The highest power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) reported for perovskite solar cells (PSCs) with inverted planar structures are still inferior to those of PSCs with regular structures, mainly because of lower open-circuit voltages (). Here we report a strategy to reduce nonradiative recombination for the inverted devices, based on a simple solution-processed secondary growth technique. This approach produces a wider bandgap top layer and a more n-type perovskite film, which mitigates nonradiative recombination, leading to an increase in by up to 100 millivolts. We achieved a high of 1.21 volts without sacrificing photocurrent, corresponding to a voltage deficit of 0.41 volts at a bandgap of 1.62 electron volts. This improvement led to a stabilized power output approaching 21% at the maximum power point.

Understanding the fundamental properties of buried interfaces in perovskite photovoltaics is of paramount importance to the enhancement of device efficiency and stability. Nevertheless, accessing buried interfaces poses a sizeable challenge because of their non‐exposed feature. Herein, the mystery of the buried interface in full device stacks is deciphered by combining advanced in situ spectroscopy techniques with a facile lift‐off strategy. By establishing the microstructure–property relations, the basic losses at the contact interfaces are systematically presented, and it is found that the buried interface losses induced by both the sub‐microscale extended imperfections and lead‐halide inhomogeneities are major roadblocks toward improvement of device performance. The losses can be considerably mitigated by the use of a passivation‐molecule‐assisted microstructural reconstruction, which unlocks the full potential for improving device performance. The findings open a new avenue to understanding performance losses and thus the design of new passivation strategies to remove imperfections at the top surfaces and buried interfaces of perovskite photovoltaics, resulting in substantial enhancement in device performance.

Leaf senescence is a developmentally programmed degeneration process, which is fine tuned by a complex regulatory network for plant fitness. However, molecular regulation of leaf senescence is poorly understood, especially in rice (Oryza sativa), an important staple crop for more than half of the world population. Here, we report a novel nuclear-localized CCCH-type zinc finger protein, Oryza sativa delay of the onset of senescence (OsDOS), involved in delaying leaf senescence in rice. The expression of OsDOS was down-regulated during natural leaf senescence, panicle development, and pollination, although its transcripts were accumulated in various organs. RNAi knockdown of OsDOS caused an accelerated age-dependent leaf senescence, whereas its overexpression produced a marked delay of leaf senescence, suggesting that it acts as a negative regulator for leaf senescence. A genome-wide expression analysis further confirmed its negative regulation for leaf senescence and revealed that, in particular, the jasmonate (JA) pathway was found to be hyperactive in the OsDOS RNAi transgenic lines but impaired in the OsDOS overexpressing transgenic lines, indicating that this pathway is likely involved in the OsDOS-mediated delaying of leaf senescence. Furthermore, methyl JA treatments of both seeds and detached leaves from the RNAi and the overexpressing transgenic lines showed hyperand hyporesponses, respectively, consistent with the negative regulation of the JA pathway by OsDOS. Together, these results indicate that OsDOS is a novel nuclear protein that delays leaf senescence likely, at least in part, by integrating developmental cues to the JA pathway.

The maintenance of functional chloroplasts in photosynthetic eukaryotes requires real-time coordination of the nuclear and plastid genomes. Tetrapyrroles play a significant role in plastid-tonucleus retrograde signaling in plants to ensure that nuclear gene expression is attuned to the needs of the chloroplast. Well-known sites of synthesis of chlorophyll for photosynthesis, plant chloroplasts also export heme and heme-derived linear tetrapyrroles (bilins), two critical metabolites respectively required for essential cellular activities and for light sensing by phytochromes. Here we establish that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, one of many chlorophyte species that lack phytochromes, can synthesize bilins in both plastid and cytosol compartments. Genetic analyses show that both pathways contribute to iron acquisition from extracellular heme, whereas the plastid-localized pathway is essential for light-dependent greening and phototrophic growth. Our discovery of a bilin-dependent nuclear gene network implicates a widespread use of bilins as retrograde signals in oxygenic photosynthetic species. Our studies also suggest that bilins trigger critical metabolic pathways to detoxify molecular oxygen produced by photosynthesis, thereby permitting survival and phototrophic growth during the light period.biliverdin | heme oxygenase | iron homeostasis | oxidative stress | RNA-Seq analysisT he daily light-dark cycle requires all oxygenic photosynthetic species to survive the repeated transition from prolonged darkness to phototrophic metabolism at dawn. Most plants are unable to synthesize chlorophyll in darkness and therefore accumulate photosensitizing chlorophyll precursors at night (1). Sunrise induces an oxidative burst as photosynthesis resumes, so the transition to daylight requires careful coordination of many lightdependent processes. Multiple photoreceptors perform such roles in plants, the most notable being the red-sensing, linear tetrapyrrole (bilin)-based phytochromes and the blue-sensing, flavin-based cryptochromes and phototropins (2-5). Bilins are well-established plant retrograde signals, synthesized in plastids but enabling light sensing by cytosolic phytochromes. Phytochrome photoconversion then triggers nuclear translocation to positively regulate photosynthesis-associated nuclear gene (PhANG) expression (6, 7).Genetic studies suggest that plastids also export negative retrograde signals, metabolites that suppress nuclear gene networks targeted by phytochromes (8-10). Among these metabolites are abscisic acid (ABA) (11), tetrapyrroles (12-14), 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphate (PAP) (15), β-cyclocitral (16), and methylerythritol cyclodiphosphate (MEcPP) (17). Although hypothetical export of a negative tetrapyrrole signal has received considerable support, biochemical evidence for such a retrograde signal remains equivocal in plants (18)(19)(20). Chlorophyte algae diverged from the streptophyte plant lineage over 500 million years ago but share a common chlorophyll a/b-based photosynthetic lightharvesting app...

