The Physalis floridana genome provides insights into the biochemical and morphological evolution of Physalis fruits

The fruits of Physalis(Solanaceae)have a unique structure,a lantern-like fruiting calyx known as inflated calyx syndrome(ICS)or the Chinese lantern,and are rich in steroid-related compounds.However,the genetic variations underlying the origin of these characteristic traits and diversity in Physalis remain largely unknown.Here,we present a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome assembly of Physalis floridana(~1.40Gb in size)with a contig N50 of~4.87Mb.Through evolutionary genomics and experimental approaches,we found that the loss of the SEP-like MADS-box gene MBP21 subclade is likely a key mutation that,together with the previously revealed mutation affecting floral MPF2 expression,might have contributed to the origination of ICS in Physaleae,suggesting that the origination of a morphological novelty may have resulted from an evolutionary scenario in which one mutation compensated for another deleterious mutation.Moreover,the significant expansion of squalene epoxidase genes is potentially associated with the natural variation of steroid-related compounds in Physalis fruits.The results reveal the importance of gene gains(duplication)and/or subsequent losses as genetic bases of the evolution of distinct fruit traits,and the data serve as a valuable resource for the evolutionary genetics and breeding of solanaceous crops.

Progress in nanostructured photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Solar cells represent a principal energy technology to convert light into electricity. Commercial solar cells are at present predominately produced by single- or multi-crystalline silicon wafers. The main drawback to silicon-based solar cells, however, is high material and manufacturing costs. Dye-sensitized solar cells （DSSCs） have attracted much attention during recent years because of the low production cost and other advantages. The photoanode （working electrode） plays a key role in determining the performance of DSSCs. In particular, nanostructured photoanodes with a large surface area, high electron transfer efficiency, and low electron recombination facilitate to prepare DSSCs with high energy conversion efficiency. In this review article, we summarize recent progress in the development of novel photoanodes for DSSCs. Effect of semiconductor material （e.g. TiO2, ZnO, SnO2, N2O5, and nano carbon）, preparation, morphology and structure （e.g. nanoparticles, nanorods, nanofibers, nanotubes, fiber/ particle composites, and hierarchical structure） on photovoltaic performance of DSSCs is described. The possibility of replacing silicon-based solar cells with DSSCs is discussed.

Physical layer data encryption using two-level constellation masking in 3D-CAP-PON

A novel physical layer data encryption scheme using two-level constellation masking in three-dimensional(3D)carrier-less amplitude and phase modulation(CAP)passive optical network(PON)is proposed in this Letter.The chaotic sequence generated by Chua’s circuit model realizes two-level encryption of displacement masking and constellation rotation for3 D constellations.We successfully conduct an experiment demonstrating 8.7 Gb/s 3 D-CAP-8 data transmission over25 km standard single-mode fiber.With two-level constellation masking,a key space size of 2.1×1085 is achieved to bring about high security and good encryption performance,suggesting broad application prospects in future short-range secure communications.