The oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans causes late blight disease that severely reduces potato production worldwide.  Monitoring the genotypic and virulence dynamics of P. infestans populations is vital for management of late blight.  Phytophthora infestans populations in southwestern China diversify in genotypes and virulence, but the most recent status of these populations remains elusive.  In this study, 218 isolates collected from six locations in southwestern China from 2019 to 2022 were analyzed for genotypic and virulence dynamics as well as effective management strategies.  Phylogenetic analysis of simple sequence repeats-classified multi-locus genotypes (MLGs) revealed that these populations comprise three lineages, of which the EU lineage is dominant.  These populations had overcome the resistance mediated by R3a, R3b and Rpi-blb3 and had an increased trend in overcoming the resistance mediated by Rpi-blb2, R8, Rpi-blb1 and Rpi-vnt1.1.  The EU lineage consisted of 19 MLGs and the predominant genotype MLG24 significantly contributed to the pathotypic diversity of the EU lineage.  In addition, two independent MLG24 isolates, CQ-22-16-1 and CQ-22-20-1, overcame the resistance mediated by all seven resistance genes and were virulent on 30 potato cultivars.  Notably, two Solanum candolleanum relatives were highly resistant to these two highly virulent isolates.  Furthermore, these two isolates could be controlled by three fungicides.  In summary, this study elucidates the genotypic and virulence dynamics of P. infestans populations in southwestern China and provides valuable insights into effective control measures.

Fungal diseases affecting maize not only reduce maize yields but also generate fungal toxins that pose risks to both human and animal health, particularly when the straw is returned to the field.  Microbial in-situ control is considered an environmentally friendly method that effectively addresses the limitations of unstable effects.  In this study, we isolated Bacillus velezensis zm026 from rhizosphere soil for in-situ restoration, based on the soil community structure, which exhibits high antagonistic activity against Fusarium verticillioides and Exserohilum turcicum.  Zm026 effectively colonized the surface of maize roots within 5 days and activated the plant immune system, significantly increasing the expression of defense genes such as ZmGST, ZmZHD, ZmPR-1, ZmPR-2, and ZmPR-3.  The efficient anti-fungal substance of zm026 was identified by HPLC-MS and determined to be bacillomycin D.  Further observations using trypan blue staining, along with DAPI (4´,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and PI (propidium iodide) fluorescent staining, revealed that bacillomycin D could inhibit fungal spore germination, disrupt the integrity of fungal cell membranes, induce apoptosis, and cause spore tips to protrude, swell, or rupture.  Ultimately, indoor pot experiments demonstrated that the application of zm026 fermentation broth significantly promoted growth, inhibited the onset of fungal diseases in maize, and effectively reduced the abundance of Fusarium spp. in maize grains.  This research provides a beneficial in-situ restoration strain for the high-quality development of maize.

Plutella xylostella represents a significant agricultural pest affecting cruciferous crops globally.  The extensive use of synthetic insecticides has resulted in environmental contamination and resistance development, necessitating research into environmentally sustainable biopesticides.  Serine protease inhibitors (serpins) serve essential functions in melanization during innate immunity, reproduction, and metamorphic development.  Through proteomic analyses conducted across developmental stages of P. xylostella, serpin15 was identified as a crucial member of the typical inhibited serpin family, though its precise function remained undetermined.  RT-qPCR analyses of gene expression patterns across tissues and developmental stages demonstrated that the serpin15 gene exhibits high expression in male adult gonads and reaches maximum levels in hemolymph.  The serpin15 mRNA levels showed dynamic regulation in the midgut following Serratia marcescens (PS-1) infection, characterized by an initial decline followed by upregulation.  CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of serpin15 in homozygous lines led to decreased oviposition and embryonic hatching rates in offspring.  Functional analyses confirmed that serpin15 inhibits phenoloxidase activity, while exogenous supplementation with recombinant serpin15 protein effectively suppressed hemolymph melanization, establishing its regulatory role in countering PS-1 through immune melanization.  These findings demonstrate serpin15’s dual functionality in regulating both fecundity and immunity against PS-1 in P. xylostella.  This research establishes a theoretical foundation for developing biocontrol strategies targeting insect immune and developmental systems.

Ostrinia furnacalis represents a destructive lepidopteran pest causing up to 30% yield losses in maize crops globally.  Its larvae penetrate plant tissues, disrupt nutrient transport, and transmit viral and microbial pathogens, exacerbating food security concerns.  Current management approaches for O. furnacalis primarily rely on synthetic pesticides.  Targeting chitin metabolism presents a promising strategy for green insecticide development.  Specifically, OfChi-h, an essential chitinase for O. furnacalis molting and survival, has emerged as a viable target.  This study identified a N-phenyl-isoindole-1,3-dione (PI) scaffold as a novel class of OfChi-h inhibitor through virtual screening strategy.  Notably, compound PI-17 demonstrated potent inhibitory activity against OfChi-h with a K_i value of 2.3 μmol L^–1.  PI-17 exhibited significant insecticidal activity against lepidopteran pests O. furnacalis, comparable to the control drug hexaflumuron.  Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed morphological alterations in the cuticles of O. furnacalis larvae treated with PI-series compounds.  Electrostatic potential (ESP) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations explored the variations in biological activities of the PI-series compounds at atomic and electronic levels.  Additionally, comprehensive safety evaluations assessed the impact on the natural enemy Trichogramma ostriniae and nontarget organisms.  These findings introduce a novel class of lead compounds, PI derivatives, showing significant potential for developing eco-friendly insect growth regulators to control O. furnacalis.

