatively different path to calcium production through breakout from the 'warm' carbon–nitrogen–oxygen (CNO) cycle through a direct experimental measurement of the 19F(p, γ)20Ne breakout reaction down to a very low energy point of 186 kiloelectronvolts, reporting a key resonance at 225 kiloelectronvolts. In the domain of astrophysical interest2, at around 0.1 gigakelvin, this thermonuclear 19F(p, γ)20Ne rate is up to a factor of 7.4 larger than the previous recommended rate3. Our stellar models show a stronger breakout during stellar hydrogen burning than previously thought1,4,5, and may reveal the nature of calcium production in population III stars imprinted on the oldest known ultra-iron-poor star, SMSS0313-67086. Our experimental result was obtained in the China JinPing Underground Laboratory7, which offers an environment with an extremely low cosmic-ray-induced background8. Our rate showcases the effect that faint population III star supernovae can have on the nucleosynthesis observed in the oldest known stars and first galaxies, which are key mission targets of the James Webb Space Telescope9. Observation of a new resonance in the 19-fluorine to 20-neon thermonuclear reaction at the China JinPing Underground Laboratory (over 2 km below ground) may provide clues to observed discrepancies in calcium production in the evolution of the first stars.

22Ne(α,n)25Mg is one of the main neutron sources of the s process. 22Ne is produced by the 14N(α, γ)18F(β+)18O(α, γ)22Ne reaction chain in the helium burning, thus, the production rate of 22Ne is dominated by 14N(α,γ)18F and 18O(α,γ)22Ne. At the astrophysical relevant temperatures, the 18O(α,γ)22Ne reaction rates are determined by several low-energy resonances. In this work, the 18O(α,γ)22Ne reaction was measured at the 400 kV accelerator of Jinping Underground Nuclear Astrophysics experiment (JUNA). The γ-ray yields of the resonances between 470 to 770 keV were obtained.

长时间稳定运行的低能强流质子加速器对低能核天体物理实验至关重要.中国科学院合肥物质科学研究院的HINEG（high intensity D-T fusion neutron generator）高压平台，目前可以为核天体物理实验在70～260 keV能量范围内提供最大5 mA的质子束流.基于此强流加速器装置，我们搭建了核天体物理实验测量平台，利用已知的 18 O（p,γ） 19 F和 27 Al（p,γ） 28 Si共振反应对加速器束流能量进行了刻度，通过Geant4模拟给出了束流能量的偏移量和展宽.测试结果表明，质子束流能量在151.3和222.8 keV附近的能量偏移分别为（0.3±0.3）和（1.7±0.1） keV，展宽分别为0.97 -0.05 +0.02 和1.39 -0.28 +0.12 keV.该结果表明，HINEG的束流满足低能核天体物理实验的要求.

Additional file 5: Table S7. Summary of 515F-806R amplicon result. Table S8. Abundance of bacterial OTUs detected in leaf 515F-806R amplicons.

Background: High-throughput sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA gene (16S-seq) is a useful and common method for studying bacterial community structures. However, contamination of the 16S rRNA genes from the mitochondrion and plastid hinders the sensitive bacterial 16S-seq in plant microbiota profiling, especially for some plant species such as rice. To date, efficiently mitigating such host contamination without a bias is challenging in 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing. Results: We developed Cas-16S-seq method to reduce abundant host contamination for plant microbiota profiling. This method utilizes the Cas9 nuclease and specific guide RNA (gRNA) to cut 16S rRNA targets during library construction, thereby removing host contamination in 16S-seq. We used rice as an example to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of Cas-16S-seq. We established a bioinformatics pipeline to design gRNAs that specifically target rice 16S rRNA genes without bacterial 16S rRNA off-targets. We compared the effectiveness of Cas-16S-seq with that of the commonly used 16S-seq method for artificially mixed 16S rRNA gene communities, paddy soil, rice root, and phyllosphere samples. The results showed that Cas-16S-seq substantially reduces the fraction of rice 16S rRNA gene sequences from 63.2 to 2.9% in root samples and from 99.4 to 11.6% in phyllosphere samples on average. Consequently, Cas-16S-seq detected more bacterial species than the 16S-seq in plant samples. Importantly, when analyzing soil samples, Cas-16S-seq and 16S-seq showed almost identical bacterial communities, suggesting that Cas-16S-seq with host-specific gRNAs that we designed has no off-target in rice microbiota profiling. Conclusion: Our Cas-16S-seq can efficiently remove abundant host contamination without a bias for 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon sequencing, thereby enabling deeper bacterial community profiling with a low cost and high flexibility. Thus, we anticipate that this method would be a useful tool for plant microbiomics.