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Rationally designing advanced electrocatalysts and innovative energy-efficient electrolysis systems for converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added chemicals or fuels is of significance yet challenging. As for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), the electrocatalytic efficiency is largely limited by the CO2 adsorption and activation capability of active sites. Herein, B-doped Bi nanosheet arrays grown on Cu foam are synthesized by a galvanic replacement combined with in situ doping strategy. It was demonstrated that the B dopant could serve as Lewis acid sites for promoting the adsorption of CO2, and more importantly, regulate the electronic structure and crystallinity of Bi nanosheet arrays, and create abundant amorphous/crystalline two-phase interfaces, which boost the CO2RR activity. Moreover, coupling the CO2RR with the thermodynamically more favorable methanol oxidation reaction (replacing the kinetically sluggish oxygen evolution reaction) within a pH-asymmetric electrolysis system could realize highly efficient pair-electrosynthesis of formate with a much-reduced energy consumption compared with a conventional electrochemical CO2RR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microbiomes associated with bee nests influence colony health through various mechanisms, although it is not yet clear how honeybee congeners differ in microbiome assembly processes, in particular the degrees to which floral visitations and the environment contribute to different aspects of diversity. We used DNA metabarcoding to sequence bacterial 16S rRNA from honey and stored pollen from nests of 4 honeybee species (Apis cerana, A. dorsata, A. florea, and A. laboriosa) sampled throughout Yunnan, China, a global biodiversity hotspot. We developed a computational pipeline integrating multiple databases for quantifying key facets of diversity, including compositional, taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional ones. Further, we assessed candidate drivers of observed microbiome dissimilarity, particularly differences in floral visitations, habitat disturbance, and other key environmental variables. Analyses revealed that microbiome alpha diversity was broadly equivalent across the study sites and between bee species, apart from functional diversity which was very low in nests of the reclusive A. laboriosa. Turnover in microbiome composition across Yunnan was driven predominantly by pollen composition. Human disturbance negatively impacted both compositional and phylogenetic alpha diversity of nest microbiomes, but did not correlate with microbial turnover. We herein make progress in understanding microbiome diversity associated with key pollinators in a biodiversity hotspot, and provide a model for the use of a comprehensive informatics framework in assessing pattern and drivers of diversity, which enables the inclusion of explanatory variables both subtly and fundamentally different and enables elucidation of emergent or unexpected drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthidiini, a large bee tribe characterized by light-colored maculations, represents nearly 1,000 pollinator species, but no genomes are yet available for this tribe. Here, we report a chromosome-level genome assembly of Anthidium xuezhongi collected from the Tibetan Plateau. Using PacBio long reads and Hi-C data, we assembled a genome of 189.14 Mb with 99.94% of the assembly located in 16 chromosomes. Our assembly contains 23 scaffolds, with the scaffold N50 length of 12.53 Mb, and BUSCO completeness of 98.70% (n  = 1,367). We masked 25.98 Mb (13.74%) of the assembly as repetitive elements, identified 385 noncoding RNAs, and predicted 10,820 protein-coding genes (99.20% BUSCO completeness). Gene family evolution analyses identified 9,251 gene families, of which 31 gene families experienced rapid evolution. Interspecific chromosomal variation among A. xuezhongi , Bombus terrestris , and Apis mellifera showed strong chromosomal syntenic relationships. This high-quality genome assembly is a valuable resource for evolutionary and comparative genomic analyses of bees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]