Blockchain, as the basis for cryptocurrencies, has recently garnered significant attention. It is a type of immutable distributed ledger technology with key features including decentralization, anti-tampering, transparency, anonymity, and contract-autonomy. These attributes enable transactions to be conducted credibly within a decentralized environment. Such features are instrumental in enhancing services and driving the advancement of blockchain-based applications. The proliferation of blockchain-based applications across various sectors such as financial services, reputation systems, Internet of Things (IoT), among others is evident. However, there remain numerous challenges associated with blockchain technology such as scalability and security that require resolution. This article presents a comprehensive overview of blockchain technology and its applications. It begins by outlining the evolution of blockchain before providing an architectural overview and systematically reviewing the research and application of blockchain technology in diverse fields (including federated learning, reinforcement learning, cloud edge computing, intelligent transportation, power systems, and IoT) from both academic research and industry perspectives. Additionally highlighted are technical challenges alongside recent developments. Finally concluded are some challenges and future directions pertaining to the application of blockchain technology as well as broader perspectives for further study. Received: 24 July 2023 | Revised: 15 September 2023 | Accepted: 10 October 2023 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study. Author Contribution Statement Min An: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Writing — original draft, Writing — review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Qiyuan Fan: Methodology, Resources, Supervision. Hao Yu: Methodology. Bo An: Conceptualization, Software, Data curation. Nannan Wu: Conceptualization, Data curation, Visualization, Project administration. Haiyang Zhao: Methodology, Validation, Resources. Xinhao Wan: Validation, Investigation. Jiaxuan Li: Validation, Investigation. Rui Wang: Validation, Investigation. Jingyu Zhen: Software, Formal analysis. Qinyan Zou: Software, Formal analysis. Bin Zhao: Software, Formal analysis.

The genus Houpoea belongs to the family Magnoliaceae, and the species in this genus have important medicinal values. However, the investigation of the correlation between the evolution of the genus and its phylogeny has been severely hampered by the unknown range of species within the genus and the paucity of research on its chloroplast genome. Thus, we selected three species of Houpoea: Houpoea officinalis var officinalis (OO), Houpoea officinalis var. biloba (OB), and Houpoea rostrata (R). With lengths of 160,153 bp (OO), 160,011 bp (OB), and 160,070 bp (R), respectively, the whole chloroplast genomes (CPGs) of these three Houpoea plants were acquired via Illumina sequencing technology, and the findings were annotated and evaluated. These three chloroplast genomes were revealed by the annotation findings to be typical tetrads. A total of 131, 132, and 120 different genes were annotated. The CPGs of the three species had 52, 47, and 56 repeat sequences, which were primarily found in the ycf2 gene. A useful tool for identifying species is the approximately 170 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that have been found. The border area of the reverse repetition region (IR) was studied, and it was shown that across the three Houpoea plants, it is highly conservative, with only changes between H. rostrata and the other two plants observed. Numerous highly variable areas (rps3-rps19, rpl32-trnL, ycf1, ccsA, etc.) have the potential to serve as the barcode label for Houpoea, according to an examination of mVISTA and nucleotide diversity (Pi). Phylogenetic relation indicates that Houpoea is a monophyletic taxon, and its genus range and systematic position are consistent with the Magnoliaceae system of Sima Yongkang-Lu Shugang, including five species and varieties of H. officinalis var. officinalis, H. rostrata, H. officinalis var. biloba, Houpoea obovate, and Houpoea tripetala, which evolved and differentiated from the ancestors of Houpoea to the present Houpoea in the above order. This study provides valuable information on the genus Houpoea, enriches the CPG information on Houpoea genus, and provides genetic resources for the further classification of and phylogenetic research on Houpoea.

Many wild ornamental plant species have been introduced to improve the landscape of cities; however, until now, no study has been performed to explore the composition and function of foliar endophytes associated with cultivated rare plants in cities after their introduction. In this study, we collected the leaves of the healthy ornamental plant Lirianthe delavayi from wild and artificially cultivated habitats in Yunnan and compared their diversity, species composition, and functional predictions of their foliar endophytic fungal community based on high-throughput sequencing technology. In total, 3125 ASVs of fungi were obtained. The alpha diversity indices of wild L. delavayi populations are similar to those of cultivated samples; however, the species compositions of endophytic fungal ASVs were significantly varied in the two habitats. The dominant phylum is Ascomycota, accounting for more than 90% of foliar endophytes in both populations; relatively, artificial cultivation trends to increase the frequency of common phytopathogens of L. delavayi, such as Alternaria, Erysiphe. The relative abundance of 55 functional predictions is different between wild and cultivated L. delavayi leaves (p < 0.05); in particular, chromosome, purine metabolism, and peptidases are significantly increased in wild samples, while flagellar assembly, bacterial chemotaxis, and fatty acid metabolism are significantly enhanced in cultivated samples. Our results indicated that artificial cultivation can greatly change the foliar endophytic fungal community of L. delavayi, which is valuable for understanding the influence of the domestication process on the foliar fungal community associated with rare ornamental plants in urban environments.

Flower endophytic fungi play a major role in plant reproduction, stress resistance, and growth and development. However, little is known about how artificial cultivation affects the endophytic fungal community found in the tepals of rare horticultural plants. In this research, we used high-throughput sequencing technology combined with bioinformatics analysis to reveal the endophytic fungal community of tepals in Lirianthe delavayi and the effects of artificial cultivation on the community composition and function of these plants, using tepals of L. delavayi from wild habitat, cultivated campus habitat, and cultivated field habitat as research objects. The results showed that the variety of endophytic fungi in the tepals of L. delavayi was abundant, with a total of 907 Amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) obtained from all the samples, which were further classified into 4 phyla, 23 classes, 51 orders, 97 families, 156 genera, and 214 species. We also found that artificial cultivation had a significant impact on the community composition of endophytic fungi. Although there was no significant difference at the phylum level, with Ascomycota and Basidiomycota being the main phyla, there were significant differences in dominant and unique genera. Artificial cultivation has led to the addition of new pathogenic fungal genera, such as Phaeosphaeria, Botryosphaeria, and Paraconiothyrium, increasing the risk of disease in L. delavayi. In addition, the abundance of the endophytic fungus Rhodotorula, which is typical in plant reproductive organs, decreased. Artificial cultivation also altered the metabolic pathways of endophytic fungi, decreasing their ability to resist pests and diseases and reducing their ability to reproduce. A comparison of endophytic fungi in tepals and leaves revealed significant differences in community composition and changes in the endophytic diversity caused by artificial cultivation. To summarize, our results indicate that endophytic fungi in the tepals of L. delavayi mainly consist of pathogenic and saprophytic fungi. Simultaneously, artificial cultivation introduces a great number of pathogenic fungi that alter the metabolic pathways associated with plant resistance to disease and pests, as well as reproduction, which can increase the risk of plant disease and reduce plant reproductive capacity. Our study provides an important reference for the conservation and breeding of rare horticultural plants.