Xiaoping Qin

The scientific name of the tea white scab pathogen was incorrectly spelled in several sections of the manuscript due to an oversight during manuscript preparation. This correction only updates the pathogen nomenclature and does not affect the experimental results or conclusions.Section: Materials and methods -"Antibiotics activity of Brevibacillus brevis HNCS-1", Paragraph 1 Instead of: "…transferred to 500 ml Erlenmeyer flasks containing the NB medium … and cultivated at 37°C and 180 rpm for 3 days." It should read: "…transferred to 500 ml Erlenmeyer flasks containing the NB medium … and cultivated at 26°C and 180 rpm for 3 days."The fermentation temperature was incorrectly described in the published article. The temperature of the seed culture (37°C) was inadvertently reported as the fermentation temperature during manuscript preparation. The actual fermentation condition was 26°C and 180 rpm for 3 days. This correction does not represent a change in the experimental procedure, results, or conclusions.Section: Materials and methods -"Antibiotics activity of Brevibacillus brevis HNCS-1", Paragraph 2 Instead of: "Plates of P. theaefolia, Fusarium sp., E. leucospira, and C. theae were incubated at 26°C for 12 days, 11 days, 22 days, 22 days, and 7 days, respectively." It should read: "Plates of P. theaefolia, Fusarium sp., E. leucospila, C. theae, and G. theae-sinensis were incubated at 26°C for 12 days, 11 days, 22 days, 22 days, and 7 days, respectively."The pathogen list was incomplete, and the scientific name of Elsinoe leucospila was incorrectly spelled in the published article. The corrected statement provides the complete pathogen list and accurate scientific nomenclature used in the experiment.Section: Results -"Purification and identification of AMPs", Paragraph 3 Instead of: "Compound 4 (m/z 781) produced a [M+H]+ ion peak m/z 781.4667 (-2.2 ppm, C34H60N12O9) at the retention time of 1.708 min (Figure 5B-d). The electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry results indicated that its fragmentation pattern was identical to that of edeine B, including m/z 780, 779, 761, 443, and 245 (Figure 5C-c, Supplementary Figure 10)." It should read: "Compound 4 (m/z 781) produced a [M+H]+ ion peak at m/z 781.4667 (-2.2 ppm, C34H60N12O9) at the retention time of 1.708 min (Figure 5B-d). The electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry results indicated that its fragmentation pattern was identical to that of edeine F, with fragment ions at m/z 764,763,746,745,722,443,287,Supplementary Figure 10)."The compound name and corresponding MS/MS fragment ions were incorrectly described as edeine B due to an inadvertent copy-and-paste error during manuscript preparation. The corrected description is consistent with the MS/MS data shown in Figure 5B-d, Figure 5C-c, and Supplementary Figure 10, which correspond to edeine F (Compound 4). This correction only updates the textual description and does not affect metabolite identification or the conclusions of the study.Section: Results -"Purification and identification of AMPs", Paragraph 3 Instead of: "The chromatographic peak area suggested that edeine B had the maximum concentration, followed by edeine B and F had the lowest concentration." It should read: "The chromatographic peak area suggested that edeine B showed the highest relative abundance, followed by edeine A, whereas edeine F showed the lowest relative abundance."The original sentence contained a textual error in describing the relative abundance of edeine analogues. The corrected sentence accurately reflects the chromatographic peak area analysis.

Monomeric compounds from Humulus scandens that effectively inhibit Phytophthora nicotianae were isolated, and their antimicrobial effects were analyzed. Methanol extracts were isolated using a combination of activity tracking and chemical separation methods. Compound structures were identified using NMR and other techniques. Antimicrobial activity against P. nicotianae was assessed via the mycelial growth rate method with mycelial morphology further observed using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Five compounds were isolated from the ethyl acetate (EtOAc) layer of H. scandens , namely, chromone (compound 1), tectochrysin (compound 2), isorhamnetin (compound 3), hyperoside (compound 4), and Apigenin 7-glucoside (compound 5). All compounds exhibited varying degrees of antimicrobial activity. Compounds 1 and 5 demonstrated superior inhibitory effects, with EC ₅₀ values of 51.70 and 31.71 μg/ml and MIC values of 400 and 200 μg/mL, respectively. Microscopic examination revealed that compounds 1 and 5 induced distortion, deformation, shrinkage, collapse, and damage in P. nicotianae mycelia. Additionally, they increased membrane permeability and inhibited mycelial growth by disrupting cellular integrity. This study provides lead compounds for developing green botanical pesticides against tobacco black shank disease and offers data to support green agriculture initiatives.

