Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important regulating factors that play a dual role in plant and human cells. As the first messenger response in organisms, ROS coordinate signals in growth, development, and metabolic activity pathways. They also can act as an alarm mechanism, triggering cellular responses to harmful stimuli. However, excess ROS cause oxidative stress-related damage and oxidize organic substances, leading to cellular malfunctions. This review summarizes the current research status and mechanisms of ROS in plant and human eukaryotic cells, highlighting the differences and similarities between the two and elucidating their interactions with other reactive substances and ROS. Based on the similar regulatory and metabolic ROS pathways in the two kingdoms, this review proposes future developments that can provide opportunities to develop novel strategies for treating human diseases or creating greater agricultural value.

Anti-seasonal drying-wetting cycles since 2010 have substantially altered its soil and vegetation status in the drawdown zone of China’s Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR). Such alternations may thus affect the composition and functioning of soil microbial communities, including the beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which enhance plant performance. Moreover, limited information is available if AMF communities are different in soils and roots, particularly under contrasting land-use changes. By combining the Illumina Miseq sequencing with bioinformatics analyses, AMF communities in both rhizosphere soils and roots of a stoloniferous and rhizomatous C₄ perennial of Cynodon dactylon were characterized under three land-use types: (1) crop cultivated, (2) non-cultivated non-disturbed, and (3) disturbed non-cultivated land. A total of 35 and 26 AMF taxa were respectively detected from C. dactylon rhizosphere soils and roots from these three land-use types, which had endured four anti-seasonal drying/summer-wetting/winter cycles. Contrasting differentiations in the AMF community composition and structure were displayed in the C. dactylon rhizosphere soils and roots, and between land-use types. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling analyses revealed that AMF communities significantly correlated to soil organic carbon in the rhizosphere soils and roots of C. dactylon, to land-use types only in rhizosphere soils, whereas to soil moisture only in roots. Our results highlight the effects of soil nutrients and land-use changes on AMF community composition and diversity under the canopy of C. dactylon in TGR. The identified dominant AMF taxa can be employed to vegetation restoration in such degraded habitats globally.

Selenium is a crucial micronutrient for human well-being, with significant contributions to antioxidant, anti-ageing, and antiviral activities. However, over one billion people globally struggle with selenium deficiency, leading to a pressing need for selenium supplementation. Conventional selenium-enrich food from plants and animals provides challenges in achieving precise selenium supplementation. Thus, it is crucial to discover selenium carriers that can be cultured in a controlled environment. Multiple studies have shown that microalgae are excellent carriers for selenium enrichment due to their rapid growth, suitability for plant consumption, ease of industrialization, high efficiency in converting organic selenium, and many others. This review focuses on single-celled microalgae, comprehensively reviewing their metabolic pathway, biological transformation, and valuable forms of selenium. Additionally, it forecasts the current application status and prospects of selenium-enriched microalgae in agriculture and global human health. This review provides a reference for the industrial supply of precise selenium-rich raw materials.

Botany-derived antimicrobial peptides (BAMPs), a class of small, cysteine-rich peptides produced in plants, are an important component of the plant immune system. Both in vivo and in vitro experiments have demonstrated their powerful antimicrobial activity. Besides in plants, BAMPs have cross-kingdom applications in human health, with toxic and/or inhibitory effects against a variety of tumor cells and viruses. With their diverse molecular structures, broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, multiple mechanisms of action, and low cytotoxicity, BAMPs provide ideal backbones for drug design, and are potential candidates for plant protection and disease treatment. Lots of original research has elucidated the properties and antimicrobial mechanisms of BAMPs, and characterized their surface receptors and in vivo targets in pathogens. In this paper, we review and introduce five kinds of representative BAMPs belonging to the pathogenesis-related protein family, dissect their antifungal, antiviral, and anticancer mechanisms, and forecast their prospects in agriculture and global human health. Through the deeper understanding of BAMPs, we provide novel insights for their applications in broad-spectrum and durable plant disease prevention and control, and an outlook on the use of BAMPs in anticancer and antiviral drug design.