Search

Southern rice black‐streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV; Fijivirus, Reoviridae) has become a threat to cereal production in East Asia in recent years. Our previous cytopathologic studies have suggested that SRBSDV induces a process resembling programmed cell death in infected tissues that results in distinctive growth abnormalities. The viral product responsible for the cell death, however, remains unknown. Here P9‐2 protein, but not its RNA, was shown to induce cell death in Escherichia coli and plant cells when expressed either locally with a transient expression vector or systemically using a heterologous virus. Both computer prediction and fluorescent assays indicated that the viral nonstructural protein was targeted to the plasma membrane (PM) and further modification of its subcellular localization abolished its ability to induce cell death, indicating that its PM localization was required for the cell death induction. P9‐2 was predicted to harbour two transmembrane helices within its central hydrophobic domain. A series of mutation assays further showed that its central transmembrane hydrophobic domain was crucial for cell death induction and that its conserved F90, Y101, and L103 amino acid residues could play synergistic roles in maintaining its ability to induce cell death. Its homologues in other fijiviruses also induced cell death in plant and bacterial cells, implying that the fijiviral nonstructural protein may trigger cell death by targeting conserved cellular factors or via a highly conserved mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that there is no recent research on decomposition for global inequality, the aim of this study is to fill the gap in the literature by investigating global inequality with decomposition technique. The data of this study were compiled from the World Bank and decomposition by subgroups was conducted to evaluate the driving forces behind the evolution of inequality. Almost all the countries in the world were included in this study, and the study period spans from 2000 to 2017. The analysis was carried out in several stages to evaluate the issue of North–South divide, as well as the impacts of regional and income subgroups. There are several salient findings derived from this study. First, the results show that there was a gradual decline of international inequality within the study period. Second, there was still a large disparity between the developed and developing countries, and the inequality within the developing countries has aggravated further. Third, geographical location has exerted great impacts on global inequality and East Asia contributed about 40% to the overall decline in international inequality. Fourth, decline in inequality amongst the upper-middle-income countries also contributed substantially to the fall in international inequality. The results derived from this paper can provide pertinent information for the formulation of a comprehensive and coherent strategy in coordinating international efforts and managing inequality while promoting human development under the framework of the newly established Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mushroom-forming fungi are complex multicellular organisms that form the basis of a large industry, yet, our understanding of the mechanisms of mushroom development and its responses to various stresses remains limited. The winter mushroom (Flammulina filiformis) is cultivated at a large commercial scale in East Asia and is a species with a preference for low temperatures. This study investigated fruiting body development in F. filiformis by comparing transcriptomes of 4 developmental stages, and compared the developmental genes to a 200-genome dataset to identify conserved genes involved in fruiting body development, and examined the response of heat sensitive and -resistant strains to heat stress. Our data revealed widely conserved genes involved in primordium development of F. filiformis, many of which originated before the emergence of the Agaricomycetes, indicating co-option for complex multicellularity during evolution. We also revealed several notable fruiting-specific genes, including the genes with conserved stipe-specific expression patterns and the others which related to sexual development, water absorption, basidium formation and sporulation, among others. Comparative analysis revealed that heat stress induced more genes in the heat resistant strain (M1) than in the heat sensitive one (XR). Of particular importance are the hsp70, hsp90 and fes1 genes, which may facilitate the adjustment to heat stress in the early stages of fruiting body development. These data highlighted novel genes involved in complex multicellular development in fungi and aid further studies on gene function and efforts to improve the productivity and heat tolerance in mushroom-forming fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pleurotus ostreatus species complex is saprotrophic and of significant economic and ecological importance. However, species delimitation has long been problematic because of phenotypic plasticity and morphological stasis. In addition, the evolutionary history is poorly understood due to limited sampling and insufficient gene fragments employed for phylogenetic analyses. Comprehensive sampling from Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa was used to run phylogenetic analyses of the P. ostreatus species complex based on 40 nuclear single-copy orthologous genes using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses. Here, we present a robust phylogeny of the P. ostreatus species complex, fully resolved from the deepest nodes to species