A Comparative Analysis of the Chloroplast Genomes of Four Salvia Medicinal Plants

Herbgenomics is an emerging field of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)research and development.By combining TCM research with genomics,herbgenomics can help to establish the scientific validity of TCM and bring it into wider usage within the field of medicine.Salvia Linn.(S.Linn.)is a large genus of Labiatae that includes important medicinal plants.In this herbgenomics study,the complete chloroplast(cp)genomes of two Salvia spp.—namely,S.przewalskii and S.bulleyana,which are used as a surrogate for S.miltiorrhiza—were sequenced and compared with those of two other reported Salvia spp.—namely,S.miltiorrhiza and S.japonica.The genome organization,gene number,type,and repeat sequences were compared.The annotation results showed that both Salvia plants contain 114 unique genes,including 80 protein-coding,30 transfer RNA(tRNA),and four ribosomal RNA(rRNA)genes.Repeat sequence analysis revealed 21 forward and 22 palindromic sequences in both Salvia cp genomes,and 17 and 21 tandem repeats in S.przewalskii and S.bulleyana,respectively.A synteny comparison of the Salvia spp.cp genomes showed a high degree of sequence similarity in the coding regions and a relatively high divergence of the intergenic spacers.Pairwise alignment and single-nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)analyses found some candidate fragments to identify Salvia spp.,such as the intergenic region of the trnV–ndhC,trnQ–rps16,atpI–atpH,psbA–ycf3,ycf1,rpoC2,ndhF,matK,rpoB,rpoA,and accD genes.All of the results—including the repeat sequences and SNP sites,the inverted repeat(IR)region border,and the phylogenetic analysis—showed that S.przewalskii and S.bulleyana are extremely similar from a genetic standpoint.The cp genome sequences of the two Salvia spp.reported here will pave the way for breeding,species identification,phylogenetic evolution,and cp genetic engineering studies of Salvia medicinal plants.

Seasonal variations in the plant diet of the Chinese Monal revealed by fecal DNA metabarcoding analysis

The Chinese Monal(Lophophorus thuysii)is an alpine-obligate galliform species of global conservation priority.It has been listed as a first class protected wildlife species in China,requiring conservation actions during the 14 th Five-Year Plan period.However,the diet composition of Chinese Monal and its seasonal variations have rarely been studied,constraining the effective conservation of the species.Here,we investigated the plant diet composition of the Chinese Monal and its seasonal variations using a DNA metabarcoding approach on fecal samples.We collected 190 fecal samples of the Chinese Monals from the central Qionglai Mountains located in China,and analyzed the plant diet of this species using a DNA metabarcoding approach.Taxonomic profiling of higher plants in the fecal samples was performed using the second internal transcribed spacer(ITS2)amplicon.Downstream analyses,including rarefaction curves,nonmetric multidimensional scaling(NMDS)and permutational multivariate analysis of variance(PERMANOVA),were used to explore the seasonal variations in diet composition.The Chinese Monal foraged a wide range of plant recipes composed of 35 families and 83 genera throughout the year,with Brassicaceae,Apiaceae,and Poaceae as the dominant families,and Cardamine as the dominant genus.The species consumed plants from 62 genera from 28 families during the breeding season(n=81)and 66 genera from 31 families during the non-breeding season(n=109).Further,the plant diet composition significantly varied between the breeding and non-breeding seasons,especially for the frequency of occurrence and relative read abundances at genus level.Our study analyzed the plant diet of the Chinese Monal at a high resolution for the first time,and the results revealed that the seasonal variations in its plant diet composition was adapted to plant phenology and foraging strategy.Fritillaria species,a previously confirmed important food resource for the Chinese Monal,were not detected in any fecal samples,potentially due to overharvesting of Fritillaria bulbs for Traditional Chinese Medicine.Therefore,we highly recommend further restriction of herb gathering in Chinese Monal habitats to facilitate the conservation of this endangered species.Altogether,our study enriches essential ecological information for the Chinese Monal and also provides insights into conservation management for this endangered species.

Early Cretaceous subduction initiation beneath southern Tibet caused the northward flight of India

Collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates formed the ~2500 km long Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone and produced the Himalaya mountains and Tibetan plateau.Here we offer a new explanation for tectonic events leading to this collision:that the northward flight of India was caused by an Early Cretaceous episode of subduction initiation on the southern margin of Tibet.Compiled data for ophiolites along the Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone show restricted ages between 120 Ma and 130 Ma,and their supra-subduction zone affinities are best explained by seafloor spreading in what became the forearc of a north-dipping subduction zone on the southern margin of Tibet.The subsequent evolution of this new subduction zone is revealed by integrating data for arcrelated igneous rocks of the Lhasa terrane and Xigaze forearc basin deposits.Strong slab pull from this new subduction zone triggered the rifting of India from East Gondwana in Early Cretaceous time and pulled it northward to collide with Tibet in Early Paleogene time.

