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Nature Communications 14, 719 (2023). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36415-1, Published by Nature Publishing Group UK, [London]

The tea plant (Camellia sinensis) presents an excellent system to study evolution and diversification of the numerous classes, types and variable contents of specialized metabolites. Here, we investigate the relationship among C. sinensis phylogenetic groups and specialized metabolites using transcriptomic and metabolomic data on the fresh leaves collected from 136 representative tea accessions in China. We obtain 925,854 high-quality single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) enabling the refined grouping of the sampled tea accessions into five major clades. Untargeted metabolomic analyses detect 129 and 199 annotated metabolites that are differentially accumulated in different tea groups in positive and negative ionization modes, respectively. Each phylogenetic group contains signature metabolites. In particular, CSA tea accessions are featured with high accumulation of diverse classes of flavonoid compounds, such as flavanols, flavonol mono-/di-glycosides, proanthocyanidin dimers, and phenolic acids. Our results provide insights into the genetic and metabolite diversity and are useful for accelerated tea plant breeding., The molecular basis for the unique taste and aroma of tea cultivars is largely unknown, but is critical for breeding new cultivars. Here the authors use transcriptomics and metabolomics to study the relationship among phylogenetic groups and specialized metabolites from 136 tea accessions in China.

The exploration of photoanode materials with high efficiency and stability is the eternal pursuit for the realization of practically solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. Here we develop a deficient ternary metal sulfide (CdIn2S4) photoanode, and its PEC performance is significantly enhanced by introducing surface sulfur vacancies, achieving a photocurrent density of 5.73 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V vs. RHE and 1 Sun with an applied bias photon-to-current efficiency of 2.49% at 0.477 V vs. RHE. The experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations highlight the enhanced effect of surface sulfur vacancies on the interfacial charge separation and transfer kinetics, which also demonstrate the restrained surface states distribution and the transformation of active sites after introducing surface sulfur vacancies. This work may inspire more excellent work on developing sulfide-based photoanodes., While water splitting could provide a means to utilize solar energy, identifying sufficiently stable and active semiconductors is challenging. Here, authors report a deficient CdIn2S4 photoanode with improved water splitting performances due to efficient charge separation/transfer kinetics.

Topological insulators (TIs) can host an insulating gapped bulk with conducting gapless boundary states in lower dimensions than the bulk. To date, various kinds of classical wave TIs with gapless symmetry-protected boundary states have been discovered, promising for the efficient confinement and robust guiding of waves. However, for airborne sound, an acoustic analogue of a three-dimensional TI has not been achieved due to its spinless nature. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a three-dimensional topological acoustic crystal with pseudospins using bilayer chiral structures, in which multi-order topological bandgaps are generated step by step via elaborately manipulating the corresponding spatial symmetries. We observe acoustic analogues of 1st-order (two-dimensional gapless surface Dirac cones) and 2nd-order (one-dimensional gapless hinge Dirac dispersion) TIs in three dimensions, supporting robust surface or hinge sound transport. Based solely on spatial symmetry, our work provides a route to engineer the hierarchies of TIs and explore topological devices for three-dimensional spinless systems., An acoustic analogue of a three-dimensional topological insulator (TI) has not been achieved, despite various realizations in other kinds of TIs. Here, the authors report a three-dimensional multi-order TI in an acoustic bilayer chiral structure, with robust surface or hinge sound transport.

Bioresorbable electronic stimulators are of rapidly growing interest as unusual therapeutic platforms, i.e., bioelectronic medicines, for treating disease states, accelerating wound healing processes and eliminating infections. Here, we present advanced materials that support operation in these systems over clinically relevant timeframes, ultimately bioresorbing harmlessly to benign products without residues, to eliminate the need for surgical extraction. Our findings overcome key challenges of bioresorbable electronic devices by realizing lifetimes that match clinical needs. The devices exploit a bioresorbable dynamic covalent polymer that facilitates tight bonding to itself and other surfaces, as a soft, elastic substrate and encapsulation coating for wireless electronic components. We describe the underlying features and chemical design considerations for this polymer, and the biocompatibility of its constituent materials. In devices with optimized, wireless designs, these polymers enable stable, long-lived operation as distal stimulators in a rat model of peripheral nerve injuries, thereby demonstrating the potential of programmable long-term electrical stimulation for maintaining muscle receptivity and enhancing functional recovery.

Bioresorbable electronic stimulators are of rapidly growing interest as unusual therapeutic platforms, i.e., bioelectronic medicines, for treating disease states, accelerating wound healing processes and eliminating infections. Here, we present advanced materials that support operation in these systems over clinically relevant timeframes, ultimately bioresorbing harmlessly to benign products without residues, to eliminate the need for surgical extraction. Our findings overcome key challenges of bioresorbable electronic devices by realizing lifetimes that match clinical needs. The devices exploit a bioresorbable dynamic covalent polymer that facilitates tight bonding to itself and other surfaces, as a soft, elastic substrate and encapsulation coating for wireless electronic components. We describe the underlying features and chemical design considerations for this polymer, and the biocompatibility of its constituent materials. In devices with optimized, wireless designs, these polymers enable stable, long-lived operation as distal stimulators in a rat model of peripheral nerve injuries, thereby demonstrating the potential of programmable long-term electrical stimulation for maintaining muscle receptivity and enhancing functional recovery., Bioresorbable electronic stimulators can deliver electrical stimulation in rodents to enhance functional muscle recovery after nerve injury. Here, the authors present a bioresorbable dynamic covalent polymer that enables reliable, long-lived operation of soft, stretchable devices of this type.

