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Cysteine-rich secretory proteins (C), antigen 5 (A), and pathogenesis-related 1 proteins (P) comprise widespread CAP superfamily proteins, which have been proven to be novel virulence factors of mammalian pathogenic fungi and some plant pathogens. Despite this, the identification and function of CAP proteins in more species of plant pathogens still need to be studied. This work presents the identification and functional analysis of CAP superfamily proteins from Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst), an important fungal pathogen that causes wheat stripe rust on wheat worldwide. A total of six CAP genes were identified in the Pst genome, designated as PsCAP1–PsCAP6. Five PsCAP proteins, including PsCAP1, PsCAP2, PsCAP3, PsCAP4, and PsCAP5, have N-terminal signal peptides secreted with the yeast signal sequence trap assay. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis indicated that they showed a low level of intraspecies polymorphism. The expression abundance of PsCAP genes at different Pst infection stages was detected by RT-qPCR, and most of them were highly expressed during Pst infection on wheat and also Pst sexual reproduction on barberry (Berberis shensiana). Noticeably, the silencing of these six PsCAP genes by BSMV-mediated HIGS indicated that PsCAP1, PsCAP4, and PsCAP5 contribute significantly to Pst infection in wheat. These results indicate that PsCAP proteins may act as virulence factors during Pst infection, which also provides insights into Pst pathogenicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential of a bioflocculant from rice stover was studied in sludge dewatering and domestic wastewater treatment. Production of this bioflocculant showed good correspondence to cell growth, after fermentation for 60 h, the fermentation liquor was obtained, from 1.0 L of which a value of 2.37 g bioflocculant can be extracted, and the main backbone of this bioflocculant was polysaccharides. Without adjusting the sludge's initial pH value of 6.5, when incubated with 18 mg/L of this bioflocculant, dry solids (DS) and specific resistance to filtration (SRF) of the typical wastewater activated sludge reached 18.5% and 4.7 × 1012 m/kg, respectively, which was better than the ones achieved by Al2(SO4)3 and FeCl3 flocculants. For domestic wastewater treatment, after treated by 12 mg/L of this bioflocculant at pH value of 7.5, removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity can reach 91.8 and 89.7%, respectively, which were better than the ones achieved by the traditional flocculants such as Al2(SO4)3, FeCl3, and polyaluminum chloride (PAC). This study suggested that the bioflocculant from rice stover has great potentials as an alternative flocculant to conventional flocculants in sludge dewatering and domestic wastewater treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) recently attracted widespread interests. However, the role of UV 185 in VUV is only considered to be generating a series of active species, while the effect of photoexcitation has long been overlooked. In this work, the role of UV 185 induced high-energy excited state for the dephosphorization of organophosphorus pesticides was studied using malathion as a model. Results showed malathion degradation was highly related to radical yield, while its dephosphorization was not. It was UV 185 rather than UV 254 or radical yield that was responsible for malathion dephosphorization by VUV/persulfate. DFT calculation results demonstrated that the polarity of P-S bond was further increased during UV 185 excitation, favoring dephosphorization while UV 254 did not. The conclusion was further supported by degradation path identification. Moreover, despite the fact that anions (Cl - , SO 4 2 - and NO 3 - ) considerably affected radical yield, only Cl - and NO 3 - with high molar extinction coefficient at 185 nm significantly affected dephosphorization. This study shed light on the crucial role of excited states in VUV based AOPs and provided a new idea for the development of mineralization technology of organophosphorus pesticides., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Remorins, plant-specific proteins, have a significant role in conferring on plants the ability to adapt to adverse environments. However, the precise function of remorins in resistance to biological stress remains largely unknown. Eighteen CaREM genes were identified in pepper genome sequences based on the C-terminal conserved domain that is specific to remorin proteins in this research. Phylogenetic relations, chromosomal localization, motif, gene structures, and promoter regions of these remorins were analyzed and a remorin gene, CaREM1.4 , was cloned for further study. The transcription of CaREM1.4 in pepper was induced by infection with Ralstonia solanacearum . Knocking down CaREM1.4 in pepper using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) technologies reduced the resistance of pepper plants to R. solanacearum and downregulated the expression of immunity-associated genes. Conversely, transient overexpression of CaREM1.4 in pepper and Nicotiana benthamiana plants triggered hypersensitive response-mediated cell death and upregulated expression of defense-related genes. In addition, CaRIN4-12, which interacted with CaREM1.4 at the plasma membrane and cell nucleus, was knocked down with VIGS, decreasing the susceptibility of Capsicum annuum to R. solanacearum . Furthermore, CaREM1.4 reduced ROS production by interacting with CaRIN4-12 upon co-injection in pepper. Taken together, our findings suggest that CaREM1.4 may function as a positive regulator of the hypersensitive response, and it interacts with CaRIN4-12, which negatively regulates plant immune responses of pepper to R. solanacearum. Our study provides new evidence for comprehending the molecular regulatory network of plant cell death., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicting of interest., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nanjing Agricultural University.)