Revisiting the gravity laws of inter-city mobility in megacity regions

Inter-city mobility is one of the most important issues in the UN Sustainable Development Goals,as it is essential to access the regional labour market,goods and services,and to constrain the spread of infectious diseases.Although the gravity model has been proved to be an effective model to describe mobility among settlements,knowledge is still insufficient in regions where dozens of megacities interact closely and over 100 million people reside.In addition,the existing knowledge is limited to overall population mobility,while the difference in inter-city travel with different purposes is unexplored on such a large geographic scale.We revisited the gravity laws of inter-city mobility using the 2.12 billion trip chains recorded by 40.48 million mobile phone users’trajectories in the Jing-Jin-Ji Region,which contains China’s capital Beijing.Firstly,unlike previous studies,we found that non-commuting rather than commuting is the dominant type of inter-city mobility(89.3%).Noncommuting travellers have a travel distance 42.3%longer than commuting travellers.Secondly,we developed more accurate gravity models for the spatial distribution of inter-city commuting and non-commuting travel.We also found that inter-city mobility has a hierarchical structure,as the distribution of inter-city travel volume follows Zipf’s law.In particular,the hierarchy of non-commuting travel volume among the cities is more in line with an ideal Zipf distribution than commuting travel.Our findings contribute to new knowledge on basic inter-city mobility laws,and they have significant applications for regional policies on human mobility.

Genomic,transcriptomic,and epigenomic analysis of a medicinal snake,Bungarus multicinctus,to provides insights into the origin of Elapidae neurotoxins

The many-banded krait,Bungarus multicinctus,has been recorded as the animal resource of JinQianBaiHuaShe in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.Characterization of its venoms classified chief phyla of modern animal neurotoxins.However,the evolutionary origin and diversification of its neurotoxins as well as biosynthesis of its active compounds remain largely unknown due to the lack of its high-quality genome.Here,we present the 1.58 Gbp genome of B.multicinctus assembled into 18 chromosomes with contig/scaffold N50 of 7.53 Mbp/149.8 Mbp.Major bungarotoxin-coding genes were clustered within genome by family and found to be associated with ancient local duplications.The truncation of glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor in the 3'-terminal of a LY6E paralog released modern three-finger toxins(3FTxs)from membrane tethering before the Colubroidea divergence.Subsequent expansion and mutations diversified and recruited these 3FTxs.After the cobra/krait divergence,the modern unit-B ofβ-bungarotoxin emerged with an extra cysteine residue.A subsequent point substitution in unit-A enabled theβ-bungarotoxin covalent linkage.The B.multicinctus gene expression,chromatin topological organization,and histone modification characteristics were featured by transcriptome,proteome,chromatin conformation capture sequencing,and ChIP-seq.The results highlighted that venom production was under a sophisticated regulation.Our findings provide new insights into snake neurotoxin research,meanwhile will facilitate antivenom development,toxin-driven drug discovery and the quality control of JinQianBaiHuaShe.

Realizing the Long Lifespan of Molybdenum Trioxide in Aqueous Aluminum Ion Batteries Through Potential Regulation

MoO_(3) is one of the most promising anode materials for aqueous aluminum batteries due to its high theoretical capacity and suitable aluminum insertion/de-insertion potential.However,the inferior cycling stability limits its further application,and the failure mechanism is still unclear.In this article,we provide a straightforward potential regulation technique to manage phase evolution during the charge/discharge process,which ultimately results in a markedly enhanced MoO_(3) electrode cycling stability.The failure mechanism study reveals that the excessive oxidation of the electrode during charge/discharge generates the H_(0.34)MoO_(3) phase,which has high solubility and is the primary cause of MoO_(3) deactivation.Although the dissolved Mo species will be deposited onto the electrode sheet again,the deposition is not electrochemically active and cannot contribute to the capacitance.Controlling the cutoff potential prevented the production of H_(0.34)MoO_(3),resulting in excellent cycling performance(80.1% capacity retention after 4000 cycles).The as-assembled α-MoO_(3)//MnO_(2) full battery exhibits high discharge plateaus(1.4 and 0.9 V),large specific capacity(200 mAhg^(-1) at 2 Ag^(-1)),and ultra-high coulombic efficiency(99%).The research presented here may contribute to the development of highly stable electrode materials for aqueous batteries.

