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Korean pine is an economically essential afforestation species limited by the unreasonable collection of cones, indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides and pest damage. This study aimed to determine whether spraying bacterial or fungal solutions affected insect pests, cone development, and the seed quality of Korean pine Pinus koraiensis Sieb. et Zucc. The experiment was conducted in a forest plantation in Linkou County (Heilongjiang, China) in 2019. Four fungal strains and one bacterial strain were applied during the flowering phase of Korean pine. The results after a year and a half of study indicated that a high concentration of Bacillus thuringiensis 223176 promoted cone development, increased seed weight, and reduced the proportion of damaged cones. Under this treatment, there were 15.873% damaged cones; the seed weight reached 0.829 g, and there were 82.738% fully developed cones. Trees treated with the second most effective strain, Beauveria bassiana 122077, had 30.556% damaged cones and an average seed weight of 0.810 g. Leucanicillium antillanum 01 performed the worst in this study. The seed weight was only 0.775 g, and the damaged and fully developed cones were 52.444 and 41.773%, respectively. In summary, spraying bacterial or fungal solutions during the flowering stage of Korean pine positively impacted seed quality and effectively decreased damage by the lepidopteran species that feed on the cones and seeds in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allelochemicals exuded by Stellera chamaejasme into the soil environment could be an important factor which might contribute to its competitive behavior in nature. We aimed to explore the interactions between the allelochemicals, soil enzyme activities, environmental factors and rhizosphere bacterial communities which might contribute to the plant's invasiveness. The composition and abundance of rhizosphere soil bacteria communities were examined in five locations in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria were dominant in all rhizosphere soil samples and were similar among the bacterial communities. The contents of Actinobacteria showed positive correlations with neochamaejasmin B and mesoneochamaejasmin A, and negative correlations with chamaechromone and 7-methoxylneochaejasmin A. The Principle component analysis (PCA) and Redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that Streptomycetales activity correlated with the content of neochamaejasmin B and mesoneochamaejasmin A, and Frankiales activity appeared to relate to chamaechromone and 7-methoxylneochaejasmin A. Enzyme activities and environmental factors correlated with the presence of rhizosphere soil bacterial communities. These results suggest that the allelochemicals, soil enzyme activities and the environment, to some extent, affect the composition and diversity of rhizosphere soil bacterial communities. The results provide a better understanding of the allelopathy of S. chamaejasme and its broad ecological adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disease accompanied by a series of diseases such as diabetic nephropathy. The drug pair (HS) of Astragalus Radix (HQ) and Dioscoreae Rhizoma (SY) was designed by Dr. Shi Jinmo to improve the treatment of T2DM. However, the exact mechanism involved requires further clarification. In this work, 1H-NMR–based metabonomics and network pharmacology were adopted. Metabolic profiling indicated that the metabolic perturbation was reduced after HS treatment. The results found 21 biomarkers. According to the network pharmacology, we found that the regulation of T2DM was primarily associated with 18 active compounds in HS. These active compounds mainly had an effect on 135 targets. Subsequently, combining network pharmacology and metabonomics, we found four target proteins, which indicated that HS has potential hypoglycemic effects through regulating monoamine oxidases B (MAOB), acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 (ACACA), carbonic anhydrase 2 (CA2), and catalase (CAT). In conclusion, the result showed that these four targets might be the most relevant targets for the treatment of T2DM with HS. This study clarified the mechanism of HS in the treatment of T2DM and also confirmed the feasibility of combining metabonomics and network pharmacology to study the mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In the future, this approach may be a potentially powerful tool to discovery active components of traditional Chinese medicines and elucidate their mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of bioassay in laboratory and field, this paper studied the allelopathy of 18 kinds of plants in Gansu Province on the seedlings of wheat, cucumber and radish. The results showed that the aqueous extract of the stems and leaves of Artemisia annua, Solanum nigrum and Datura stramonium had the strongest allelopathy on test receptor plants, and their synthetic inhibitory effect (SE) was 47.66%, 32.89% and 26.63%, respectively. The SE of Xanthium sibiricum, Portulaca oleraca, Cephalanoplos segetum, and Chenopodium album was 21.71%, 20.93%, 20.83% and 20.2%, respectively, while Vicia amoena (SE 3.5%), Setaria viridis (SE 2.2%), and Cymamchum chinense (SE 1.97%) had a weaker allelopathy. Chenopodium ambrosioides (SE - 1.03%), Polygonum caespitosum (SE - 1.63%) and Avena fatua (SE 5.33%) had no evident allelopathy, but Artemisia annua affected the seedling height and fresh weight of radish, cucumber, wheat and maize, with the SE being 54.07%, 38.46%, 33.35% and 20.88%, respectively. Artemisia annua had a 44.70% of SE on wheat growth, and thus, had a certain value to develop and use.