The quantum spin Hall effect lays the foundation for the topologically protected manipulation of waves, but is restricted to one-dimensional-lower boundaries of systems and hence limits the diversity and integration of topological photonic devices. Recently, the conventional bulk-boundary correspondence of band topology has been extended to higher-order cases that enable explorations of topological states with codimensions larger than one such as hinge and corner states. Here, we demonstrate a higher-order quantum spin Hall effect in a two-dimensional photonic crystal. Owing to the non-trivial higher-order topology and the pseudospin-pseudospin coupling, we observe a directional localization of photons at corners with opposite pseudospin polarizations through pseudospin-momentum-locked edge waves, resembling the quantum spin Hall effect in a higher-order manner. Our work inspires an unprecedented route to transport and trap spinful waves, supporting potential applications in topological photonic devices such as spinful topological lasers and chiral quantum emitters., The quantum spin Hall effect is limited to one-dimensional lower boundary states which limits the possibilities for its exploitation in photonic devices. Here, the authors demonstrate a higher-order quantum spin Hall effect in a photonic crystal and observe opposite pseudospin corner states.

Precise control of solid-state elastic waves’ mode content and coherence is of great use nowadays in reinforcing mechanical energy harvesting/storage, nondestructive material testing, wave-matter interaction, high sensitivity sensing, and information processing, etc. Its efficacy is highly dependent on having elastic transmission channels with lower loss and higher degree of freedom. Here, we demonstrate experimentally an elastic analog of the quantum spin Hall effects in a monolithically scalable configuration, which opens up a route in manipulating elastic waves represented by elastic pseudospins with spin-momentum locking. Their unique features including robustness and negligible propagation loss may enhance elastic planar-integrated circuit-level and system-level performance. Our approach promotes topological materials that can interact with solid-state phonons in both static and time-dependent regimes. It thus can be immediately applied to multifarious chip-scale topological phononic devices, such as path-arbitrary elastic wave-guiding, elastic splitters and elastic resonators with high-quality factors., Precise control of elastic waves is of great use in current technologies. Here, Yu et al. realize the analogue of quantum spin Hall effects for the elastic waves in a plain plate consisting of identical perforated holes in wavelength scales.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22150-y

Topological valley states at the domain wall between two artificial crystals with opposite valley Chern numbers offer a feasible way to realize robust wave transport since only broken spatial symmetry is required. In addition to the valley, spin and crystal dimension are two other important degrees of freedom, particularly in realizing spin-related topological phenomena. Here we experimentally demonstrate that it is possible to construct two-dimensional acoustic topological pseudospin-valley coupled saddle surface states, designed from glide symmetry in a three-dimensional system. By taking advantage of such two-dimensional surface states, a full set of acoustic pseudospins can be realized, exhibiting pseudospin-valley dependent transport. Furthermore, due to the hyperbolic character of the dispersion of saddle surface states, multi-directional anisotropic controllable robust sound transport with little backscattering is observed. Our findings may open research frontiers for acoustic pseudospins and provide a satisfactory platform for exploring unique acoustic topological properties in three-dimensional structures., Valley states can be used to realise topologically protected transport. Here, He et al. show that considering additional degrees of freedom, together with glide symmetry, allow the design of 2D acoustic topological pseudospin-valley coupled saddle surface states in 3D structures.

Precise control of solid-state elastic waves’ mode content and coherence is of great use nowadays in reinforcing mechanical energy harvesting/storage, nondestructive material testing, wave-matter interaction, high sensitivity sensing, and information processing, etc. Its efficacy is highly dependent on having elastic transmission channels with lower loss and higher degree of freedom. Here, we demonstrate experimentally an elastic analog of the quantum spin Hall effects in a monolithically scalable configuration, which opens up a route in manipulating elastic waves represented by elastic pseudospins with spin-momentum locking. Their unique features including robustness and negligible propagation loss may enhance elastic planar-integrated circuit-level and system-level performance. Our approach promotes topological materials that can interact with solid-state phonons in both static and time-dependent regimes. It thus can be immediately applied to multifarious chip-scale topological phononic devices, such as path-arbitrary elastic wave-guiding, elastic splitters and elastic resonators with high-quality factors. Precise control of elastic waves is of great use in current technologies. Here, Yu et al. realize the analogue of quantum spin Hall effects for the elastic waves in a plain plate consisting of identical perforated holes in wavelength scales.