Mingzhao Han

The Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) ranks among the most destructive plant pathogens worldwide, due to its broad host range, extensive geographic distribution and remarkable environmental adaptability. Its persistence in soil and colonization of plant vascular tissues severely limits the effectiveness of conventional chemical control, posing significant challenges for disease management. This review highlights recent advances in understanding the environmental adaptation mechanisms of RSSC. Key topics include the dynamic evolution of pathogenicity, niche‐specific survival strategies and virulence regulation mediated by quorum sensing, and complex interactions with surrounding microbial communities that shape its behaviour and fitness. We further provide a comprehensive assessment of current control strategies from an ecological perspective, encompassing physical, chemical, genetic, agronomic and microbial approaches, with critical evaluation of their mechanisms, potential and limitations. Meanwhile, we discuss the major challenges in bacterial wilt management and outline future directions, with an emphasis on multi‐omics‐informed precision breeding, microbiome engineering and intelligent integrated disease management (IDM). These emerging strategies hold promise for the sustainable and effective long‐term control of bacterial wilt disease caused by RSSC.

The coordinated post-natal development of the gut microbiome and metabolome is essential for preterm infant health, yet its disruption is increasingly linked to adverse outcomes such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). In this study, we performed an integrated multiomics analysis of fecal samples collected from preterm infants to characterize temporal changes in gut microbial and metabolic profiles and explore their potential associations with BPD development. This study observed a distinct trajectory of the phylum Bacteroidota as a hallmark of normal gut maturation, with its abundance progressively declining across non-BPD infants. In contrast, infants who later developed BPD exhibited early depletion followed by irregular enrichment of Bacteroidota. Correlation analysis revealed that Streptococcus abundance was positively associated with elevated cysteic acid, a metabolite linked to oxidative stress. Together, these findings suggest that altered Bacteroidota succession and Streptococcus -associated oxidative imbalance may reflect early microbial-metabolic perturbations in infants at risk of BPD. This work provides preliminary, hypothesis-generating insights into gut-associated signatures potentially relevant to BPD pathogenesis. IMPORTANCE: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains a leading cause of morbidity in preterm infants, yet early biomarkers and targeted preventive strategies are limited. By integrating microbiome and metabolome data from a pilot cohort, this study identified patterns of disrupted Bacteroidota succession and Streptococcus -associated oxidative stress that are associated with BPD risk. These findings highlight the gut as a potential extrapulmonary contributor to disease susceptibility and support early risk assessment and guide future microbiome-targeted interventions in preterm infants.

Biological invasions pose a major threat to ecosystem stability, yet the role of rhizosphere microbiomes in conferring competitive advantages to invasive p

The egret activities, including the deposition of feces and feathers, significantly alter soil properties and the local ecosystem. Two villages of Hainan Province serve as “the haven of egret,” a crucial habitat along the migratory route of egrets in China, where tens of thousands of egrets flock to breed. To explore the spatial dynamics of soil bacterial diversity in egret nesting areas, soil samples of three layers (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm) were collected from five long-term nesting sites. Soil enzyme activity, microbial community composition, and their interaction network were analyzed. Additionally, functional bacteria capable of degrading uric acid were isolated from the surface soil (0–10 cm) to obtain novel strains. The results revealed that soil enzyme activities, including soil urease, acid phosphatase, and sucrase, decreased significantly with increasing soil depth. Among the bacterial communities, Acidobacteriota and Proteobacteria were the dominant microbial phyla (>40%), with Chloroflexi showing increasing abundance with depth, while Verrucomicrobiota and Bacteroidota decreased. Surface soil (0–10 cm) demonstrated significantly higher bacterial alpha and beta diversity than deeper layers (20–30 cm); notably, the Shannon index exhibited a positive correlation with soil pH, urease, and sucrase activities, highlighting the strong association between bacterial diversity and soil properties. Furthermore, five highly effective uric acid-degrading bacterial strains belonging to Cellulosimicrobium sp., Paracoccus sp., Arthrobacter sp. (two strains), and Paenibacillus sp. were identified, which highlights their potential in ecological and economic applications. These findings enhance our understanding of soil bacterial community characteristics in egret colonies and provide a foundation for the habitat protection of egrets and island ecosystems. IMPORTANCE: Egret colony activities have a significant impact on soil bacterial community structure, which is essential for maintaining soil nutrient dynamics and ecological functions. Understanding the spatial distribution characteristics of bacterial communities is fundamental to effective ecological monitoring and conservation. Both alpha and beta diversity exhibited significant variations across different soil layers and showed a strong positive correlation with soil enzyme activity, indicating that soil bacterial diversity is a key driver of nutrient efficiency.

Biostimulant is enriched in nutrients and antioxidants have been used to promote plant growth and resist abiotic stresses. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of foliar application of Euphorbia hirta extract (EHE) on growth, physiological and biochemical characteristics of maize (Zea mays L.) under drought stress conditions. Plants were sprayed with three different concentrations of EHE at 1, 3 and 5 g/L. The results showed that drought causes negative effects on plant height, fresh and dry weight and soluble sugar. Application of EHE significantly increased fresh and dry weight (FW: 11.9 ~ 22.6%; DW: 15.2 ~17.9%), chlorophyll content (Chl a: 38.3 ~ 64.4%; Chl b: 63.3 ~ 113.3%), soluble sugar (40.7 ~ 42.9%), GSH (22.4 ~ 85.7%), and compared to CK treatment under drought conditions, while decreased the level of MDA. In addition, drought stress stimulated phenolic, flavonoid, proline, GSH, MDA and antioxidant enzyme (CAT, POD and SOD) activities. Interestingly, the positive effect of EHE application with high concentration (5 g/L) was more effective than those of SWE. Therefore, EHE can is considered as a natural and inexpensive biostimulant for foliar application strategy to protect plants from drought stress.

Black soil in northeastern China has suffered widespread soil degradation due to long-term cultivation while causing eroded–depositional landscapes, leading to soil-associated carbon redistribution. In agricultural systems, adding exogenous organic material to degraded soil is a common measure to improve soil aggregate stability and soil quality. However, differences in soil properties may alter the decomposition and turnover of organic material in aggregates. Using a uniform method to restore the eroded (E) and depositional (D) soils is inefficient. Therefore, an indoor constant temperature and humidity incubation experiment with the addition of three organic materials, namely, straw (S), biochar (B), and swine manure (M), was designed with an equal amount of carbon. Soil aggregate composition, stability, and organic carbon from eroded and depositional soils were analyzed for evaluating the amendment efficiency of soil quality by exogenous organic material addition. The main results were as follows: adding straw and swine manure could effectively promote >2-mm aggregates formation (E: 7.1%, 8.8%; D: 17.3%, 8.6%) and significantly improved the mean weight diameter (MWD) (E: 0.45 mm, 0.52 mm; D: 0.96 mm, 0.54 mm), while the addition of biochar significantly increased the proportion of 0.25–2-mm aggregates (E: 7.9%; D: 10.9%), but the effect of improving MWD was less than straw and swine manure. All the three organic materials could significantly increase soil total organic carbon (TOC) (S, B and M: 1.95, 3.12 and 2.46 g·kg⁻¹) in the eroded area, and the effect of biochar was the best, whereas it was not significant for the soil in the depositional area. Specially, adding swine manure and adding straw is more beneficial to the restoration of eroded areas and depositional areas, respectively.