‘Jiuhua Mountain Fuzz Tip’, a cultivar of Camellia sinensis, is cultivated for tea leaves on >1,400 ha in Qingyang County in Anhui Province, China. In a survey conducted from 2013 to 2014 in Qingyang County, a leaf blight of unknown etiology was observed on leaves of all ages on C. sinensis, and was most severe on young leaves of this cultivar. In 2014, nearly 25% of the plants of Jiuhua Mountain Fuzz Tip in the orchards visited, which comprised approximately 200 ha, were symptomatic. Initial leaf symptoms included brown, circular spots, each surrounded by a yellow to rust-brown margin. Lesions gradually increased from 5 to 10 mm in diameter, and became elliptical. Lesions enlarged and coalesced, resulting in severely blighted leaves. In September 2014, symptomatic leaves were collected from 21 fields, surface-sterilized in 1.5% sodium hypochlorite for 2 min, dried, plated on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium, and incubated at 25°C for 7 days. Morphologically similar fungal isolates recovered (n = 15) pro...

Plant signal transduction occurs in response to nutrient element deficiency in plant vascular tissue. Recent works have shown that the vascular tissue is a central regulator in plant growth and development by transporting both essential nutritional and long-distance signaling molecules between different parts of the plant’s tissues. Split-root and grafting studies have deciphered the importance of plants’ shoots in receiving root-derived nutrient starvation signals from the roots. This review assesses recent studies about vascular tissue, integrating local and systemic long-distance signal transduction and the physiological regulation center. A substantial number of studies have shown that the vascular tissue is a key component of root-derived signal transduction networks and is a regulative center involved in plant elementary nutritional deficiency, including nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and iron (Fe).

Previous studies found that Polygonatum sibiricum polysaccharide (PSP) exhibited anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects on type 2 diabetes (T2DM). However, the roles and detailed mechanisms of PSP on the anti-diabetic osteoporosis are still poorly defined. The purpose of this study was to identify the detailed mechanisms of PSP-induced anti-diabetic osteoporosis. The roles of PSP on diabetic osteoporosis were evaluated on a T2DM zebrafish model. Furthermore, the changes of related physiological indicators and metabolites in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) were investigated by pharmacology and metabolomic analyses. Results showed that PSP significantly reduced the blood glucose content and induced caudal fin regeneration. Metabolomic analysis found that the key metabolites involved in arachidonic acid metabolism, PPAR signaling pathway, linoleic acid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism, alpha-Linolenic acid metabolism, sphingolipid signaling pathway were affected by PSP treatment. Among these, PSP reversed the trend changes of several metabolites, such as L-aspartic acid, choline, and propionylcarnitine. Besides, further changes of TNF-α and IL-1β transcripts suggested that the proinflammatory cytokines were also involved in the PSP-triggered anti-diabetic osteoporosis. Above findings provided the theoretical basis for the use to plant PSP as food ingredients or bioactive compounds in natural health products on diabetic osteoporosis.