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This study aimed to reveal the potential genes and mechanisms involved in the biosynthesis of quercetin (QCT) in maize (Zea mays L.) through genome-wide association study (GWAS) and bioinformatics analysis, and provide a basis for further research on QCT. The content of QCT in 196 maize inbred lines was detected by LC-MS. The single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) data from these samples were explored by Maize 55K SNP arrays, followed by population structure using fastStructure software and genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis. Then, the SNP screening was performed with P < 1.00E-06 using Gramene software, followed by SNP annotation (150 KB up and downstream). The enrichment analysis was performed on all annotated genes. Finally, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis was performed to further reveal the relations among genes. A total of 12 SNPs were explored from original SNPs with P < 1.00E-06. The SNP annotation revealed several SNP-associated genes including Zm00001d036822 and Zm00001d007407. These genes were mainly enriched in metabolic pathway and functions like negative regulation of cell cycle phase transition. Finally, a PPI work was constructed by totally 34 annotated genes and 59 interactions. Zm00001d036822 and Zm00001d007407 might be novel candidate genes involved in the synthesis of QCT. Meanwhile, the metabolic pathway as well as negative regulation of cell cycle phase transition function might contribute to the biosynthesis of QCT.

Solar energy used to evaporate seawater and purify fresh water is regarded as an innovative way to address water scarcity. In this paper, high-performance porous wood-carbonized solar steam evaporation (SSE) is proposed by regulating the surface carbonization process, and the evaporation performance of the SSE under different carbonization degrees is studied. The results show that the variation in carbonization degree treatment can significantly affect the photothermal conversion characteristics, which in turn affect the evaporation efficiency of solar steam evaporation. Surprisingly, at 1 sun equivalent input, this evaporator exhibits a low thermal conductivity (0.17 W m−1 K−1), high solar energy absorption rate (92.5%), high surface temperature (49.5 °C) and evaporation efficiency (78%). When the surface carbonization degree of the SSE is 20%, an excellent thermal conductivity coefficient (0.33 W m−1 K−1) is available by the efficient water conduction ability. Additionally, an outstanding evaporation rate (1.8 kg m−2 h−1) of the SSE can be obtained, which is significantly superior to that of the reported wood-based evaporators. Due to its simple preparation, wood-based SSE with recyclability, low-cost and extraordinary performance can be expected to provide potential fresh water for commercial and renewable applications.

Studies on solar steam evaporation for potential application in desalination have attracted much attention due to its unique advantages of low energy consumption environmental friendliness, etc. However, water molecule transportation in the capillaries of solar steam evaporators to develop a high-efficiency solar evaporation system is critical but often ignored. This work reports high-yield and low-cost natural corn stalks as solar steam generators with ultra-fast water transportation in capillaries, multi-layer self-cleaning of sea salt, large seawater storage capacity, long-term anti-corrosion properties against seawater, low thermal conductivity, and excellent evaporation properties. This solar steam evaporator with the conventional photothermal coating by multi-walled carbon nanotubes and titanium dioxide (Mcnt-TiO2) exhibits an outstanding evaporation rate of 2.48 kg m−2 h−1 and evaporation efficiency of 68.2% under solar light. These advantages are significantly attributed to the natural structural features of the stem marrow of corn stalks including scattered vascular bundles with super-hydrophilic properties achieving high-speed water moisture transportation, porous basic tissues with layer by layer bio-filtration, porous cavities realizing multi-stage filtration, transportation and storage of seawater, and low moisture enthalpy and heat loss. Meanwhile, an efficient and low-cost solar desalination device via bundling pluralities of corn stalks is developed to collect freshwater, and the average daily freshwater amount per unit area (4.3–5.8 kg m−2 on sunny days and 3.0–3.9 kg m−2 on cloudy days) can meet the daily water needs of more than twenty adults. These findings not only provide the possibility of discovering corn stalks as low-cost, scalable, highly efficient evaporation-based heat transfer devices for future efficient desalination, but also present an innovative inspiration for reducing the greenhouse effect brought by corn stalk burning, which promotes the efficient use of bio-mass straws.

Solar steam evaporation is regarded as a green and efficient method to achieve desalination and purification. However, the low-efficiency photothermal conversion of its evaporator is an obstacle to widespread application. Focusing on the interface evaporation method through photothermal conversion, the current bottleneck of the technology is that it is impossible to achieve in-depth interface control of the incident light path to obtain higher water evaporation efficiency. We propose a mesoporous cellulose-based hydrogel for the manufacture of a high-efficiency solar steam evaporator. This type of solar evaporator achieves an enhanced capillary force and optical path extension to increase the photothermal conversion efficiency and evaporation rate. These evaporation performance advantages can all be attributed to the dense mesoporous structure, low thermal conductivity, and high light absorption efficiency. The results showed that under a solar light intensity of 1.5 kW m−2, the mesoporous structure of the MCNT–TiO2–SiO2–TiN hydrogel-based evaporator has an excellent evaporation rate (1.853 kg m−2 h−1) and high solar energy conversion efficiency (77.39%) due to the low thermal conductivity (0.71997 W m−1 k−1), high light absorption efficiency (98.3%, wavelength 190–3000 nm) and good hydrophilic properties (XRD and FT-IR tests). Our results demonstrate a new full-hydrogel solar steam evaporation method by using a simple, easily obtained, reusable, and low-cost solar desalination and purification system based on evaporation can yield fresh water from seawater and sewage. The evaporation technique can be used to produce a simple, easily obtained, reusable, and low-cost solar desalination and purification system for pure freshwater resources from seawater and sewage.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be involved in the development of maize plant. However, few focused on seed development of maize. Here, we identified 753 lncRNA candidates in maize genome from six seed samples. Similar to the mRNAs, lncRNAs showed tissue developmental stage specific and differential expression, indicating their putative role in seed development. Increasing evidence shows that crosstalk among RNAs mediated by shared microRNAs (miRNAs) represents a novel layer of gene regulation, which plays important roles in plant development. Functional roles and regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) in plants, particularly in maize seed development, are unclear. We combined analyses of consistently altered 17 lncRNAs, 840 mRNAs and known miRNA to genome-wide investigate potential lncRNA-mediated ceRNA based on “ceRNA hypothesis”. The results uncovered seven novel lncRNAs as potential functional ceRNAs. Functional analyses based on their competitive coding-gene partners by Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG biological pathway demonstrated that combined effects of multiple ceRNAs can have major impacts on general developmental and metabolic processes in maize seed. These findings provided a useful platform for uncovering novel mechanisms of maize seed development and may provide opportunities for the functional characterization of individual lncRNA in future studies.