Investigating the genetic markers and key genes associated with sheep growth rate using integrated multi-omics approaches could provide valuable insights for the sheep industry.  Based on the average daily gain (ADG), fast-growing (N_case=70) and slow-growing (N_control=70) Hu sheep were selected for a genome-wide association study (GWAS).  A total of 10 Hu sheep (5 fast-growing and 5 slow-growing) and 10 Dorper sheep (5 fast-growing and 5 slow-growing) were selected for a comparative transcriptome analysis.  Hub genes and tissue-specific genes (TSGs) were identified using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data from ten tissues, respectively.  Ten genes were found within 50 kb distances of the significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).  Based on a comparative transcriptomic analysis, totals of 501 and 441 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the HF vs. HS and DF vs. DS comparisons, respectively.  Some important signaling pathways were found to be closely associated with fat metabolism and energy metabolism, such as “regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes”, “oxidative phosphorylation”, and “thermogenesis”.  Several DEGs play crucial roles in fat deposition (such as ADRB3, PDE3B, FABP4, SERPINE1, PLIN1, and FOXO6) and muscle development (MYL3).  Using the WGCNA analysis, 15 genes were considered to be hub genes associated with ADG.  The integration of GWAS and RNA-Seq data indicated that BRINP3 and PENK may further influence the growth rate by regulating feeding behavior in sheep.  An association analysis of 1,071 Hu sheep populations revealed that mutations in the BRINP3 (BRINP3 g.16903465 T>C) and PENK (PENK g.39289926 T>C) genes were significantly related to the growth traits (P<0.05).  This study provides novel insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying growth traits in sheep, and the BRINP3 and PENK genes may be potential key candidate genes related to sheep growth rate.

Skeletal muscle is composed of multinucleated muscle fibers, which play a crucial role in determining the quality of meat products in livestock.  Quantifying the total number of muscle fibers (TNM) is essential for understanding muscle composition, but this remains challenging in poultry, particularly since the considerable number of livestock complicates the preparation of tissue sections for analysis and makes the counting process laborious.  Our previous study developed an automatic muscle fiber quantification tool powered by deep learning, named MyoV, which has addressed this bottleneck.  This study employed the MyoV tool for accurately quantifying TNM in the pectoral muscles of slow-growing (SL), medium-growing (ML), and fast-growing (FL) broilers.  The results showed that FL group exhibited higher growth performance compared to ML and SL groups from the embryonic to rearing stages.  Processing of whole slide images of pectoral muscle revealed significantly higher TNM in FL and ML groups than in SL group (P<0.01).  The TNM values of FL, ML and SL groups were 693,568.00±54,169.80, 652,122.00±65,822.60, and 539,778.57±40,722.94 at 7 days of age (D7), respectively; and 663,014.93±58,801.11, 645,784.76±80,204.34 and 507,280.29±98,092.16 at D35 for FL, ML and SL groups, respectively.  Differences in the cross-sectional area (CSA) of muscle fibers among the three groups were consistent with the TNM results.  A correlation analysis showed correlation coefficients of 0.73–0.89 between body weight (BW) and TNM and 0.78–0.87 between BW and CSA.  These findings directly indicate that the number of muscle fibers in broilers is an important foundation for their rapid growth and development.  This study precisely quantified the muscle fiber number of an important skeletal muscle in poultry for the first time, which provides direct evidence for the physiological basis of rapid development in broilers and offers important data support for further in-depth studies on muscle fiber development.

