Lei Ye

Microplastics are widely distributed, but their potential impact on crops cannot be ig-nored. Most current studies focus on common crops such as rice and buckwheat and are mostly at the macro level. In this study, we explored for the first time the changes in agro-nomic traits of Pleurotus pulmonarius by PE-MPs with different concentrations and particle sizes and applied confocal scanning microscopy (CLSM) to observe the uptake of PE-MPs by P. pulmonarius hyphae and combined it with transcriptomics to reveal the stress mech-anism of PE-MPs at the molecular level. Results indicate that among the small-particle groups, only the A5 and A20 groups exhibited significantly lower fresh weight than the CK group. The A5 group was 33.83% lower than the control, while the A20 group was 63.21% lower than CK (p < 0.05). Both the A5 and A20 groups showed significantly lower dry weight than the CK group (p < 0.05). Cap thickness was only greater in the B5 and B10 groups, exceeding the control by 1.46 mm and 1.58 mm, respectively. Cap length was longer only in the A10 group, increasing by 7.85% compared to the control (p < 0.05). Cap width in the A5 and A20 groups was 25.44% and 6.65% lower than the control, respec-tively (p < 0.05). Transcriptomics showed that as the concentration of PE-MPs increased, P. pulmonarius responded to PE-MPs stress by up-regulating the expression of cell membrane composition and metal–ion binding-related genes, while as the particle size increased, P. pulmonarius resisted the toxic effects by up-regulating the coming carbon metabolism and amino acid metabolism. Compared with the CK group, 1706, 1378, and 792 DEGs were identified in the A5, B5, and B10 groups, respectively. A total of 1610 DEGs were identified between the A5 and B5 groups. Additionally, 295 DEGs were identified between the A5 and B10 groups, while 1424 DEGs were identified between the B5 and B10 groups. This study reveals the effects of PE-MPs on the agronomic traits of P. pulmonarius and their re-sponse mechanisms, further indicating their potential risk to edible fungi.

Mycorrhizal fungi, a category of fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plant roots, can participate in the induction of plant disease resistance by secreting phosphatase enzymes. While extensive research exists on the mechanisms by which mycorrhizal fungi induce resistance, the specific contributions of phosphatases to these processes require further elucidation. This article reviews the spectrum of mycorrhizal fungi-induced resistance mechanisms and synthesizes a current understanding of how phosphatases mediate these effects, such as the induction of defense structures in plants, the negative regulation of plant immune responses, and the limitation of pathogen invasion and spread. It explores the role of phosphatases in the resistance induced by mycorrhizal fungi and provides prospective future research directions in this field.

Auricularia cornea is a widely prized basidiomycetous mushroom with culinary and medicine value, which is cultivated artificially on a large scale in China. However, little attention has been paid to the differences in metabolic profiles under different pH growth conditions. In the present study, weakly acidic and weakly alkaline artificial substrates were developed and used for the cultivation of A. cornea, and the metabolic profiles of its fruiting bodies were determined using UPLC-MS/MS. The results show that the weakly alkaline substrate environment promoted mycelial growth, increased body surface area, and improved yield and transformation efficiency, but attenuated metabolite accumulation by A. cornea. A total of 412 different metabolites were identified in negative and positive ion mode, of which 99 had significantly different amounts and covered 51 metabolic pathways. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal patrial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLA-DA) showed clear separation between two treatments, indicating different metabolic profiles. The different metabolites mainly included seven chemical categories, including amino acids and derivatives, nucleotides and derivatives, phenolic acids, organic acids, lipids, flavonoids, and alkaloids. This study revealed the biological significance of these metabolites, which could be useful for further unexplored compounds and possible biological functions of A. cornea.

