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Foods, agricultural by-products and medicinal plants are often contaminated by pathogenic fungi and mycotoxins. Pathogenic fungi not only lead to food deterioration, but also harm people’s health. The commonly used methods for detoxification include physical, chemical and biological methods. A large number of studies have shown that natural plant essential oils inhibit the growth of pathogenic fungi and the accumulation of mycotoxins and have good biodegradability, making them a promising environmental-friendly alternative to traditional synthetic fungicides. In this review, the classification and harm of common pathogenic fungi and mycotoxins, as well as the antifungal components and mechanisms of plant essential oils are introduced, and recent progress on plant essential oils in the control of pathogenic fungi and mycotoxins is summarized. This review provides a theoretical basis for the development and application of plant essential oils.

The seed dormancy characteristic is regarded as one of the most critical factors for pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) resistance. As a wild wheat relative species, Aegilops tauschii is a potential genetic resource for improving common wheat. In this study, an advanced backcross population (201 strains) containing only Ae. tauschii segments was developed by means of synthetic octaploid wheat (hexaploid wheat Zhoumai 18 × Ae. tauschii T093). Subsequently, seed dormancy rate (Dor) in the advanced backcross population was evaluated on the day 3, 5 and 7, in which 2 major QTLs (QDor-2D and QDor-3D) were observed on chromosomes 2D and 3D with phenotypic variance explained values (PVEs) of 10.25 and 20.40%, respectively. Further investigation revealed significant correlation between QDor-3D and Tamyb10 gene, while no association was found between the former and TaVp1 gene, implying that QDor-3D site could be of closer position to Tamyb10. The obtained quantitative trait locus sites (QTLs) in this work could be applied to develop wheat cultivars with PHS resistance.

Sedimentological and chronological analyses of coastal dunes can determine their sedimentation processes and yield information that can reflect changes in local marine environments (e.g., information on climate, biology, and sea‐level changes in tectonically stable areas). In this study, Late Quaternary deposits on Shidao Island, one of the Xisha Islands, South China Sea, were analysed using techniques such as U/Th dating to obtain the following results: (1) Four lithofacies associations and two unconformities were identified from the deposits on Shidao Island. On this basis, the Shidao Island sediments can be divided into three stages of aeolian sediments and one stage of beach rock sediments. (2) U/Th dating revealed that the aeolian deposits on Shidao Island formed during three periods, namely, marine isotope stages 5.2, 5.1, and 4, and that the beachrocks were formed in the Holocene when the sea level rose to its present height. (3) The aeolianites on Shidao Island all formed in an environment in which the sea level was relatively stable or slowly falling. This study determined for the first time the specific sedimentary ages of the aeolianites on Shidao Island, and reconstructed the sedimentation process of the deposits on Shidao Island based on palaeo‐sea‐level changes. These results can provide more reliable geochronology data for the future study of Late Quaternary marine environments across the East Asian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multispectral camouflage technology against advanced detection has attracted rising attention in recent years. However, compatible camouflage with low visibility and low thermal emission in a dark background still remains challenging (such as satellites, high-altitude planes, etc.). In this work, a low visibility and low thermal emission nanostructured film with electromagnetic band gap for multispectral camouflage is proposed. The structure demonstrates a Ge/ZnS multilayer for suppressing thermal emission, which is mounted with nanolayered dielectric antireflection stacks to absorb visible light. Also, the all-dielectric configuration ensures microwave transmission for being compatible with microwave camouflage. The fabricated structure shows low reflectance (3.95%) for 300–1100 nm visible-near-IR light, low emissivity for 3–5 μm (0.043) and 8–14 μm (0.093) atmospheric window ranges, and high transmittance (98.86%) for 8–18 GHz microwave range. Moreover, the film exhibits low lightness and suppressed thermal radiation signatures with incident angles up to 60°. The proposed nanostructured Ge/ZnS film paves the way for