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Aims: This study aimed to investigate how dark septate endophytes (DSE) from arid habitats affect host growth and their application to crops and medicinal plants in drought-prone soils. Methods: First, the osmotic-stress tolerance of Paraphoma sp., Embellisia chlamydospora, and Cladosporium oxysporum, isolated from Hedysarum scoparium, was tested using osmotically adjusted pure culture. Second, we examined the performance of host (H. scoparium) and non-host (Glycyrrhiza uralensis and Zea mays) plants inoculated with these fungi under mild (MD) and extreme drought (ED) conditions in a growth chamber. Results: All the DSE showed high tolerance to osmotic stress in vitro and could colonise the roots of all the plants. For H. scoparium, DSE improved the root biomass and length depending on DSE species, with Paraphoma sp. and C. oxysporum exhibiting positive effects under all the drought treatments. For G. uralensis and Z. mays, DSE inoculation enhanced the root development of plants under MD condition and was dependent on the plant–fungus species. However, this positive effect was weakened under extreme drought stress. Conclusions: DSE isolated from H. scoparium enhanced the root growth of the host plant under drought conditions and may also be used to promote the cultivation of agricultural and medicinal plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold nanoclusters have attracted widespread attention because of their unique optical and physical properties. However, traditional synthesis methods are complicated and require additional reducing agents, while the yield is often very low. Such resource and time-consuming synthesis processes limit their further application. Herein, a rapid sonochemical route is used to synthesize fluorescent Au nanoclusters in large quantities using glutathione (GSH) both as a capping and reducing agent. These Au nanoclusters are synthesized quickly (∼40 min) due to the presence of ultrasonic waves, and show orange red photoluminescence (Em = 598 nm), small size (∼2 nm) and good dispersion in aqueous solution. Moreover, GSH, as a protecting agent on the surface of resultant Au nanoclusters, has many functional groups including carboxyl and amino groups because of which the nanoclusters show high photo-, storage-, metal- and pH-stability. A stable Au nanoclusters-based nano-sensor is designed for highly sensitive and selective label-free detection of Cu2+ with a low limit of detection of 7 ppb (based on S/N = 3). The fluorescent probe can be used in versatile nanothermometry devices, because their photoluminescence intensity correlates strongly with temperature and varies considerably over a wide temperature range (20–80 °C). Therefore, the novel fluorescent sensing probe has great application prospects in Cu2+ detection and temperature sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a highly sensitive electrochemical biosensor for determination of cholesterol. The biosensor was fabricated by co-immobilizing bi-enzymes, cholesterol oxidase (ChOx), and horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Voltammetric technique such as cyclic voltammetry and impedance experiment were used to study the characterization of modified electrode step by step. The developed sensor is cheap, disposable, portable and exhibits higher sensitivity. The biosensor expressed a wide linear range up to 300 mg dL in a physiological condition (pH 7.0), with a correlation coefficient of 0.9969. A sensitivity of 13.28 μA mg dL cm which makes it very promising for the clinical determination of cholesterol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]