The plant Chloranthus japonicus Sieb is known for its anticancer properties and mainly distributed in China, Japan, and Korea. In this study, we firstly investigated the diversity and antimicrobial activity of the culturable endophytic fungi from C. japonicus. A total of 332 fungal colonies were successfully isolated from 555 tissue segments of the medicinal plant C. japonicus collected from Qinling Mountains, China. One hundred and thirty representative morphotype strains were identified according to ITS rDNA sequence analyses and were grouped into three phyla (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mucoromycota), five classes (Dothideomycetes, Sordariomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Agaricomycetes, Mucoromycetes), and at least 30 genera. Colletotrichum (RA, 60.54%) was the most abundant genus, followed by Aspergillus (RA, 11.75%) and Diaporthe (RA, 9.34%). The Species Richness Index (S, 56) and the Shannon-Wiener Index (H′, 2.7076) indicated that C. japonicus harbored abundant fungal resources. Thirteen out of 130 endophytic fungal ethyl acetate extracts exhibited inhibitory activities against at least one pathogenic bacterium or fungus. Among of these, F8158, which was identified as Trichoderma cf. harzianum, exhibited good antagonistic capacities (the percent inhibition of mycelial growth ranged from 47.72~88.18) for different pathogens and has a potential application in biological control. In addition, it is noteworthy that the strain F8157 (Thanatephorus cucumeris, an opportunistic pathogen) showed antibacterial and antifungal activity, which is reported firstly in this study, and should be investigated further. Taken together, these results indicated that the endophytic fungi from C. japonicus may be of potential interest in screening bio-control agents and discovering of new bioactive compounds.

Lignin, a highly polymerized organic component of plant cells, is one of the most difficult aromatic substances to degrade. Selective biodegradation under mild conditions is a promising method, but the dynamic variations in lignin monomers during the biodegradation of lignocellulose are not fully understood. In this study, we evaluated the differences in lignin degradation under different microbial inoculation based on the lignin monomer content, monomer ratio, and stable hydrogen isotope ratio of lignin methoxy groups (δ²H_LM). The weight loss during degradation and the net loss of lignocellulosic components improved dramatically with fungal inoculation. Syringyl monolignol (S-lignin), which contains two methoxy groups, was more difficult to degrade than guaiacyl (G-lignin), which contains only one methoxy group. The co-culture of Pseudomonas mandelii and Aspergillus fumigatus produced the greatest decrease in the G/S ratio, but δ²H_LM values did not differ significantly among the three biodegradation experiments, although the enrichment was done within the fungal inoculation. The fluctuation of δ²H_LM values during the initial phase of biodegradation may be related to the loss of pectic polysaccharides (another methoxy donor), which mainly originate from fallen leaves. Overall, the relative δ²H_LM signals were preserved despite decreasing G/S ratios in the three degradation systems. Nevertheless, some details of lignin δ²H_LM as a biomarker for biogeochemical cycles need to be explored further.

The detection of p-nitrophenol (PNP) is of great significance for assessment of environment pollution and potential health risks. In this study, based on inverse opal polymeric photonic crystals (IOPPCs), a selective and visual sensor for high-performance PNP detection is developed. Due to their unique optical properties, IOPPCs report events by change of color, which can easily be observed by the naked eye. Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) was selected as the functional monomer with which to fabricate the IOPPCs. By precisely adjusting the molar ratio between the functional monomer and the crosslinker, the sensors were only able to be sensitive to a specific solution, thus realizing the visual, selective, and semi-quantitative detection of PNP. When the sensors were immersed in different concentrations of PNP solution, their Bragg diffraction wavelengths showed different redshifts. The color of the IOPPCs changed from green to red as the peak shift of Bragg diffraction occurred. In addition, the IOPPCs displayed good interference immunity and reusability.

Two new sesquiterpenes, namely, 1β,10β-dihydroxy-eremophil-7(11), 8-dien-12,8-olide (1) and 8,12-epoxy-1β-hydroxyeudesm-3,7,11-trien-9-one (2), together with three known sesquiterpenoids, shizukolidol (3), 4α-hydroxy-5α(H)-8β-methoxy-eudesm-7(11)-en-12,8-olide (4), and neolitacumone B (5), and two known monoterpenes, (3R,4S,6R)-p-menth-1-en-3,6-diol (6) and (R)-p-menth-1-en-4,7-diol (7), were isolated from the whole plant of Chloranthus japonicus Sieb. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data analysis and comparison with those of related known compounds. Compounds 4–7 were isolated from this plant for the first time.

Asarum sieboldii, a well-known traditional Chinese medicinal herb, is used for curing inflammation and ache. It contains both the bioactive ingredient asarinin and the toxic compound aristolochic acid. To address further breeding demand, genes involved in the biosynthetic pathways of asarinin and aristolochic acid should be explored. Therefore, the full-length transcriptome of A. sieboldii was sequenced using PacBio Iso-Seq to determine the candidate transcripts that encode the biosynthetic enzymes of asarinin and aristolochic acid. In this study, 63 023 full-length transcripts were generated with an average length of 1371 bp from roots, stems, and leaves, of which 49 593 transcripts (78.69%) were annotated against public databases. Furthermore, 555 alternative splicing (AS) events, 10 869 long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as well as their 11 291 target genes, and 17 909 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified. The data also revealed 97 candidate transcripts related to asarinin metabolism, of which six novel genes that encoded enzymes involved in asarinin biosynthesis were initially reported. In addition, 56 transcripts related to aristolochic acid biosynthesis were also identified, including CYP81B. In summary, these transcriptome data provide a useful resource to study gene function and genetic engineering in A. sieboldii.

The title compound, C₃₀H₄₂N₂O₇[systematic name: (1S,4S,5S,7S,8S,9S,10S,11S,13R,14S,16S,17R)-20-ethyl-4,8,9-trihydroxy-1,14,16-trimethoxyaconitan-4-yl 2-aminobenzoate], isolated from roots ofAconitum sinomontanumNakai, is a typical aconitane-type C₁₉-diterpenoid alkaloid, which crystallizes with two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit. The conformations of the two independent molecules are closely similar. Each molecule comprises four six-membered rings (A,B,DandE) including one six-membered N-containing heterocyclic ring (E), and two five-membered rings (CandF). RingsA,BandEadopt chair conformations, while ringDdisplays a boat conformation. Five-membered ringsCandFexhibit envelope conformations. IntramolecularN—H...O hydrogen bonds between the amino group and carbonyl O atom help to stabilize molecular structure. In the crystal, O—H...O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into zigzag chains propagating in [010].