multispectral camouflage and other applications such as solar–thermal conversion, radiation control, and optical sensing based on electromagnetic wave manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Intergeneric hybrids and amphidiploid hybrids from crosses of Aegilops tauschii and Secale cereale were produced using young embryo rescue. The hybrids showed complete sets of both parental chromosomes. The dihaploid plants showed an average meiotic pairing configuration of 10.84 I + 1.57 II + 0.01 III. Genomic in situ staining revealed 3 types of bivalent associations, i.e. D-D, R-Rand D-R at frequencies of 8.6, 8.2 and 83.3%, respectively. Trivalents consisted of D-R-D or R-D-R associations. These results suggested that both intra-and intergenomic chromosome homology were contributed to chromosome pairing. Derived amphidiploids with 2n = 28 paired at metaphase I of meiosis as 4.51 I + 11.70II + 0.03 III. Chromosome pairing of amphidiploids appeared more or less regular, i.e. bivalent-like with some trivalent configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) causes serious losses in wheat yield. In this study, precise mapping was carried out in the chromosome segment substitution lines (CSSL) F2 population generated by a direct cross of Zhoumai 18 (PHS-sensitive) and Aegilops tauschii accession T093 (highly PHS-resistant). Three Ae. tauschii-derived quantitative trait loci (QTLs), QDor.3D.1, QDor.3D.2, and QDor.3D.3, were detected on chromosome 3DL using four simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers and 10 developed Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) markers. Alongside these QTL results, the RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analysis revealed expression levels of TraesCS3D01G466100 in the QDor.3D.2 region that were significantly higher in CSSLs 495 than in Zhoumai 18 during the seed imbibition treatment. The cDNA sequencing results of TraesCS3D01G466100 showed two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), resulting in two changed amino acid substitutions between Zhoumai 18 and line 495, and the 148 nt amino acid substitution of TraesCS3D01G466100, derived from Ae. tauschii T093, which may play an important role in the functioning of ubiquitin ligase enzymes 3 (E3) according to the homology protein analysis, which could lead to differential PHS-resistance phenotypes. Taken together, our results may foster a better understanding of the mechanism of PHS resistance and are potentially valuable for marker-assisted selection in practical wheat breeding efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tumor progression following endocrine therapy is considered to indicate resistance to endocrine drugs due to a variety of mechanisms. An insufficient dose of endocrine drugs is one of the causes for treatment failure in some patients with high hormone-receptor (HR)-expressing advanced breast cancer. This study aimed to explore the efficacy of high-dose tamoxifen (TAM) treatment in patients with advanced breast cancer with highly expressed HR. Materials & methods: This was a single-arm, phase II pilot study that enrolled patients with advanced breast cancer with high HR expression (estrogen receptor ⩾60% and/or progesterone receptor ⩾60%) following routine endocrine therapy. All enrolled patients received a high-dose of TAM (100 mg/day) until disease progression. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints included objective response rate (ORR), clinical benefit rate (CBR), overall survival (OS), and safety. Exploratory endpoints included the predictive value of 16α-18F-17β-fluoroestradiol quantitative positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FES PET/CT) for treatment efficacy. Results: A total of 30 patients were enrolled between September 2017 and February 2019. The median PFS was 6 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.9–7.1] and the median OS was 15.6 months (95% CI 8.3–22.9). Five patients experienced a partial response (PR) and none experienced a complete response (CR), with an ORR of 16.7% and CBR of 33.3%. No severe adverse events were observed. Lesions with 18F-FES maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) ⩾4 had a significantly longer PFS [median 9.2 months, (95% CI 6.9–11.6)] compared with lesions with a 18F-FES SUVmax <4 [median 4.8 months, (95% CI 3.9–5.6); p = 0.022]. Conclusion: A high-dose of TAM is effective and safe for patients with advanced breast cancer with high HR expression. 18F-FES SUVmax values may predict the local clinical benefits of high-dose TAM. Trial Registration: [ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT0304565] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]