Aim Plant invasions are a global problem that requires studying plants and their environmental associations across native and introduced ranges. Location 2000 km transects in China, Europe and North America. Time Period June 2019–July 2020. Major Taxa Studied Japanese knotweed ( Reynoutria japonica ). Methods We surveyed 150 populations of Japanese knotweed, a noxious invader of the temperate zone, along 2000 km transects in n...

Viruses are major players in the biosphere, yet little is known about their dynamics and life strategies in alpine lakes, particularly those on the Tibetan Plateau. We investigated microbial abundance, viral dynamics, and viral life strategies in 10 high‐altitude Tibetan lakes and found that they harbor high levels of active viruses. Salinity was identified as a crucial factor influencing viral abundance, dynamics, as well as...

Human activity and climate change affect biodiversity and cause species range shifts, contractions, and expansions. Globally, human activities and climate change have emerged as persistent threats to biodiversity, leading to approximately 68% of the ~522 primate species being threatened with extinction. Here, we used habitat suitability models and integrated data on human population density, gross domestic product (GDP), road...

Ferroptosis is a newly discovered form of cell death accompanied by iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation. Both biotic and abiotic stresses can induce ferroptosis in plant cells. In the case of plant interactions with pathogenic Phytophthora oomycetes, the roles of ferroptosis are still largely unknown. Here, we performed transcriptome analysis on soybean plants treated with the biocontrol agent Pythium oligandrum , a soilb...

Archaea represent a diverse group of microorganisms often associated with extreme environments. However, an integrated understanding of biogeographical patterns of the specialist Haloarchaea and the potential generalist ammonia‐oxidizing archaea (AOA) across large‐scale environmental gradients remains limited. We hypothesize that niche differentiation determines their distinct distributions along environmental gradients. To te...

Summary The HprK serine kinase is a component of the phosphoenolpyruvate phosphotransferase system (PTS) of bacteria that generally regulates catabolite repression through phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of the PTS protein PtsH at a conserved serine residue. However, many bacteria do not encode a complete PTS or even have an HprK homologue. Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris ( Xcc ) is a pathogen that cause black rot dise...

Summary The ability of the bacterial phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris ( Xcc ) to cause disease is dependent on the type III secretion system (T3SS). Proteins of the Xcc T3SS are encoded by hrp (hypersensitive response and pathogenicity) genes and whose expression is mainly controlled by the regulators HrpG and HrpX. Here, we describe the identification and characterization of a previously unknown regulatory...

Unprecedented levels of nitrogen (N) have been deposited in ecosystems over the past century, which is expected to have cascading effects on microbially mediated soil respiration ( SR ). Extracellular enzymes play critical roles on the degradation of soil organic matter, and measurements of their activities are potentially useful indicators of SR . The links between soil extracellular enzymatic activities ( EEA s) and SR under...

Summary The bacterial phytopathogen X anthomonas campestris pv. campestris ( Xcc ) relies on the hrp (hypersensitive response and pathogenicity) genes to cause disease and induce hypersensitive response ( HR ). The hrp genes of bacterial phytopathogens are divided into two groups. Xcc hrp genes belong to group II . It has long been known that the group II hrp genes are activated by an AraC ‐type transcriptional regulator whose...