Spodoptera frugiperda, a globally invasive pest, currently lacks effective control measures beyond certain chemical pesticides. Previous reports have demonstrated the effectiveness of Humulus scandens against various agricultural pests. Here, our aim was to derive toxic compounds and explore the insecticidal potential of the botanical plant H. scandens against S. frugiperda. Through activity-guided isolation, two monoamide compounds, N-p-coumaroyl tyramine (1) and N-trans-feruloyl tyramine (2), were identified from the EtOAc extract of H. scandens. The results showed that both compounds 1 and 2 exhibited good insecticidal effects on S. frugiperda under both contact and dietary toxicity methods, with significant dose-dependent effects; however, compound 2 demonstrated stronger insecticidal activity. On the other hand, both compounds exhibited stronger contact toxicity than ingestion toxicity, with compound 2 having an LC₅₀ (50% lethal concentration) of 47.97 μg/mL. Insecticidal mechanism studies revealed that both compounds act on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) of S. frugiperda, with compound 2 showing stronger inhibition (50% inhibitory concentration, IC₅₀ = 19.71 ± 1.98 μg/mL). Kinetic studies of the compounds on AChE indicated that both monoamides are reversible competitive inhibitors of AChE, with Ki values of 23.76 μg/mL and 20.79 μg/mL, respectively. This study revealed the active insecticidal compounds from H. scandens and their mechanisms of action. These findings provide new insights into the secondary metabolites of H. scandens which may serve as a basis for the development of novel plant based insecticides. Furthermore, these results suggested the use of these two bioactive compounds in the integrated management of S. frugiperda as alternatives to synthetic insecticides.

The phytochemical diversity of plants represents a valuable reservoir for novel agrochemical agents. Our preliminary investigations identified pronounced antifungal efficacy in Laggera pterodonta extracts, although this species remains critically understudied. Herein, six eudesmane-type sesquiterpenes (1–6) were isolated from L. pterodonta and structurally characterized through spectroscopic analysis. Additionally, the antifungal activity of these compounds against six plant-pathogenic fungal species was evaluated: Phytophthora nicotianae, Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria alternata, Gloeosporium fructigenum Berk, Colletotrichum fructicola, and Botrytis cinerea. The results showed that the six compounds exhibited varying degrees of inhibitory effects on the six plant pathogens. Compound 1 showed the strongest antifungal effect in a dose-dependent way, with half-maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) values of 12.56, 51.29, and 47.86 μg/mL against P. nicotianae, F. oxysporum, and G. fructigenum Berk, respectively. Compound 3 and compound 6 also showed notable inhibitory effects against F. oxysporum and P. nicotianae at 100 μg/mL, with inhibition rates of 58.82% and 73.92%, respectively. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of compound 1 against P. nicotianae and F. oxysporum were 200 and 400 μg/mL, respectively. Mechanistic analysis revealed that compound 1 induced pronounced ultrastructural deformations in P. nicotianae and F. oxysporum, compromising membrane integrity and elevating permeability in both pathogens. Notably, the three bioactive compounds exhibited favorable ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) profiles, demonstrating promising candidacy as novel herbicidal agents. These findings underscore their potential to advance phytogenic fungicide discovery.

Climate is changing globally nowadays because of extensive crucial human activities. This state along with stark in weather measures ultimately affecting the development and growth of crops due to various kinds of stressful field condition at the same time including biotic and abiotic stresses. Thus, various biotic factors including pathogens, weeds and pests and abiotic factors including temperature, humidity and drought etc. are involved in reduction of cotton yield due to which cotton production significantly reduced. Various biotic factors have direct effect on the cotton production and caused significant reduction in cotton crop yield estimated up to 10 to 30%, while as abiotic factors are even worse than biotic stresses and could cause 50% reduction. So, effective agronomic practices, optimal climate and integrated pest management leads to fruitful crop production to cover this yield gap. This chapter will be broadly useful to design projects aimed with inter and intra-disciplinary collaboration for sustainable cotton production.