In this work, the different selectivity of SO 4 •- and • OH towards municipal solid waste incineration leachates (MSWILs) was studied by a comparative study of UV/persulfate (PS) and UV/H 2 O 2 . Results showed SO 4 •- preferentially mineralized carbon atoms of higher average oxidation state, while • OH showed a two-stage mechanism of partial oxidation and mineralization successively. Electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis showed SO 4 •- had superior selectivity towards MSWILs than • OH, and Fe(II) would significantly affect the selectivity via forming Fe-MSWILs complex. As the consequence, Fe(II) showed slightly negative effect on UV/PS, but greatly enhanced the performance of UV/H 2 O 2 /Fe(II). High concentration of Cl - affected the degradation of non-fluorescent substances by UV/PS, while SO 4 2 - and NO 3 - showed no effect. In contrast, anions showed no effect on UV/H 2 O 2 . In addition, • OH preferentially attacked large molecules, but SO 4 •- showed no selectivity. This study further revealed the selectivity of SO 4 •- and • OH in the treatment of hypersaline wastewater, and provided theoretical support for the development of targeted technology., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The efficiency and mechanism of heterogeneous catalytic O 3 and UV/O 3 for municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration leachate advanced treatment was systematically compared. Prior to comparison, catalyst used in heterogenous catalytic O 3 and operation parameters for each technology were optimized. The COD removal of CuO@Al 2 O 3 /O 3 under its optimal parameters was 57.2%, which failed to meet the standard (≥75%). In contrast, the COD removal by UV/O 3 could be 82.3%. The superior efficiency of UV/O 3 over CuO@Al 2 O 3 /O 3 could be summarized into three aspects: (I) Cu bounded ·OH (≡Cu-O·) preferentially attacked hydrophilic groups, while free hydroxyl radical (·OH) was non-selective, thus UV/O 3 exhibited a unique three-stage mechanism; (II) The oxidation potential of ≡Cu-O· was higher than that of ·OH, therefore was more vulnerable to the negative effect of radical self-quenching; (III) The existence of UV-induced excited states made organics in UV/O 3 more active than in CuO@Al 2 O 3 /O 3 system, thus high concentration of anions enhanced COD removal in UV/O 3 but affected that in CuO@Al 2 O 3 /O 3 . The study further revealed the characteristics of heterogeneous catalytic O 3 and UV/O 3 , and UV induced excited state should be considered in UV-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In this work, the role of Fe in the synergetic effect of persulfate/sulfite and Fe 2 O 3 @g-C 3 N 4 (FCN) for carbamazepine (CBZ) degradation was studied. Unexpectedly, Fe 2 O 3 in FCN plays very different roles for sulfite [S(IV)] and persulfate (PS) activation. Specifically, since photo-generated holes (h + ) can transform S(IV) into SO 4 - , and photo-generated electrons (e - ) can accelerate Fe(III) reduction which promotes transition metal based S(IV) activation, a synergetic effect of photocatalysis and Fe is observed in FCN/S(IV)/vis system. In contrast, in FCN/PS/vis system, both Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycle and PS activation compete for e - . Since PS is a stronger electron acceptor, Fe(III) reduction by e - is limited. Therefore, the contribution of Fe 2 O 3 in FCN/S(IV)/vis system is 3 times higher than that in FCN/PS/vis system. Initial pH affects CBZ removal by changing surface charge of catalysts and oxidants species, while the effect varies for different catalysts and oxidants. This study provides new insight into the synergetic effect of photocatalysis and transition metal for SO 4 - generation, which contributes to catalyst design for environmental application., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)