Phytoremediation soil polluted by cadmium has drawn worldwide attention. However, how to improve the efficiency of plant remediation of cadmium contaminated soil remains unknown. Previous studies showed that nitrogen (N) significantly enhances cadmium uptake and accumulation in poplar plants. In order to explore the important role of nitrogen in plants’ responses to cadmium stress, this study investigates the poplar proteome and phosphoproteome difference between Cd stress and Cd + N treatment. In total, 6573 proteins were identified, and 5838 of them were quantified. With a fold-change threshold of > 1.3, and a p-value < 0.05, 375 and 108 proteins were up- and down-regulated by Cd stress when compared to the control, respectively. Compared to the Cd stress group, 42 and 89 proteins were up- and down-regulated by Cd + N treatment, respectively. Moreover, 522 and 127 proteins were up- and down-regulated by Cd + N treatment compared to the CK group. In addition, 1471 phosphosites in 721 proteins were identified. Based on a fold-change threshold of > 1.2, and a p-value < 0.05, the Cd stress up-regulated eight proteins containing eight phosphosites, and down-regulated 58 proteins containing 69 phosphosites, whereas N + Cd treatment up-regulated 86 proteins containing 95 phosphosites, and down-regulated 17 proteins containing 17 phosphosites, when compared to Cd stress alone. N + Cd treatment up-regulated 60 proteins containing 74 phosphosites and down-regulated 37 proteins containing 42 phosphosites, when compared to the control. Several putative responses to stress proteins, as well as transcriptional and translational regulation factors, were up-regulated by the addition of exogenous nitrogen following Cd stress. Especially, heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), 14-3-3 protein, peroxidase (POD), zinc finger protein (ZFP), ABC transporter protein, eukaryotic translation initiation factor (elF) and splicing factor 3 B subunit 1-like (SF3BI) were up-regulated by Cd + N treatment at both the proteome and the phosphoproteome levels. Combing the proteomic data and phosphoproteomics data, the mechanism by which exogenous nitrogen can alleviate cadmium toxicity in poplar plants was explained at the molecular level. The results of this study will establish the solid molecular foundation of the phytoremediation method to improve cadmium-contaminated soil.

Camellia luteoflora Li ex Chang is an endangered plant endemic to the East Asian flora with high ornamental value as well as phylogenetic and floristic research value. Predicting the impact of climate change on its distribution and suitable habitat is crucial until scientific conservation measures are implemented. Based on seven environmental variables and 17 occurrence records, this study optimized the MaxEnt model using the kuenm data package to obtain the optimal parameter combinations (RM = 1.3, FC = LPT) and predicted the potential distribution pattern of C. luteoflora in various future periods. The results revealed that the mean diurnal range, temperature annual range, and precipitation of the wettest month were the influential factors determining the distribution pattern of C. luteoflora, contributing 60.2%, 14.4%, and 12.3% of the variability in the data, respectively. Under the current conditions, the area of suitable habitats for C. luteoflora was only about 21.9 × 10⁴ km². Overall, the suitable area around the C. luteoflora distribution points will shrink in a circular pattern in response to future global warming, but some potentially suitable distribution areas will expand and migrate to higher latitudes and the Hengduan Mountains region, representing a survival strategy for coping with climate change. It is hypothesized that the future climate refugia will be the highly suitable area and the Hengduan Mountains region. Furthermore, a retrospective validation method was employed to assess the reliability of the predictions and estimate the model’s predictive performance in the future. This study proposes a survival strategy and adaptation measures for C. luteoflora in response to climate change, and the proposed measures can be generalized for application in conservation planning and restoration processes. We also recommend that future studies incorporate factors such as the anthropogenic disturbances and associated socio-economic activities related to C. luteoflora into the model and to further predict the distribution pattern for C. luteoflora in response to historical climatic changes, tracing the evolutionary history of its population.

The evolution of spermatophytes (seed plants) is relatively well known in their evolutionary relationships over temporal changes, but their spatial evolution is another critical yet often neglected lens, especially using a taxon‐based approach. Here, by integrating geographic distributions and origin locations across 429 spermatophyte families worldwide with unsupervised machine learning approaches, we constructed a Spermatophyte Spatial Evolutionary System that classifies global spermatophytes into 18 distribution types and six distribution supertypes within three primary floristic elements: cosmopolitan, tropical, and temperate. We found that the three elements all primarily originated from Gondwana, with the cosmopolitan element being the youngest and the temperate element being the oldest in terms of origin. They primarily formed during the Tertiary, particularly between the Eocene and Miocene, driven mainly by climate, long‐distance dispersal, and tectonic movement, while each exhibited distinct migration routes and formation models. Our results provide novel insights into the spatial evolution of global spermatophytes and highlight that similar distribution patterns of spermatophytes were driven by their comparable formation processes and mechanisms at the levels of floristic element, distribution supertype, and type.

Saxifraga viridiflora, a remarkable new species of the genus Saxifraga sect. Irregulares (Saxifragaceae) from Guangxi, is described and illustrated herein. This new species morphologically differs from all known S. sect. Irregulares taxa by its greenish petals, verruculose sepals, and thick leathery leaf blade abaxially scarlet with white spots.