level. The P. ostreatus species complex was strongly supported as monophyletic, and 20 phylogenetic species were recognized, with seven putatively new species. Data from our molecular clock analyses suggested that divergence of the genus Pleurotus probably occurred in the late Jurassic, while the most recent common ancestor of the P. ostreatus species complex diversified about 39 Ma in East Asia. Species of the P. ostreatus complex might migrate from the East Asia into North America across the North Atlantic Land Bridge or the Bering Land Bridge at different times during the late Oligocene, late Miocene and late Pliocene, and then diversified in the Old and New Worlds simultaneously through multiple dispersal and vicariance events. The dispersal from East Asia to South America in the middle Oligocene was probably achieved by a long-distance dispersal event. Intensification of aridity and climate cooling events in the late Miocene and Quaternary glacial cycling probably had a significant influence on diversification patterns of the complex. The disjunctions among East Asia, Europe, North America and Africa within Clade IIc are hypothesized to be a result of allopatric speciation. Substrate transitions to Apiaceae probably occurred no earlier than 6 Ma. Biogeographic analyses suggested that the global cooling of the late Eocene, intensification of aridity caused by rapid uplift of the QTP and retreat of the Tethys Sea in the late Miocene, climate cooling events in Quaternary glacial cycling, and substrate transitions have contributed jointly to diversification of the species complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Premise of the study: Microsatellite markers of Quercus variabilis (Fagaceae) were isolated for population genetic and landscape genetic studies. • Methods and Results: Roche 454 pyrosequencing combined with the magnetic bead enrichment protocol were used to isolate microsatellite markers for Q. variabilis. A total of 2121 microsatellites were identified from 63,851 individual sequence reads. One hundred microsatellite loci were selected to test primer amplifi cation efficiency among 24 individuals from two wild populations. Among the 100 tested markers, 34 primer pairs were successfully amplified. Of these, 14 yielded polymorphic amplification products, whereas the remaining 20 loci were monomorphic. The number of alleles for polymorphic loci ranged from two to six, and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.042 to 0.750. • Conclusions: These microsatellite loci will provide useful tools for further population genetic and landscape genetic studies on Q. variabilis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite decades of research, the horse domestication scenario in East Asia remains poorly understood. Results: The study identified 16 haplogroups with fine-scale phylogenetic resolution using mitochondrial genomes of 317 horse samples. The time to the most recent common ancestor of the 16 haplogroups ranges from [0.8–3.1] thousand years ago (KYA) to [7.9–27.1] KYA. With combined analyses of the mitochondrial control region for 35 extant Przewalski's horses, 3544 modern and 203 ancient horses across the world, researchers provide evidence for that East Asian prevalent haplogroups Q and R were indigenously domesticated or they were involved in numerous distinct genetic components from wild horses in the southern part of East Asia. These events of haplotypes Q and R occurred during 4.7 to 16.3 KYA and 2.1 to 11.5 KYA, respectively. The diffusion of preponderant European haplogroups L from west to East Asia is consistent with the external gene input. Furthermore, genetic differences were detected between northern East Asia and southern East Asia cohorts by Principal Component Analysis, Analysis of Molecular Variance test, the χ2 test and phylogeographic analyses. Conclusions: All results suggest a complex picture of horse domestication, as well as geographic pattern in East Asia. Both local origin and external input occurred in East Asia horse populations. And besides, there are at least two different domestication or hybridization centers in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosol type is a critical piece of information in both aerosol forcing estimation and passive satellite remote sensing. However, the major aerosol types in China and their variability is still less understood. This work uses direct sun measurements and inversion derived parameters from 47 sites within the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) in China, with more than 39,000 records obtained between April 1998 and January 2017, to identify dominant aerosol types using two independent methods, namely, K means and Self Organizing Map (SOM). In total, we define four aerosol types, namely, desert dust, scattering mixed, absorbing mixed and scattering fine, based on their optical and microphysical characteristics. Seasonally, dust aerosols mainly occur in the spring and over North and Northwest China; scattering mixed are more common in the spring and summer, whereas absorbing aerosols mostly occur in the autumn and winter during heating period, and scattering fine aerosols have their highest occurrence frequency in summer over East China. Based on their spatial and temporal distribution, we also generate seasonal aerosol type maps that can be used for passive satellite retrieval. Compared with the global models used in most satellite retrieval algorithms, the unique feature of East Asian aerosols is the curved single scattering albedo spectrum, which could be related to the mixing of black carbon with dust or organic aerosols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]