Genetic diversity is vital for population survival, yet there is a paucity of studies focusing on the effectiveness of establishing protected areas for maintaining the population genetic diversity of threatened plant species. To evaluate the effectiveness of in situ conservation measures, we used simple sequence repeats (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers to monitor temporal dynamics in genetic diversity of...

Precipitation fluctuations strongly influence biomass production and its stability of terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of the extent to which plant communities adjust their water‐use strategies in response to non‐growing season precipitation variations remains limited. Our 5‐year snow manipulation experiment in a semi‐arid grassland, complemented with paired stable isotope measurements of δ 18 O and δ 13 C fo...

Genomic structural variations (SVs) are widespread in plant and animal genomes and play important roles in phenotypic novelty and species adaptation. Frequent whole genome duplications followed by (re)diploidizations have resulted in high diversity of genome architecture among extant species. In this study, we identified abundant genomic SVs in the Panax genus that are hypothesized to have occurred through during the repeated...

Summary The development and pathogenicity of the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae , the causal agent of destructive rice blast disease, require it to perceive external environmental signals. Opy2, an overproduction‐induced pheromone‐resistant protein 2, is a crucial protein for sensing external signals in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . However, the biological functions of the homologue of Opy2 in M. oryzae are unclear. In this study, we...

Summary Magnaporthe oryzae is an important plant pathogen that causes rice blast. Hse1 and Vps27 are components of ESCRT‐0 involved in the multivesicular body (MVB) sorting pathway and biogenesis. To date, the biological functions of ESCRT‐0 in M. oryzae have not been determined. In this study, we identified and characterized Hse1 and Vps27 in M. oryzae . Disruption of MoHse1 and MoVps27 caused pleiotropic defects in growth, c...

Evolutionary analysis of Prodiamesinae has long been impeded by lack of information, and its phylogenetic relationship with Orthocladiinae remains questionable. Here, ten complete mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) of Orthocladiinae sensu lato were newly sequenced, including three Prodiamesinae species and seven Orthocladiinae species. Coupled with published mitogenomes, a total of 12 mitogenomes of Orthocladiinae sensu lato...

Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) input is known to alter plant and microbial α‐diversity, but how N enrichment influences β‐diversity of plant and microbial communities remains poorly understood. Using a long‐term multilevel N addition experiment in a temperate steppe, we show that plant, soil bacterial and fungal communities exhibited different responses in their β‐diversity to N input. Plant β‐diversity decreased linearly as N add...

Summary The Skp1‐Cul1‐F‐box‐protein (SCF) ubiquitin ligases are important parts of the ubiquitin system controlling many cellular biological processes in eukaryotes. However, the roles of SCF ubiquitin ligases remain unclear in phytopathogenic Magnaporthe oryzae . Here, we cloned 24 F‐box proteins and confirmed that 17 proteins could interact with MoSkp1, showing their potential to participate in SCF complexes. To determine th...

A full‐length complementary (c)DNA sequence encoding follistatin‐related protein 3 ( fsrp‐3 ) was determined from skeletal muscle in Chinese mandarin fish Siniperca chuatsi , its molecular structure was characterised and its function suggested. The putative structure of S. chuatsi Fsrp‐3 contains an N‐terminal domain and two follistatin domains. Quantitative reverse‐transcription (qRT)‐PCR assays revealed that fsrp‐3 messenger...

Biotic resistance may influence invasion success; however, the relative roles of species richness, functional or phylogenetic distance in predicting invasion success are not fully understood. We used biomass fraction of Chromolaena odorata , an invasive species in tropical and subtropical areas, as a measure of ‘invasion success’ in a series of artificial communities varying in species richness. Communities were constructed us...

Dating the time of divergence and understanding speciation processes are central to the study of the evolutionary history of organisms but are notoriously difficult. The difficulty is largely rooted in variations in the ancestral population size or in the genealogy variation across loci. To depict the speciation processes and divergence histories of three monophyletic Takydromus species endemic to Taiwan, we sequenced 20 nucle...

Aim The goals of our study were to assess the population history and genetic structure of the widespread bat H ipposideros armiger , and to evaluate the effect of palaeoclimatic changes and dispersal patterns on this species. Location S outh C hina, mainland S outheast A sia and the S outh H imalayas. Methods We amplified two mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA ) regions (cyt b and D ‐loop) and seven nuclear microsatellite loci (n SSR s...

Understanding the dynamics and underlying mechanism of carbon exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere is one of the key issues in global change research. In this study, we quantified the carbon fluxes in different terrestrial ecosystems in China, and analyzed their spatial variation and environmental drivers based on the long‐term observation data of China FLUX sites and the published data from other flux si...

Aim Most species of temperate regions are believed to have shifted to lower latitudes or elevations during the glacial periods of the Quaternary. In this study we test whether this phylogeographic assumption is also true for the plateau zokor ( Eospalax baileyi ), a fossorial rodent endemic to the climate‐sensitive Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP), which ranges in elevation from 2600 to 4600 m. Location The QTP of western China....