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Auxin response factors(ARFs) are a class of transcription factors that regulate the expression of auxin response genes and play a crucial role in plant growth and development. Florigen plays a crucial role in the process of flowering. However, the process by which auxin regulates the accumulation of florigen remains largely unclear. This study found that the expression of ZmARF16 in maize increases during flowering, and the genetic transformation of ZmARF16 accelerates the flowering process in Arabidopsis and maize. Furthermore, ZmARF16 was found to be positively correlated with the transcription of the ZCN12 gene. Similarly, the FT-like gene ZCN12 in maize rescues the late flowering phenotype of the FT mutation in Arabidopsis. Moreover, ZCN12 actively participates in the accumulation of florigen and the flowering process. Further research revealed that ZmARF16 positively responds to the auxin signal, and that the interaction between ZmARF16 and the ZCN12 promoter, as well as the subsequent promotion of ZCN12 gene expression, leads to early flowering. This was confirmed through a yeast one-hybrid and dual-luciferase assay. Therefore, the study provides evidence that the ZmARF16-ZCN12 module plays a crucial role in regulating the flowering process of maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnesium hydride (MgH2) is considered as an ideal hydrogen storage material with excellent hydrogen capacity, but the slow kinetics impedes its application. Herein, an efficient additive of V2C MXene-anchored PrF3 nanoparticles (PrF3/V2C) was synthesized, which presents excellent catalytic effect in improving the reversibility and stability of hydrogen storage in MgH2. The initial dehydrogenation temperature of the 5 wt.% PrF3/V2C-containing MgH2 (182 °C) is 105 °C lower than that of pure MgH2, and 6.5 wt.% hydrogen is rapidly released from 5 wt.% PrF3/V2C-added MgH2 sample in 6 min at 240 °C. In addition, 5 wt.% PrF3/V2C-containing MgH2 sample possesses outstanding reversible hydrogen storage capability of 6.5 wt.% after 10 cycles of dehydrogenation and hydrogenation. Microstructure analysis shows that the introduction of Pr improves the stability of V-species (V0 and V2+) and O-species (lattice oxygen (OL) and vacancy oxygen (OV)) formed during ball milling, promotes the interaction between V-species and O-species, and enhances their reversibility, which contributes to the significant improvement in re/dehydrogenation reversibility and cycling stability of MgH2. This study provides effective ideas and strategies for the purpose of designing and fabricating high-efficient catalysts for solid-state hydrogen storage materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing severity of climate change, drought has become a global issue that seriously restricts the development and production of crops. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the major food crops in the world. Therefore, the demand for drought‐tolerant maize varieties has been rapidly increasing in the market. Recent studies have found that late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are involved in plant responses to various osmotic stresses such as drought and salt stress. Thus, we hypothesized that LEA genes may provide similar stress tolerance abilities in maize. We isolated ZmMGL3 of the LEA gene family and developed transgenic maize plants overexpressing ZmMGL3 using Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation. Then, we conducted physiological and biochemical evaluations of the transgenic maize plants exposed to drought stress. Under drought stress (10% polyethylene glycol 6000), the transgenic maize plants showed improved germination rate, seed vigor, radicle length, root length at the seedling stage, and wilting degree after drought and rewatering compared to the wild‐type plants. The transgenic plants also accumulated more catalase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide radicals compared to the wild‐type plants. These results indicate that ZmMGL3 enhances drought resistance in maize plants by reducing the content of reactive oxygen species in the leaves and can be used as a candidate gene for the development of drought‐tolerant maize varieties. Core Ideas: ZmMGL3 enhances drought resistance by reducing reactive oxygen species content in maize leaves.ZmMGL3 can be used as a candidate gene for the development of drought‐tolerant crops.MGL3 improves the drought tolerance of maize (Zea mays L.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clean and sustainable hydrogen production through liquid hydrogen storage material requires highly active and stable earth‐abundant non‐noble metal to replace expensive and rare noble metals. Herein, nickel nanofilms (Ni/NiO‐NFs) were prepared by the ionic liquid/water interface route. The cationic carbon chain length of the ionic liquid affects the phase composition of the nickel nanofilm, and the ionic liquid with [OMIm][PF6] as the anion has good thermal stability during the synthesis process. The efficiency of Ni/NiO‐NFs catalysts was tested by comparative kinetic analysis of the AB hydrolysis for hydrogen production. The as‐prepared Ni/NiO‐NFs catalyst exhibits excellent hydrogen generation performances, including a hydrogen production rate (2917 ml min−1 gNi−1), and a low activation energy (48.1 kJ/mol). The transition of nickel oxide to metallic nickel and the destruction of the catalyst structure is responsible for the decreased durability. This work highlights the significance of amorphous nanofilms catalysts via the ionic interface method on the regulation of activity for AB hydrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single‐atom alloys (SAAs), combining the advantages of single‐atom and nanoparticles (NPs), play an extremely significant role in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Nevertheless, understanding the catalytic mechanism of SAAs in catalysis reactions remains a challenge compared with single atoms and NPs. Herein, ruthenium‐nickel SAAs (RuNiSAAs) synthesized by embedding atomically dispersed Ru in Ni NPs are anchored on two‐dimensional Ti3C2Tx MXene. The RuNiSAA‐3−Ti3C2Tx catalysts exhibit unprecedented activity for hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane (AB, NH3BH3) hydrolysis with a mass‐specific activity (rmass) value of 333 L min−1 gRu−1. Theoretical calculations reveal that the anchoring of SAAs on Ti3C2Tx optimizes the dissociation of AB and H2O as well as the binding ability of H* intermediates during AB hydrolysis due to the d‐band structural modulation caused by the alloying effect and metal‐supports interactions (MSI) compared with single atoms and NPs. This work provides useful design principles for developing and optimizing efficient hydrogen‐related catalysts and demonstrates the advantages of SAAs over NPs and single atoms in energy catalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]