As a biocontrol bacteria, Brevibacillus has been the subject of extensive research for agricultural applications. Antibacterial peptides (AMPs) are the main antibacterial products of Brevibacillus. This study isolated a strain of Br. brevis HNCS-1 from tea garden soil, and the strain has an antagonistic effect against five types of pathogens of tea diseases, namely Gloeosporium theae-sinensis, Elsinoe leucospira, Phyllosticta theaefolia, Fusarium sp., and Cercospora theae. To determine the genetic characteristics implicated in the biocontrol mechanism, the genome sequence of the HNCS-1 strain was obtained and analyzed further, and the data are deposited in the GenBank repository (No. CP128411). Comparative genomics analyses revealed that the HNCS-1 strain and 17 public Br. brevis share a core genome composed of 3,742 genes. Interestingly, only one non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene cluster annotated as edeine is present in the core genome. And UHPLC-MS/MS detection results showd that edeine B and edeine A were the principal antibacterial peptides in the HNCS-1 strain. This study proves that edeine is the main antibacterial peptide of Br. brevis, and provides a new strategy for the identification of antibacterial products from other biocontrol bacteria.

Plant-derived natural products are important resources for pesticide discovery. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is a well-validated pesticide target, and inhibiting AChE proves fatal for insects. Recent studies have shown that the potential of various sesquiterpenoids as AChE inhibitors. However, few studies have been conducted with eudesmane-type sesquiterpenes with AChE inhibitory effects. Therefore, in this research, we isolated two new sesquiterpenes, laggeranines A (1) and B (2), along with six known eudesmane-type sesquiterpenes (3–8) from Laggera pterodonta, and characterized their structures and the inhibitory effect they exerted on AChE. The results showed that these compounds had certain inhibitory effects on AChE in a dose-dependent manner, of which compound 5 had the best inhibitory effect with IC50 of 437.33 ± 8.33 mM. As revealed by the Lineweaver-Burk and Dixon plots, compound 5 was observed to suppress AChE activity reversibly and competitively. Furthermore, all compounds exhibited certain toxicity levels on C. elegans. Meanwhile, these compounds had good ADMET properties. These results are significant for the discovery of new AChE targeting compounds, and also enrich the bioactivity activity repertoire of L. pterodonta.

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (eCO₂) can affect both herbivorous insects and their host plants. The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a highly polyphagous agricultural pest that may attack more than 350 host plant species and has developed resistance to both conventional and novel-action insecticides. However, the effects of eCO₂ on host adaptability and insecticide resistance of FAW are unclear. We hypothesized that eCO₂ might affect insecticide resistance of FAW by affecting its host plants. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the effect of eCO₂ on (1) FAW’s susceptibility to chlorantraniliprole after feeding on wheat, (2) FAW’s population performance traits (including the growth and reproduction), and (3) changes in gene expression in the FAW by transcriptome sequencing. The toxicity of chlorantraniliprole against the FAW under eCO₂ (800 µL/L) stress showed that the LC₅₀ values were 2.40, 2.06, and 1.46 times the values at the ambient CO₂ concentration (400 µL/L, aCO₂) for the three generations, respectively. Under eCO₂, the life span of pupae and adults and the total number of generations were significantly shorter than the FAW under aCO₂. Compared to the aCO₂ treatment, the weights of the 3rd and 4th instar larvae and pupae of FAW under eCO₂ were significantly heavier. Transcriptome sequencing results showed that more than 79 detoxification enzyme genes in FAW were upregulated under eCO₂ treatment, including 40 P450, 5 CarE, 17 ABC, and 7 UGT genes. Our results showed that eCO₂ increased the population performance of FAW on wheat and reduced its susceptibility to chlorantraniliprole by inducing the expression of detoxification enzyme genes. This study has important implications for assessing the damage of FAW in the future under the environment of increasing atmospheric CO₂ concentration.

Dodonaea viscosa is a medicinal plant which has been used to treat various diseases in humans. However, the anti-insect activity of extracts from D. viscosa has not been evaluated. Here, we found that the total saponins from D. viscosa (TSDV) had strong antifeedant and growth inhibition activities against 4th-instar larvae of Spodoptera litura. The median antifeeding concentration (AFC₅₀) value of TSDV on larvae was 1621.81 μg/mL. TSDV affected the detoxification enzyme system of the larvae and also exerted antifeedant activity possibly through targeting the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. The AFC₅₀ concentration, the carboxylesterase activity, glutathione S-transferases activity, and cytochrome P450 content increased to 258%, 205%, and 215%, respectively, and likewise the glutamate decarboxylase activity and GABA content to 195% and 230%, respectively, in larvae which fed on TSDV. However, D. viscosa saponin A (DVSA) showed better antifeedant activity and growth inhibition activity in larvae, compared to TSDV. DVSA also exerted their antifeedant activity possibly through targeting the GABA system and subsequently affected the detoxification enzyme system. Further, DVSA directly affected the medial sensillum and the lateral sensillum of the 4th-instar larvae. Stimulation of Spodoptera litura. with DVSA elicited clear, consistent, and robust excitatory responses in a single taste cell.