such as charge-carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths in perovskite films should be maximized, which are sensitive to the density of sub-bandgap trap states acting as nonradiative recombination centers. [12,13] Long carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths imply a reduction in trap densities constituted by multidimensional defects that can be broadly observed at the grain boundaries and surfaces of polycrystalline perovskite films. Therefore, defect modulation to efficiently suppress the undesired nonradiative recombination pathways in perovskite films have resulted in dramatically enhanced carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths, which can be translated into higher open-circuit voltage (V OC) of photovoltaic devices. [14-18] Recently, surface post-treatments, such as depositing a layer of ammonium salts onto the perovskites, are the most frequently employed strategies, passivating the defects in the topmost area of the perovskite films. [19-22] However, the additional depositing procedure is considered to bring much uncertainty to the original perovskite films. [23,24] Recently, Yoo et al. demonstrated that the commonly used solvents (e.g., isopropanol) for dissolving ammonium salts, due to their strong polarity, had negative effects on the underlying perovskite films. [25] Lead halide perovskite films have witnessed rapid progress in optoelectronic devices, whereas polycrystalline heterogeneities and serious native defects in films are still responsible for undesired recombination pathways, causing insufficient utilization of photon-generated charge carriers. Here, radiationenhanced polycrystalline perovskite films with ultralong carrier lifetimes exceeding 6 μs and single-crystal-like electron-hole diffusion lengths of more than 5 μm are achieved. Prolongation of charge-carrier activities is attributed to the electronic structure regulation and the defect elimination at crystal boundaries in the perovskite with the introduction of phenylmethylammonium iodide. The introduced electron-rich anchor molecules around the host crystals prefer to fill the halide/organic vacancies at the boundaries, rather than form low-dimensional phases or be inserted into the original lattice. The weakening of the electron-phonon coupling and the excitonic features of the photogenerated carriers in the optimized films, which together contribute to the enhancement of carrier separation and transportation, are further confirmed. Finally the resultant perovskite films in fully operating solar cells with champion efficiency of 23.32% are validated and a minimum voltage deficit of 0.39 V is realized. Polycrystalline halide perovskites are of enormous excitement to be applied in highly efficient solar cells, [1-3] light-emitting diodes, [4] lasers, [5,6] and high-sensitivity photodetectors [7,8] due to their low fabricating costs [9,10] and excellent optoelectronic properties. [11] In order for these optoelectronic devices to access their theoretical performance limits, key metrics

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Chromochloris zofingiensis, featured due to its capability to simultaneously synthesize triacylglycerol (TAG) and astaxanthin, is emerging as a leading candidate alga for production uses. To better understand the oleaginous mechanism of this alga, we conducted a multiomics analysis by systematically integrating timeresolved transcriptomes, lipidomes and metabolomes in response to nitrogen deprivation. The data analysis unraveled the distinct mechanism of TAG accumulation, which involved coordinated stimulation of multiple biological processes including supply of energy and reductants, carbon reallocation from protein and starch, and 'pushing' and 'pulling' carbon to TAG synthesis. Unlike the model alga Chlamydomonas, de novo fatty acid synthesis in C. zofingiensis was promoted, together with enhanced turnover of both glycolipids and phospholipids, supporting the drastic need of acyls for TAG assembly. Moreover, genomewide analysis identified many key functional enzymes and transcription factors that had engineering potential for TAG modulation. Two genes encoding glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT), the first committed enzyme for TAG assembly, were found in the C. zofingiensis genome; in vivo functional characterization revealed that extrachloroplastic GPAT instead of chloroplastic GPAT played a central role in TAG synthesis. These findings illuminate distinct oleaginousness mechanisms in C. zofingiensis and pave the way towards rational manipulation of this alga to becone an emerging model for trait improvements.

In angiosperms, the stigma provides initial nutrients and guidance cues for pollen grain germination and tube growth. However, little is known about the genes that regulate these processes in rice (Oryza sativa). Here, we generate rice stigmaspecific or -preferential gene expression profiles through comparing genome-wide expression patterns of hand-dissected, unpollinated stigma at anthesis with seven tissues, including seedling shoot, seedling root, mature anther, ovary at anthesis, seeds 5 d after pollination, 10-d-old embryo, 10-d-old endosperm, and suspension-cultured cells by using both 57 K Affymetrix rice whole-genome array and 10 K rice cDNA microarray. A high reproducibility of the microarray results was detected between the two different technology platforms. In total, we identified 548 genes to be expressed specifically or predominantly in the stigma papillar cells of rice. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of 34 selected genes all confirmed their stigma-specific expression. The expression of five selected genes was further validated by RNA in situ hybridization. Gene Ontology analysis shows that several auxin-signaling components, transcription, and stressrelated genes are significantly overrepresented in the rice stigma gene set. Interestingly, most of them also share several cisregulatory elements with known stress-responsive genes, supporting the notion of an overlap of genetic programs regulating pollination and stress/defense responses. We also found that genes involved in cell wall metabolism and cellular communication appear to be conserved in the stigma between rice and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Our results indicate that the stigmas appear to have conserved and novel molecular functions between rice and Arabidopsis.