Auricularia cornea Ehrenb. is a well-known, rare, and valuable edible mushroom, with considerable culinary and medicinal value. It is distributed worldwide and especially common in Asia (Khatua et al. 2022). In China, more than 1.89 million tons of A. cornea are artificially cultivated annually, particularly in Sichuan Province, which produces 0.97 million tons, accounting for about 51% of the nation’s total (Ye et al. 2022). However, farmers in Shifang, a county-level city in Sichuan Province, who practiced traditional greenhouse cultivation on a large scale, reported that brown rot disease affected up to 20% of their A. cornea crop and caused severe failures each year between 2016 and 2022, resulting in devastating economic losses. Worse, when the diseased fruit bodies were not removed promptly by farmers, the disease could spread to 100% of crop in a given greenhouse in 10 to 15 days. The symptoms mainly occur in fresh unfolded fruiting bodies. Lesions were brown, putrefied, and foul smelling, and eventually the fruiting bodies wilted. Naturally air-dried fruiting bodies were dark brown with yellow deposits at the edges (Fig. 1A). In this backdrop, we collected more than 60 diseased samples from Shifang (104°1ʹ15ʹʹE, 31°12ʹ 30ʹʹ N) and isolated pathogens from May 2021 through May 2022. On the clean bench, the surfaces of the lesions were disinfected with cotton balls soaked in 75% ethanol and rinsed three times with sterile water, and then the internal tissue block was picked with a sterile scalpel and cultured in potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium at 25°C. The pathogen was repeatedly isolated and purified, and we conducted pathogenicity tests. Colonies of the pathogen on PDA medium were white and cottony, with a mycelial growth rate of 13.92 ± 1.24 mm/day at 25°C. Then the spores began to turn yellow-green and soon turquoise, converging into a wide concentric wheel. The spores were elliptical with dimensions of 4.0 to 8.0 µm × 3.0 to 4.5 µm (N=50). Pathogenicity tests were conducted in an incubator. Ninety pure white, healthy A. cornea fruiting bodies were randomly picked and placed in groups of 10. On the clean bench, the bodies surface were sterilized with 75% alcohol cotton balls, then washed three times with sterile water, dried with sterile absorbent paper, and placed in sterile petri dishes for subsequent tests. The first control group (CK1) did not receive additional treatment other than the surface disinfection mentioned above. These bodies were immediately sealed with parafilm. The second control group (CK2) was not inoculated with the pathogen, and a blank sterile PDA plug (diameter: 0.8 cm) was placed on the surface of the fruiting body and sealed with parafilm. All seven treatment groups (TS) were inoculated with single-pathogen mycelium plugs (diameter: 0.8 cm) in the center surface of each fruiting body. They were then sealed with parafilm. All total of nine experimental treatment groups were cultured in a light incubator at 25°C. The test results showed that the pathogen could visibly infect the A. cornea within 24 hours. At 48 hours after inoculation, the lesions were round and brown, radiating outward along the inoculum, consistent with the symptoms of the original sample. As culture time continued, the extent of each lesion gradually expanded (Fig. 1B). After 120 hours, the fruiting bodies showed rot, stench, and loss of other traits relevant to commercial value. In contrast, the CK1 and CK2 groups had no lesions. Furthermore, the fungal cultures with the same phenotypic characteristics could be continuously isolated from the lesions of TS, and the pathogenic factors were verified by Koch’s postulates. Similarly, uninoculated and inoculated tests were conducted in a greenhouse, and the results were consistent with those of incubator testing. The pathogen was designated MMEBYJ202206. The DNA of the pathogen was extracted using CTAB, and the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the isolates was amplified using ITS1/ITS4 primers. PCR was conducted in a 25 μL reaction mixture, and a 596 bp sequence was obtained by sequencing. The ITS sequence has been submitted in GenBank with accession number ON974844.1. BLAST database in NCBI was used to compare ITS sequences and phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the neighbor-joining algorithm from MEGA (Fig. 2). The results indicate that the MMEBYJ202206 was located on a common clade of the phylogenetic tree with KX343129.1, KX343130.1, KX343131.1, and MF871554.1 of T. pleuroticola, and it showed 99% support in bootstrap (500 replicates), but it was not in the same clade as other Trichoderma spp., suggesting that the pathogen was T. pleuroticola. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that T. pleuroticola can cause brown rot disease on artificially cultivated A. cornea. However, a previous study showed T. pleuroticola to be the causal agent of considerable decline in the yield of Pleurotus ostreatus and P. florida (Siwulski et al. 2011; Blaszczyk et al. 2013) and capable of infecting A. heimuer raised on artificial bed-log (a rod used for growing mycelium of edible mushrooms) (Liu et al. 2019). Brown rot disease is important in China because it has caused considerable damage to yield in artificially cultivated A. cornea, a decline in the external and internal qualities of the product, and a reduction in the enthusiasm of farmers for this crop. Consequently, this study provides a foundation for further research and prevention of this pathogen in China.

Intracranial aneurysm (IA) is a devastating cerebrovascular disease characterizing with a potential rupturing risk. In previous studies, the formation of IA was considered to be in a chronic manner, and the ruptured aneurysms might merely derived from the already formed unruptured IA. A 61-year-old male presented to the hospital complaining of a headache. The patient received neuroimage tests, including head computed tomography and digital substraction angiography, to examine the underlying cerebrovascular diseases. Interestingly, we found a newborn ruptured IA with 9-day intervals between 2 whole-cerebral digital subtraction angiography examinations. In summary, the case in our report provides a clue for the natural course that the IA is probably in a “rapid formation, acute rupture” manner.

Truffles are world-renowned premium commodities. Due to their unique aroma and rarity, the price of truffles has always been very high. In this study, Diethylaminoethyl anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration were employed for polysaccharide purification from two different species of Chinese truffles. Three polysaccharide fractions were obtained from Tuber panzhihuanense and referred to as TPZ-NP, TPZ-I, and TPZ-II. Additionally, two polysaccharide fractions were purified from T. pseudoexcavatum (TPD-NP and TPD-I). The results of structural elucidation indicated that the polysaccharide from different species showed different monosaccharide composition and linkage units, as well as molecular weight. Two of the polysaccharide fractions with the highest yield, TPZ-I and TPD-I, were chosen for biological testing. The results indicated that both fractions displayed antioxidant properties through mediation of the intestinal cellular antioxidant defense system, which could protect cultured intestinal cells from oxidative stress-induced damage and cell viability suppression. The TPD-I fraction showed stronger antioxidant effects, which may be due to the difference in structure. Further study on the structure-activity relationship is needed to be done.