Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is a destructive pathogen that causes significant economic and ecological losses in agricultural and forestry production. In search of effective biocontrol agents, this study isolated an endophytic fungus, Coniochaeta velutina, from healthy Camellia oleifera leaves and investigated its in vitro inhibitory mechanism on Colletotrichum gloeosporioides using transcriptomics and metabolomics analyses. These findings were used to evaluate the differences in gene expression and metabolite content between the treatment ( Coniochaeta velutina-treated Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) and control (untreated Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) groups. The transcriptomic analysis detected a total of 15 310 expressed genes, with 3938 showing significant differential expression ( p < 0.05) (2093 upregulated and 1845 downregulated genes). These genes were enriched primarily in the following pathways: mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signalling, antibiotic biosynthesis, amino acid metabolism, carbon metabolism, and peroxidase pathways. Metabolomic analysis revealed 452 metabolites in both groups, with 138 showing significant differences. These genes were enriched mainly in secondary metabolite biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis, and α-linolenic acid metabolism. Transcriptome and metabolome association analyses, along with qRT-PCR results, revealed that the levels of intracellular pectolinarigenin metabolites significantly increased in the treatment group, leading to disrupted MAPK signalling and reduced amino acid biosynthesis, which are essential for maintaining normal cell growth. Notably, the decrease in terpenoid compounds was the primary reason that Colletotrichum gloeosporioides was inhibited by the biocontrol fungus Coniochaeta velutina. Therefore, these findings provide valuable insights into the biocontrol mechanisms of Coniochaeta velutina against Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and offer a promising foundation for the development of new anthracnose prevention and control strategies.

Background: Entada phaseoloides (L.) Merr (Fabaceae) is a large woody climber that is found widely in southern China and other tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. The genus Entada contains ~30 species, and E. phaseoloides is most commonly found in China. The E. phaneroneura and E. pervillei are endangered species. Previous studies had focused on medicinal components, transcriptional regulation, and nuclear genomes. The chloroplast genome of Entada has not been reported, and little is known about the phylogenetic relationships within the Entada. In this study, we performed short-read sequencing of E. phaseoloides and assembled and analyzed its chloroplast genome. Methods: Dry specimen leaves of E. phaseoloides were subjected to DNA extraction and sequenced using the Illumina Novoseq platform. The chloroplast genome was assembled using Get Organelle, annotated using CPGAVAS2 and Geneious Prime. Repeat sequences and SSR analysis were performed using the Reputer and MISA programs, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using IQTREE and MrBayes software. Result: The complete chloroplast genome of E. phaseoloides is 159,963 bp in length and has a quadripartite structure with large single copy of 89,972 bp and a small single copy of 19,309 bp separated by inverted repeats of 25,341 bp. A total of 112 genes in E. phaseoloides comprised 78 protein-coding genes, 30 transfer RNA genes, and 4 ribosomal RNA genes. The distribution of simple sequence repeats and long repeat sequences was determined. We carried out phylogenetic analysis based on homologous protein-coding genes among 21 species derived from Fabaceae. We found that the phylogeny was largely congruent with prior hypotheses about the position of E. phaseoloides in evolutionary branches. The E. phaseoloides has a closer relationship with the Piptadeniastrum africanum.

Haworthia cooperi var. pilifera is a succulent plant with ornamental value. The white–green leaf mutant (wl) showed a significant difference in leaf color from the wild-type plant (WT). In this study, we integrated the transcriptomes of wl and WT plants to screen differentially expressed genes related to leaf color variation. The results of transcriptome analysis showed that 84,163 unigenes were obtained after de novo assembly and the NR database annotated the largest number of unigenes, which accounted for 57.13%, followed by NT (43.02%), GO (39.84%), Swiss-Prot (39.25%), KEGG (36.06%), and COG (24.88%). Our finding showed that 2586 genes were differentially expressed in the two samples, including 1996 down-regulated genes and 590 up-regulated genes. GO analysis predicted that these differentially expressed genes (DEGs) participate in 12 cellular components, 20 biological processes, and 13 molecular function terms and KEGG analysis showed that metabolic pathways, plant–pathogen interaction, glycerophospholipid metabolism, endocytosis, plant hormone signal transduction, and ether lipid metabolism were enriched among all identified pathways. Through functional enrichment analysis of DEGs, we found that they were involved in chloroplast division and the biosynthesis of plant pigments, including chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin, and transcription factor families, which might be related to the formation mechanism of leaf color. Taken together, these results present insights into the difference in gene expression characteristics in leaves between WT and wl mutants and provide a new insight for breeding colorful leaf phenotypes in succulent plants.

For Fragaria (strawberry) species, individual chromosome identification is challenging due to the small size of chromosomes; consequently, the chromosome numbers of most cultivars remain unreported. In this study, we investigated the ploidy of 26 strawberry cultivars by counting root-tip chromosomes. Surprisingly, 25 cultivars were octoploid (2n = 8x = 56), whereas only ‘Tokun’ was aneuploid (2n = 10x − 3 = 67). To explore the breeding potential of this aneuploid, we performed reciprocal crosses between ‘Tokun’ and ‘Benihoppe’, a widely cultivated octoploid cultivar. Only the combination with ‘Benihoppe’ as female and ‘Tokun’ as male produced fertile progenies. The progenies had variable chromosome numbers of 61, 62 or 63, meaning that ‘Tokun’ produced aneuploid gametes with varying chromosome numbers ranging from 33 to 35. Some hybrids exhibited superior aroma, firmness, or soluble solids compared with their parents. Specifically, J2138 (2n = 9x − 2 = 61) was selected for its larger single-fruit weight, J2139 (2n = 9x − 2 = 61) and J2153 (2n = 9x − 2 = 61) for their white flesh, and J2151 (2n = 9x − 1 = 62) and J2156 (2n = 9x = 63) for their soluble solids content exceeding that of the higher parent, showing potential value for commercial production and breeding. Strawberry is usually propagated via stolons or through tissue culture; therefore, aneuploids obtained from 8x × aneuploid ‘Tokun’ crosses would be good sources for cultivar breeding.