22 kW near-diffraction-limited Yb:YAG slab laser amplifier without adaptive optics correction

A high-power CW Yb:YAG slab laser amplifier with no adaptive optics correction has been experimentally established.At room temperature,the amplifier emits a power of 22 kW with an average beam quality(β)of less than 3 in 0.5 min.To our knowledge,this is the brightest slab laser without closed-loop adaptive optics demonstrated to date.In addition,an extracted power of 17 kW with an optical extraction efficiency of 33%,corresponding to a residual optical path difference of less than 0.5μm,is achieved with the single Yb:YAG slab gain module.The slab gain module has the potential to be scalable to higher powers while maintaining good beam quality.This makes a high-power solid-state laser system simpler and more robust.

Watermelon domestication was shaped by stepwise selection and regulation of the metabolome

Although crop domestication has greatly aided human civilization,the sequential domestication and regulation of most quality traits remain poorly understood.Here,we report the stepwise selection and regulation of major fruit quality traits that occurred during watermelon evolution.The levels of fruit cucurbitacins and flavonoids were negatively selected during speciation,whereas sugar and carotenoid contents were positively selected during domestication.Interestingly,fruit malic acid and citric acid showed the opposite selection trends during the improvement.We identified a novel gene cluster(CGC1,cucurbitacin gene cluster on chromosome 1)containing both regulatory and structural genes involved in cucurbitacin biosynthesis,which revealed a cascade of transcriptional regulation operating mechanisms.In the CGC1,an allele caused a single nucleotide change in Cl ERF1 binding sites(GCC-box)in the promoter of Cl Bh1,which resulted in reduced expression of Cl Bh1 and inhibition of cucurbitacin synthesis in cultivated watermelon.Functional analysis revealed that a rare insertion of 244 amino acids,which arose in C.amarus and became fixed in sweet watermelon,in Cl OSC(oxidosqualene cyclase)was critical for the negative selection of cucurbitacins during watermelon evolution.This research provides an important resource for metabolomics-assisted breeding in watermelon and for exploring metabolic pathway regulation mechanisms.