This study evaluated the effects of maternal chromium (Cr), supplemented with Cr propionate (CrPro) during perinatal period of does, on antioxidant capacity, immune response, and intestinal morphology of goat kids injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS).  Forty Lezhi black does at 90 d of pregnancy were divided into 4 groups based on body weight (52.36±8.24) kg with 10 replicate pens for each treatment and one doe for each replicate pen.  Treatments consisted of 0, 0.4, 1.2, or 2.0 mg of supplemental Cr per head per day (per head d^–1) from CrPro.  After birth, the goat kids were allowed to suckle until 21 d.  At 21-d-old, one male goat kid per replicate was sacrificed 2 h after LPS injection.  Individual weight and litter weight of goat kids at birth and 21 d were not affected by maternal Cr supplementation.  Chromium concentrations in umbilical cord, colostrum and liver of goat kids were linearly increased by maternal Cr supplementation (P<0.05).  Maternal Cr supplementation quadratically increased serum total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) activity of goat kids (P<0.05).  Goat kids from maternal Cr supplementation groups had higher serum T-SOD activity than those from the control group (P<0.05).  Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration of goat kids was linearly decreased, whereas serum glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity was linearly increased as maternal Cr increased (P<0.05).  Maternal Cr supplementation linearly increased colostrum immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) concentrations (P<0.05), and quadratically increased serum IgG and IgM concentrations of goat kids with the greatest response detected at 0.4 mg
per head d^–1 maternal Cr supplementation group (P<0.05).  The villus height (VH) and the ratio of VH to crypt depth (CD) (V/C) in the duodenum of goat kids increased quadratically as maternal Cr increased, and both reached the highest values in the 1.2 mg per head d^–1 maternal Cr supplementation group.  Maternal Cr supplementation linearly decreased ileal CD of goat kids.  The results indicate that 0.4–2.0 mg (0.47–2.41 mg by analysis) per head d^–1 maternal Cr supplementation from CrPro could improve antioxidant capacity, immune response, and small intestinal morphology of goat kids injected with LPS.  

Brucella spp., an intracellular bacterium, uses its type IV secretion system (T4SS) to regulate host signaling pathways and promote intracellular survival, but the molecular mechanism of this process remains largely unknown.  Here we found that increasing the abundance of acetylated protein in host cells promotes the intracellular survival of Brucella.  Moreover, our results demonstrated that the Brucella effector protein BspF can impact protein acetylation modification in host cells by interacting with other intracellular acetyltransferases.  We conducted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to characterize the protein acetylation mediated by BspF.  We identified that synaptosome associated protein 29 (SNAP29) K103 was acetylated, and that acetylated SNAP29 inhibited its interaction with syntaxin 17 (STX17), thereby regulating the autophagy and providing an environment for the intracellular survival of Brucella.  Furthermore, our results provide the first report of a bacterial effector using acetylation to affect the SNAP29-STX17-VAMP8 complex, and inhibit the host’s defense system.  Our results suggest a vital role of SNAP29 acetylation in autophagy of host cells under intracellular infection, by specifically regulating the assembly of soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE).

The emergence of antibiotic resistance represents a significant threat to human health.  Human activities have accelerated the development of antibiotic resistance, underscoring the urgent need to develop novel antibiotics in addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Isopropoxy benzene guanidine (IBG) is a substituted benzyl guanidine derivative with good antibacterial activity against enterococci.  In this study, the antibacterial activity of IBG against enterococci derived from dogs, cats, and pigs was evaluated (with a minimal inhibitory concentration range of 1–16 μg mL^–1) and the epidemiological cut-off values (ECOFFs) were determined using ECOFFinder.  The ECOFFs for Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium were both 16 μg mL^–1.  The drug resistance development results showed that IBG has a low bacterial resistance risk.  The antibacterial mechanism studies showed that IBG disrupts bacterial cell membranes by interacting with phosphatidylglycerol or cardiolipin.  IBG inhibits the formation of E. faecalis biofilms, but it cannot eradicate them.  The results of the Galleria mellonella larvae infection model and mouse dermal infection model suggested that IBG has therapeutic effects on enterococcal infections in vivo.  In conclusion, IBG appears to be a good candidate for the treatment of enterococcal infections.

Lime application represents an established approach for ameliorating soil acidity, and understanding its effects on the interactions between aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) oxides and soil organic carbon (SOC) fractions is essential for promoting sustainable agricultural practices that enhance carbon sequestration.  This investigation examined the interactions among Al and Fe oxides and SOC fractions under long-term fertilization and liming.  A long-term field experiment was implemented with five treatments: CK (no fertilizer), N (nitrogen fertilizer), NCa (N plus lime), NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer), and NPKCa (NPK plus lime).  Soil samples were obtained from three depths: 0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm.  The findings revealed that lime application increased SOC by 20.84% under the N treatment but decreased SOC by 9.97% under NPK.  At the 0–10 cm depth, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was substantially higher under NCa (410.51 mg kg^–1) and NPKCa (372.83 mg kg^–1) compared with CK.  Particulate organic carbon (POC) and mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) demonstrated consistent enhancement under NPK and NPKCa across all soil depths compared with CK.  DOC exhibited significant positive correlations with both aluminum (Ald), reactive aluminum (Alo) and aluminum (Alp), indicating a key role of organically bound and reactive Al in carbon dynamics.  Compared to the CK treatment, SOC stock increased significantly by 43.49% under NPK and by 36.82% under NPKCa.  Structural equation modeling demonstrated that lime application mitigated the negative effects of free Al (Ald) on carbon sequestration, while Fe oxides (Fed) contributed positively to SOC stabilization.  DOC showed no significant impact on carbon sequestration rate (CSR), while easily oxidizable carbon (EOC) negatively affected CSR directly.  These results highlight the crucial role of lime in improving acidic soil conditions and enhancing the stability and sequestration of soil organic carbon.