The rational design and fabrication of promising electrodes with prominent energy storage property and conversion performance is crucial for supercapacitors and electrocatalysis. Herein, potato chiplike cobalt nickel-layered double hydroxide@polypyrrole− cotton pad (CoNi-LDH@PCPs) composite was synthesized by in situ polymerization, which was coupled with facile solution reaction and ion-exchange etching process. An interesting potato chip-like structure can effectively expedite the kinetics of the electrode reactions, while the three-dimensional PCPs texture affords efficient pathways for charge transport, and the voids between adjacent fibers are thoroughly accessible for electrolytes and bubble evolution. When evaluated as a positive electrode for wearable supercapattery, the hierarchical CoNi-LDH@PCPs electrode displayed high specific capacity and excellent flexibility. As an oxygen evolution reaction catalyst, this PCPbased electrode also reveals the lowest overpotential of 350 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and a Tafel slope of ∼58 mV dec −1 . In addition, density functional theory calculations suggest that the synthesis strategy for controllable tuning of hollow CoNi-LDH arrays reported here represents a critical step toward high-performance electrodes for energy storage and electrochemical catalysis.

SummaryProteins belonging to the newly identified Cerato-platanin (CP) family have been shown to have elicitor activity in inducing disease resistance responses in various plants. In this study, we characterized a gene, MgSM1, from Magnaporthe grisea, encoding a putative small protein belonging to the CP family. MgSM1 was constitutively expressed not only in different fungal growth stages but also during its infec- Our study also provides a novel strategy to generate environment-friendly crops with enhanced broad-spectrum resistance through ectopic expression of microbe-derived disease resistance-inducing proteins.

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Fe3O4 is one of the promising anode materials in Li-ion batteries and a potential alternative to graphite due to the high specific capacity, natural abundance, environmental benignity, non-flammability, and better...

Potential of MoSM1, encoding for a cerato-platanin protein from Magnaporthe oryzae, in improvement of rice disease resistance was examined. Transient expression of MoSM1 in rice leaves initiated hypersensitive response and upregulated expression of defense genes. When transiently expressed in tobacco leaves, MoSM1 targeted to plasma membrane. The MoSM1-overexpressing (MoSM1-OE) transgenic rice lines showed an improved resistance, as revealed by the reduced disease severity and decreased in planta pathogen growth, against 2 strains belonging to two different races of M. oryzae, causing blast disease, and against 2 strains of Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, causing bacterial leaf blight disease. However, no alteration in resistance to sheath blight disease was observed in MoSM1-OE lines. The MoSM1-OE plants contained elevated levels of salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) and constitutively activated the expression of SA and JA signaling-related regulatory and defense genes. Furthermore, the MoSM1-OE plants had no effect on drought and salt stress tolerance and on grain yield. We conclude that MoSM1 confers a broad-spectrum resistance against different pathogens through modulating SA-and JA-mediated signaling pathways without any penalty on abiotic stress tolerance and grain yield, providing a promising potential for application of MoSM1 in improvement of disease resistance in crops.

RING finger proteins comprise a large family and play key roles in regulating growth/developmental processes, hormone signaling and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. A rice gene, OsBIRF1, encoding a putative RING-H2 finger protein, was cloned and identified. OsBIRF1 encodes a 396 amino acid protein belonging to the ATL family characterized by a conserved RING-H2 finger domain (C-X2-C-X15-C-X1-H-X2-H-X2-C-X10-C-X2-C), a transmembrane domain at the N-terminal, a basic amino acid rich region and a characteristic GLD region. Expression of OsBIRF1 was up-regulated in rice seedlings after treatment with benzothaidiazole, salicylic acid, l-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid and jasmonic acid, and was induced differentially in incompatible but not compatible interactions between rice and Magnaporthe grisea, the causal agent of blast disease. Transgenic tobacco plants that constitutively express OsBIRF1 exhibit enhanced disease resistance against tobacco mosaic virus and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci and elevated expression levels of defense-related genes, e.g. PR-1, PR-2, PR-3 and PR-5. The OsBIRF1-overexpressing transgenic tobacco plants show increased oxidative stress tolerance to exogenous treatment with methyl viologen and H2O2, and up-regulate expression of oxidative stress-related genes. Reduced ABA sensitivity in root elongation and increased drought tolerance in seed germination were also observed in OsBIRF1 transgenic tobacco plants. Furthermore, the transgenic tobacco plants show longer roots and higher plant heights as compared with the wild-type plants, suggesting that overexpression of OsBIRF1 promote plant growth. These results demonstrate that OsBIRF1 has pleiotropic effects on growth and defense response against multiple abiotic and biotic stresses.

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