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Fungal effectors play critical roles in manipulating plant immune responses and promoting colonization. Sphaerulina musiva is a heterothallic ascomycete fungus that causes Septoria leaf spot and stem canker disease in poplar (Populus spp.) plantations. This disease can result in premature defoliation, branch and stem breakage, increased mortality, and plantation failure. However, little is known about the interaction between S. musiva and poplar. Previous work predicted 142 candidate secreted effector proteins in S. musiva (SmCSEPs), 19 of which were selected for further functional characterization in this study. SmCSEP3 induced plant cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana, while 8 out of 19 tested SmCSEPs suppressed cell death. The signal peptides of these eight SmCSEPs exhibited secretory activity in a yeast signal sequence trap assay. Confocal microscopy revealed that four of these eight SmCSEPs target both the cytoplasm and the nucleus, whereas four predominantly localize to discrete punctate structures. Pathogen challenge assays in N. benthamiana demonstrated that the transient expression of six SmCSEPs promoted Fusarium proliferatum infection. The expression of these six SmCSEP genes were induced during infection. SmCSEP2, SmCSEP13, and SmCSEP25 suppressed chitin-triggered reactive oxygen species burst and callose deposition in N. benthamiana. The candidate secreted effector proteins of S. musiva target multiple compartments in the plant cell and modulate different pattern-triggered immunity pathways. [Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 "No Rights Reserved" license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2023.

The taste of fruits is an important attribute of fruit quality. The taste substances in fruits stimulate the taste buds to produce taste sensations, which are transmitted through the gustatory nerves into the neural center, finally entering the cerebral cortex. The major taste substances in fruits are soluble sugars, organic acids, polyphenols, alkaloids, and other bitter substances. These taste substances altogether contribute to the unique taste of fruits. Taste regulation of fruit products such as canned fruits, dried fruit products, liquid fruit products, jams and preserved fruits has received increasing attention, and there are a growing number of studies on methods for the regulation of fruit product taste. Many methods including electronic tongue technology, molecular sensory science, and quantitative descriptive analysis have been applied for studying the taste of fruits. This article provides an overview of taste substances in fruits and fruit products and methods for their taste regulation, and introduces commonly used methods in fruit taste research, aiming to provide theoretical guidance for research in the field of fruit taste.

Background Currently, scholars in China are exploring chronic disease management models based on treatment-prevention integration, however, the quantitative evaluation researches are scarce and in the initial stage, lacking in relevance and timeliness. Objective To construct the on-site evaluation index system for integration of medical and preventive services for chronic diseases in primary health care institutions and provide a reference for the quality improvement of integration of medical and preventive services. Methods The on-site evaluation index system for integration of medical and preventive services for chronic diseases in primary health care institutions was initially constructed by literature review, policy induction and expert interview. From June to August 2022, two rounds of expert consultation with 17 experts were conducted using the Delphi method, the index system was determined according to the results of expert consultation, and the weight of each index was calculated by using the analytic hierarchy process. Results The on-site evaluation index system for integration of medical and preventive services for chronic diseases in primary health care institutions was initially constructed consisting of 5 primary indexes, 12 secondary indexes and 37 tertiary indexes. The effective questionnaire recovery rate of the two rounds of expert consultation was 100.0% with the expert authority coefficient of 0.81; the Kendall coordination coefficients of the importance of the three levels of indexes were 0.239 (χ2=8.76, P