A bacterial strain, Streptomyces albogriseolus LBX-2, was isolated from a soil sample in Chengdu, China. S. albogriseolus LBX-2 is an aerobic and Gram-positive microorganism that is capable of using the polyethylene as the sole carbon source. Results of scanning electron microscopy and tensile tests indicated that S. albogriseolus LBX-2 could cause the damages to polyethylene (PE). Suspension culture of LBX-2 resulted in the weight loss in the PE powder over a 15-day period. The bacterial growth curve assay clearly demonstrated the utilization of n-hexadecane and n-octadecane for the strain LBX-2. Phylogenetic analysis showed that it was grouped in the same clade as S. albogriseolus belonging to Streptomyces. The complete genome of strain LBX-2 consists of a chromosome of 7,210,477 bp and a linear plasmid of 336,677 bp. Compared with other strains of Streptomyces, the genome size of S. albogriseolus LBX-2 was smaller than the average but its guanine and cytosine content (72.47%) was higher than the others. The Non-Redundant Protein Database (NR), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), SwissProt, Gene Ontology (GO) and Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG) annotations provided information on the specific functions of encoded proteins. A total of 21 monooxygenase and 22 dioxygenase genes were found in its genome. Synteny comparison with the genome of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2) revealed a low overall genetic diversity between them. This study provides valuable information to reveal the underlying mechanisms on PE degradation by S. albogriseolus LBX-2.

Drought restricts the growth of alpine grassland vegetation. This study aimed to explore a new technical system to improve the drought resistance of forage grass. Qinghai cold-land Poa pratensis seedlings were used in the drought stress experiment. A combination of abscisic acid (ABA) and polyacrylamide (PAM) were used to affect the growth, leaf physiology, soil enzyme activity, and rhizosphere microbial diversity of P. pratensis. The fresh leaf weight and root surface area were significantly increased after ABA-PAM combined treatment, while root length was significantly reduced. Besides, the leaf catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity, proline and chlorophyll content, increased after the treatment, while malondialdehyde (MDA) content decreased. The treatment also increased sucrase, urease, and alkaline protease activities in rhizosphere soil, while decreasing acid phosphatase and neutral phosphatase enzyme activities. ABA-PAM combined treatment enhanced the rhizosphere microbial community and forage drought resistance by altering the abundance of various dominant microorganisms in the rhizosphere soil. The relative abundances of Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria decreased, while Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Ascomycota increased. Unlike the relative abundance of Gibberella that decreased significantly, Komagataeibacter, Lactobacillus, Pichia, and Dekkera were significantly increased. Single-factor collinearity network analysis revealed a close relationship between the different rhizosphere microbial communities of forage grass, after ABA-PAM treatment. This study implies that ABA-PAM combined treatment can improve the drought resistance of forages. Therefore, it provides a theoretical and practical basis for restoring drought-induced grassland degradation.

Late blight is one of the main biological stresses limiting the potato yield; however, the biochemical mechanisms underlying the infection process of Phytophthora infestans remain unrevealed. In this study, the late blight-resistant potato cultivar Ziyun No.1 (R) and the susceptible cultivar Favorita (S) were inoculated with P. infestans. Untargeted metabolomics was used to study the changes of metabolites in the compatible and incompatible interactions of the two cultivars and the pathogen at 0, 48, and 96 h postinoculation (hpi). A total of 819 metabolites were identified, and the metabolic differences mainly emerged after 48 hpi. There were 198 and 115 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs) in the compatible and incompatible interactions. These included 147 and 100 upregulated metabolites during the compatible and incompatible interactions, respectively. Among them, 73 metabolites were identified as the P. infestans-responsive DEMs. Furthermore, the comparisons between the two cultivars identified 57 resistance-related metabolites. Resistant potato cultivar had higher levels of salicylic acid and several upstream phenylpropanoid biosynthesis metabolites, triterpenoids, and hydroxycinnamic acids and their derivatives, such as sakuranetin, ferulic acid, ganoderic acid Mi, lucidenic acid D2, and caffeoylmalic acid. These metabolites play crucial roles in cell wall thickening and have antibacterial and antifungal activities. This study reports the time-course metabolomic responses of potatoes to P. infestans. The findings reveal the responses involved in the compatible and incompatible interactions of potatoes and P. infestans.

Late blight, caused byPhytophthora infestans(P. infestans), is a devastating plant disease.P. infestansgenome encodes hundreds of effectors, complicating the interaction between the pathogen and its host and making it difficult to understand the interaction mechanisms. In this study, the late blight-resistant potato cultivar Ziyun No.1 and the susceptible potato cultivar Favorita were infected withP. infestansisolate SCPZ16-3-1 to investigate the global expression profiles during the compatible and incompatible interactions using dual RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Most of the expressed Arg-X-Leu-Arg (RXLR) effector genes were suppressed during the first 24 h of infection, but upregulated after 24 h. Moreover,P. infestansinduced more specifically expressed genes (SEGs), including RXLR effectors and cell wall-degrading enzymes (CWDEs)-encoding genes, in the compatible interaction. The resistant potato activated a set of biotic stimulus responses and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis SEGs, including kirola-like protein, nucleotide-binding site-leucine-rich repeat (NBS-LRR), disease resistance, and kinase genes. Conversely, the susceptible potato cultivar upregulated more kinase, pathogenesis-related genes than the resistant cultivar. This study is the first study to characterize the compatible and incompatible interactions betweenP. infestansand different potato cultivars and provides the genome-wide expression profiles for RXLR effector, CWDEs, NBS-LRR protein, and kinase-encoding genes.