National Quarantine Station

Sustainable agriculture stives to enhance crop productivity while minimizing environmental degradation, emphasizing the need for eco-friendly and effective alternatives to synthetic agrochemicals. Biological control has been proven to be an effective substitute for synthetic chemicals. Among biocontrol agents (BCAs), Trichoderma viride has emerged as a well-established biocontrol fungus with multifaceted roles in plant disease management and growth promotion. This review aims to systematically evaluate biology, mechanisms of action, mass production technologies and field application methods to T. viride, highlighting its limitations and future research prospects. By consolidating and critically analyzing scattered information, this work seeks to identify knowledge gaps that can guide the development of improved formulations and practical usage strategies. Overall, T. viride demonstrates remarkable potential as sustainable bioresource for integrated disease management, improved soil health and environmental stewardship, although its commercial success depends on advances in formulation stability, contamination control and strain selection.

Bumblebees are the most important pollinators in alpine areas. Their survival is vulnerable to anthropogenic disturbance. To comprehend the variation in bumblebee diversity in different habitat types and altitudinal gradient, this study carried out transect counting in three distinct habitat types and altitudinal gradient in the source area of the Bailong River between June and September from 2021 to 2022. The result indicates (1) high species richness in bumblebees, as 27 species and 1106 individuals from 9 subgenera were collected. It indicates that the Forest-Grassland ecotone has rich bumblebee diversity. Edge effective and suitable habitats bred rich bumblebees. (2) Species richness and abundance differed between three habitat types: alpine meadows had the highest; shrubs on the forest edge had the second highest; and grasslands had the lowest. (3) The distribution pattern in the altitude of bumblebees shows two peaks. The species richness and abundance of bumblebee are highest in the ranges of 3500-3700 m and 2900-3100 m, while 3100-3500 m is lower than the other altitude ranges, presumably because this range is just a large grassland with overgrazing. (4) The results of redundancy analysis indicate that environmental factors significantly affect the diversity of bumblebees. (5) The conservation measures should mainly focus on alpine meadows, as they are the most important habitat of the bumblebee. Reducing overgrazing in large-scale grasslands is beneficial to bumblebees as well as wildflower plants.

Purple Cleome (Cleome rutidosperma DC.) is an annual herbaceous plant of the Cleomaceae family, which is native to tropical Africa. In the 1950s, it was introduced into tropical and subtropical regions of China as ornamental plants, and naturalized to Southern provinces. In China, this plant is commonly used for folk medicine for anti-inflammatory and anthelmintic activities (Ansari et al. 2016). In November 2024, powdery mildew symptoms were observed on 60% of purple Cleome plants on the Hainan Medical University campus (19° 58′ 53″ N; 110° 19′ 47″ E) in Haikou, Hainan Province, China. Powdery mildew colonies covered the leaf surfaces of affected plants, causing discoloration and defoliation. Mycelia were superficial and hyphal appressoria were nipple-shaped. Conidiophores (n =30) were unbranched, cylindrical, 95 to 274 × 11 to 14 µm, and produced three to five immature conidia in chains with a crenate outline. Foot cells (n =30) were cylindrical, straight or sometimes curved at the base, and 42 to 73 µm long. Conidia (n =100) were ellipsoid-ovoid to doliiform, 20 to 32 × 14 to 22 µm (length/width ratio = 1.1 to 2.0), with well-developed fibrosin bodies, and produced germ tubes from the lateral position. Based on these morphological characteristics, the pathogen was provisionally identified as Podosphaera xanthii (Braun and Cook 2012). The teleomorph was not observed. A specimen was deposited in the Hainan Medical University Plant Pathology Herbarium as HMCR-24. To confirm the identification, genomic DNA was extracted from mycelium, conidiophores, and conidia using a fungal DNA kit (Omega Bio-Tek, USA). The rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was amplified with primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990) and sequenced in both directions. The resulting 575-bp sequence was deposited in GenBank (accession no. PP178157). A BLASTn search in GenBank of this sequence showed 99% similarity with the ITS sequences of P. xanthii isolates from China (OR229712, MT260063, and MT739423), Thailand (LC270779), and Japan (AB525914). Additionally, the 28S rDNA gene was amplified using the primer pairs NL1 and NL4 (O´Donnell 1993). The 28S sequence (accession no. PP179514) shared 100% similarity with P. xanthii isolates (MT739424 and LC270779). Powdery mildew from Hainan sample belonged to the P. xanthii group with strong bootstrap values support 99% in maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on ITS and 28S gene sequences. To confirm pathogenicity, five healthy potted plants of C. rutidosperma were inoculated by gently pressing a powdery mildew-infected leaf onto 15 young leaves. Five non-inoculated plants served as controls. All plants were maintained in a greenhouse at 26°C, 70% relative humidity, with a 16-h photoperiod. After 7 days, the inoculated leaves showed powdery mildew symptoms whereas no symptoms were observed on the control plants. The fungal colonies observed on the inoculated plants were morphologically identical to those found on the originally infected leaves collected from Hainan. Based on the morphological characteristics and molecular identification, the fungus was identified as P. xanthii. This plant pathogen has been previously reported on C. rutidosperma in India (Nayak et al. 2018). To our knowledge, this is the first record of P. xanthii infecting C. rutidosperma in China. C. rutidosperma is often planted as an ornamental plant on the road, and we are concerned that it may serve as a new host, spreading this pathogen to other economic crops.