Herbgenomics: A stepping stone for research into herbal medicine

From the prehistoric era until the publishing of the Compendium of Materia Medica and the first scientific Nobel Prize in the Chinese mainland for Tu's discovery on anti-malarial tablets,each milestone and stepping stone in the developmental history of herbal medicine involved intrepid exploration,bold hypothesis formulation,and cautious verification.After thousands of years of discovery and development,herbal research has entered a new era—the era of herbgenomics.Herbgenomics combines herbal and genomic research,bridging the gap between traditional herbal medicine and cutting-edge omics studies.Therefore,it provides a general picture of the genetic background of traditional herbs,enabling researchers to investigate the mechanisms underlying the prevention and treatment of human diseases from an omics perspective.

Global Pharmacopoeia Genome Database is an integrated and mineable genomic database for traditional medicines derived from eight international pharmacopoeias

Genomic data have demonstrated considerable traction in accelerating contemporary studies in traditional medicine. However,the lack of a uniform format and dispersed storage limits the full potential of herb genomic data. In this study, we developed a Global Pharmacopoeia Genome Database(GPGD). The database contains 34,346 records for 903 herb species from eight global pharmacopoeias(Brazilian, Egyptian, European, Indian, Japanese, Korean, the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, and U.S. Pharmacopoeia’s Herbal Medicines Compendium). In particular, the GPGD contains 21,872 DNA barcodes from 867 species, 2,203 organelle genomes from 674 species, 55 whole genomes from 49 species, 534 genomic sequencing datasets from 366 species, and 9,682 transcriptome datasets from 350 species. Among the organelle genomes, 534 genomes from 366 species were newly generated in this study. Whole genomes, organelle genomes, genomic fragments, transcriptomes, and DNA barcodes were uniformly formatted and arranged by species. The GPGD is publicly accessible at http://www.gpgenome.com and serves as an essential resource for species identification, decomposition of biosynthetic pathways, and molecular-assisted breeding analysis. Thus, the database is an invaluable resource for future studies on herbal medicine safety, drug discovery, and the protection and rational use of herbal resources.

Dual carbon Li-ion capacitor with high energy density and ultralong cycling life at a wide voltage window

Using the same materials for the cathode and anode in energy storage devices could greatly simplify the technological process and reduce the device cost significantly.In this paper,we assemble a dual carbon-based Li-ion capacitor with the active materials derived entirely from a single precursor,petroleum coke.For the anode,petroleum cokederived carbon(PCC)is prepared by simple ball milling and carbonization,having a massive tap density(1.80 g cm^(-3))and high electrical conductivity(11.5 S cm^(-1)).For the cathode,the raw petroleum coke is activated by KOH(petroleum cokeactivated carbon(PC-AC)sample)to achieve a well-developed pore structure to meet a rapid capacitive behavior.As a result,in addition to the robust structural stability of both the anode and cathode,the assembled dual carbon Li-ion capacitor shows a high energy density(231 W h kg^(-1)/206 W h L^(-1))and ultralong cycling life(up to 3000/10,000 cycles)at a wide voltage window.The excellent electrochemical response and simple production process make the PCC materials have great potential for practical application.

50th anniversary of artemisinin:From the discovery to allele-aware genome assembly of Artemisia annua

Over the past half century,the fight against malaria has been a resounding success mainlydue to thediscoveryof artemisinin.According to the World Health Organization(WHO),morbidity and mortality due to malaria have been cut by half since the promotion of artemisinin-based combination therapy(WHO,2020).

High-performance aluminum-polyaniline battery based on the interaction between aluminum ion and-NH groups

Aluminum-ion batteries(AIBs)are a type of promising energy storage device due to their high capacity,high charge transfer efficiency,low cost,and high safety.However,the most investigated graphitic and metal dichalcogenide cathodes normally possess only a moderate capacity and a relatively low cycling stability,respectively,which limit the further development of high-performance AIBs.Here,based on the results of first principles calculations,we developed a polyaniline/graphene oxide composite that exhibited outstanding performances as a cathode material in AIBs(delivering 180 mA h g^−1 after 4000 cycles),considering both the discharge capacity and the cycling performance.Ex-situ characterizations verified that the charge storage mechanism of polyaniline depended on the moderate interactions between−NH in the polyaniline chain and the electrolyte anions,such as AlCl4^−.These findings lay the foundation of the development of high-performance AIBs based on conducting polymers.

Legacy of Hongxi Su:Pioneer of Chinese Cardiosurgery

Prof.Hongxi Su(苏鸿熙)was born in Tongshan,Jiangsu Province,in January of 1915(Fig.1).He is the pioneer of Chinese cardiosurgery and one of the most renowned Chinese cardiothoracic surgeons,performing the first successful intracardiac surgery under extracorporeal circulation,as well as applying artificial blood vessels in aortic-carotid artery bypass surgery,shaping the cardiosurgery landscape of China.