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Abstract Crop wild relatives offer natural variations of disease resistance for crop improvement. Here, we report the isolation of broad-spectrum powdery mildew resistance gene Pm36, originated from wild emmer wheat, that encodes a tandem kinase with a transmembrane domain (WTK7-TM) through the combination of map-based cloning, PacBio SMRT long-read genome sequencing, mutagenesis, and transformation. Mutagenesis assay reveals that the two kinase domains and the transmembrane domain of WTK7-TM are critical for the powdery mildew resistance function. Consistently, in vitro phosphorylation assay shows that two kinase domains are indispensable for the kinase activity of WTK7-TM. Haplotype analysis uncovers that Pm36 is an orphan gene only present in a few wild emmer wheat, indicating its single ancient origin and potential contribution to the current wheat gene pool. Overall, our findings not only provide a powdery mildew resistance gene with great potential in wheat breeding but also sheds light into the mechanism underlying broad-spectrum resistance.

BackgroundPolycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is both a common endocrine syndrome and a metabolic disorder that results in harm to the reproductive system and whole-body metabolism. This study aimed to investigate differences in the serum metabolic profiles of patients with PCOS compared with healthy controls, in addition to investigating the effects of compound oral contraceptive (COC) treatment in patients with PCOS.Materials and methods50 patients with PCOS and 50 sex-matched healthy controls were recruited. Patients with PCOS received three cycles of self-administered COC treatment. Clinical characteristics were recorded, and the laboratory biochemical data were detected. We utilized ultra-performance liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry to study the serum metabolic changes between patients with PCOS, patients with PCOS following COC treatment, and healthy controls.ResultPatients with PCOS who received COC treatment showed significant improvements in serum sex hormone levels, a reduction in luteinising hormone levels, and a significant reduction in the levels of biologically active free testosterone in the blood. Differential metabolite correlation analysis revealed differences between PCOS and healthy control groups in N-tetradecanamide, hexadecanamide, 10E,12Z-octadecadienoic acid, and 13-HOTrE(r); after 3 months of COC treatment, there were significant differences in benzoic acid, organic acid, and phenolamides. Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to analyse blood serum in each group, the characteristic changes in PCOS were metabolic disorders of amino acids, carbohydrates, and purines, with significant changes in the levels of total cholesterol, uric acid, phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and glutamate.ConclusionFollowing COC treatment, improvements in sex hormone levels, endocrine factor levels, and metabolic levels were better than in the group of PCOS patients receiving no COC treatment, indicating that COC treatment for PCOS could effectively regulate the levels of sex hormones, endocrine factors, and serum metabolic profiles.

Plant height, spike, leaf, stem and grain morphologies are key components of plant architecture and related to wheat yield. A wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) mutant, wpa1, displaying temperature-dependent pleiotropic developmental anomalies, was isolated. The WPA1 gene, encoding a von Willebrand factor type A (vWA) domain protein, was located on chromosome arm 7DS and isolated by map-based cloning. The functionality of WPA1 was validated by multiple independent EMS-induced mutants and gene editing. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that WPA1 is monocotyledon-specific in higher plants. The identification of WPA1 provides opportunity to study the temperature regulated wheat development and grain yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a technical approach for efficiently recovering Mg from ferronickel slag to produce high-quality magnesium oxide (MgO) by using the sulfuric acid leaching method under atmospheric pressure. The leaching rate of magnesium is 84.97% after a typical one-step acid leaching process, which is because Mg in FNS mainly exists in the forsterite (Mg2SiO4) phase, which is chemically stable. In order to increase the leaching rate, a two-step acid leaching process was proposed in this work, and the overall leaching rate reached up to 95.82% under optimized conditions. The response surface methodology analysis for parameter optimization and Mg leaching rules revealed that temperature was the most critical factor affecting the Mg leaching rate when the sulfuric acid concentration was higher than 2 mol/L, followed by acid leaching time. Furthermore, interactive behavior also existed between the leaching temperature and leaching time. The leaching kinetics of magnesium from FNS followed a shrinkage-nuclear-reaction model with composite control, which were chemically controlled at lower temperatures and diffusion controlled at higher temperatures; the corresponding apparent activation energy was 19.57 kJ/mol. The leachate can be used to obtain spherical-like alkali magnesium carbonate particles with diameters of 5–10 μm at 97.62% purity. By using a further calcination process, the basic magnesium carbonate can be converted into a light magnesium oxide powder with a particle size of 2–5 μm (MgO content 94.85%), which can fulfill first-level quality standards for industrial magnesium oxide in China.