Abstract Background Mulberry is an economically important sericulture crop, however, root-knot nematodes (RKNs) infection pose a serious threat to the production of mulberry. We found a high density RKNs parasitizing mulberry in Yunnan, China. In order to clarify the pathogenic species, the morphometric traits and measurements, rDNA/mtDNA-based phylogenetic relationships of this nematode and SCAR-PCR analysis were used to identify RKNs, and the mulberry healthy seedlings were inoculated artificially with second-stage juveniles to research pathogenicity. Results The perineal pattern of females is round to ovoid with a moderately high dorsal arch and two large and prominent phasmids, similar to Meloidogyne vitis . The morphological characteristics and morphometric values of females, second-stage juveniles and males were similar to M. vitis . The nucleotide sequence of rDNA ITS1-5.8S-ITS2, mtDNA coxI and coxII of this nematode were highly similar to M. vitis , with a similarity of more than 99%, and all were clustered within the same clade with those of M. vitis with a high support rate of 100%. Moreover, species identity was further confirmed using M. vitis -specific primers Mv-F/R, a single specific fragment of 174 bp was obtained. Artificial inoculation showed that the RKN isolated and purified from mulberry could complete its life history in the roots of healthy seedlings of mulberry, and produced typical root-knot and egg masses. Conclusions The RKN parasitizing in mulberry was confirmed as M. vitis based on the morphological features and molecular results. This is the first report of M. vitis attacking mulberry. M. vitis could infect and damage mulberry and may constitute a potential threat to mulberry production. The results of this study providing a theoretical basis for accurately identifying and implementing future effective and integrated nematodes management strategy to safeguard mulberry cultivation.

Thesium chinense Turcz. (T. chinense), a perennial herb in the Santalaceae family, exhibits potent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Transcriptome sequencing was performed on one- and two-year-old T. chinense plants across seedling, flowering, and fruiting stages (all sampled from the same location) using the illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform. A total of 58,706 unigenes were identified, including 1656 transcription factors (TFs). Further analysis classified these TFs into seven functional categories, enabling the reconstruction of a representative TF regulatory network. Differential expression analysis revealed that the number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) ranged from 2000 to 5000 during different developmental stages in first-year plants, while varying between 1000 and 2000 in second-year plants. Comparative analysis of DEGs between one- and two-year-old plants showed that they were primarily associated with sesquiterpene, triterpene, and terpene skeleton biosynthesis, as well as other metabolic pathways. Additionally, analysis of key genes involved in flavonoid biosynthesis-the major bioactive compounds in T. chinense-revealed their predominant accumulation during the first year of growth. This study provides valuable insights into the developmental biology of T. chinense and establishes a foundation for future research on flavonoid biosynthesis pathway genes and their therapeutic applications.

Pine wilt disease (PWD), caused by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus (PWN), leads to severe ecological and economic losses. Current control methods rely on chemical nematicides, which pose environmental and health risks and have led to PWN resistance, reducing their field efficacy. A green and effective strategy is urgently needed. A highly effective nematicidal strain, SD30, was screened. Its fermentation broth achieved a nematicidal rate of 100% after 12 h and the same result after 24 h for the filtrate. The bacterial suspension showed a 76.60% nematicidal rate after 48 h. SD30 was identified as Bacillus thuringiensis through morphological and molecular methods. In indoor efficacy tests on Pinus massoniana, the bacterial suspension exhibited a control efficacy of 54.74%, outperforming both the fermentation broth and filtrate. When applied 7 days before inoculation, the bacterial suspension achieved a 67.00% control efficacy, more effective than when applied 3 days before, on the day, or after inoculation. The highest control efficacy (52.00%) was observed at a concentration of 3 × 107 cfu mL-1, with efficacy decreasing at higher dilutions. Indoor control efficacy on Masson pine and larch was 67.74% and 73.68%, respectively, with better results on larch. In safety evaluations, Bt SD30 showed no pathogenicity to tobacco and alfalfa, was sensitive to six antibiotics, exhibited weak hemolytic activity, and contained the virulence genes nheB, nheC and entFM. This study screened out Bt SD30 from larch, which demonstrates strong nematicidal activity and holds potential for biocontrol applications against pine wilt disease. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.