The transcriptional control of LcIDL1–LcHSL2 complex by LcARF5 integrates auxin and ethylene signaling for litchi fruitlet abscission

At the physiological level,the interplay between auxin and ethylene has long been recognized as crucial for the regulation of organ abscission in plants.However,the underlying molecular mechanisms remain unknown.Here,we identified transcription factors involved in indoleacetic acid(IAA)and ethylene(ET)signaling that directly regulate the expression of INFLORESCENCE DEFICIENT IN ABSCISSION(IDA)and its receptor HAESA(HAE),which are key components initiating abscission.Specifically,litchi IDAlike 1(LcIDL1)interacts with the receptor HAESA-like2(LcHSL2).Through in vitro and in vivo experiments,we determined that the auxin response factor LcARF5 directly binds and activates both LcIDL1 and LcHSL2.Furthermore,we found that the ETHYLENE INSENSITIVE 3-like transcription factor LcEIL3 directly binds and activates LcIDL1.The expression of IDA and HSL2 homologs was enhanced in Lc ARF5and Lc EIL3 transgenic Arabidopsis plants,but reduced in ein3 eil1 mutants.Consistently,the expressions of LcIDL1 and LcHSL2 were significantly decreased in Lc ARF5-and LcEIL3-silenced fruitlet abscission zones(FAZ),which correlated with a lower rate of fruitlet abscission.Depletion of auxin led to an increase in 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid(the precursor of ethylene)levels in the litchi FAZ,followed by abscission activation.Throughout this process,LcRF5 and LcEIL3 were induced in the FAZ.Collectively,our findings suggest that the molecular interactions between litchi AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 5(LcARF5)-LcIDL1/LcHSL2 and LcEIL3–LcIDL1 signaling modules play a role in regulating fruitlet abscission in litchi and provide a long-sought mechanistic explanation for how the interplay between auxin and ethylene is translated into the molecular events that initiate abscission.

FungalTraits:a user-friendly traits database of fungi and fungus-like stramenopiles

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identification of the guild in environmental studies.Over the past decades,rapid development and affordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats.Yet,in spite of the progress of molecular methods,knowledge about functional properties of the fungal taxa is vague and interpretation of environmental studies in an ecologically meaningful manner remains challenging.In order to facilitate functional assignments and ecological interpretation of environmental studies we introduce a user friendly traits and character database FungalTraits operating at genus and species hypothesis levels.Combining the information from previous efforts such as FUNGuild and FunFun together with involvement of expert knowledge,we reannotated 10,210 and 151 fungal and Stramenopila genera,respectively.This resulted in a stand-alone spreadsheet dataset covering 17 lifestyle related traits of fungal and Stramenopila genera,designed for rapid functional assignments of environmental stud-ies.In order to assign the trait states to fungal species hypotheses,the scientific community of experts manually categorised and assigned available trait information to 697,413 fungal ITS sequences.On the basis of those sequences we were able to summarise trait and host information into 92,623 fungal species hypotheses at 1%dissimilarity threshold.

Correction to:FungalTraits:a user friendly traits database of fungi and fungus-like stramenopiles

Correction to:Fungal Diversity(2020)105:116 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-020-00466-2 There were errors in the name of author LászlóG.Nagy and in affiliation no.31 in the original publication.The original article has been corrected.