Qian Ao’s research while affiliated with Guizhou University and other places

As one of China’s most treasured traditional flowers, Rhododendron Subgen. Hymenanthes is renowned worldwide for its evergreen foliage, vibrant flowers, and significant ornamental, landscaping, and economic value. However, climate change poses a serious threat to its future, leading to population declines and endangerment of some species. Despite the ecological and economic importance of Rhododendron Subgen. Hymenanthes, the future distribution of suitable habitats and the most effective strategies for its conservation and utilization remain unclear. This study employs the MaxEnt model, which is well-known for its reliability in predicting species distribution under changing environmental conditions, to predict the potential global distribution of nine species of Rhododendron Subgen. Hymenanthes. The goal is to provide a solid foundation for their conservation, cultivation management, and breeding. The results indicate that, under future climate scenarios, suitable habitat areas for four species (R. irroratum, R. agastum, R. decorum, and R. arboreum) will significantly decrease, while suitable habitats for the remaining five species (R. delavayi, R. fortunei, R. calophytum, R. simiarum, and R. wardii) will experience slight expansion. Temperature and precipitation are identified as key environmental factors influencing the growth and distribution of these species, affecting their ability to colonize new regions. The migration direction of the expanding regions for all nine species is consistent, with their centroids shifting towards the northwest. These findings provide critical insights for developing targeted conservation strategies, including identifying potential refugia and prioritizing conservation areas under future climate conditions.

Flower color is one of the crucial traits of ornamental plants. Rhododendron delavayi Franch. is a famous ornamental plant species distributed in the mountain areas of Southwest China. This plant has red inflorescence and young branchlets. However, the molecular basis of the color formation of R. delavayi is unclear. In this study, 184 MYB genes were identified based on the released genome of R. delavayi. These genes included 78 1R-MYB, 101 R2R3-MYB, 4 3R-MYB, and 1 4R-MYB. The MYBs were divided into 35 subgroups using phylogenetic analysis of the MYBs of Arabidopsis thaliana. The members of the same subgroup in R. delavayi had similar conserved domains and motifs, gene structures, and promoter cis-acting elements, which indicate their relatively conserved function. In addition, transcriptome based on unique molecular identifier strategy and color difference of the spotted petals, unspotted petals, spotted throat, unspotted throat, and branchlet cortex were detected. Results showed significant differences in the expression levels of R2R3-MYB genes. Weighted co-expression network analysis between transcriptome and chromatic aberration values of five types of red samples showed that the MYBs were the most important TFs involved in the color formation, of which seven were R2R3-MYB, and three were 1R-MYB. Two R2R3-MYB (DUH019226.1 and DUH019400.1) had the highest connectivity in the whole regulation network, and they were identified as hub genes for red color formation. These two MYB hub genes provide references for the study of transcriptional regulation of the red color formation of R. delavayi.

Rhododendron decorum is a woody species with high ornamental and medical value. Herein, we introduce a novel in vitro regeneration method for R. decorum. We used flower buds to develop an efficient and rapid plant regeneration protocol. Sterile flower buds of R. decorum of a 2 cm size were used as explants to study the effects of the culture medium and plant growth regulators on the callus induction and adventitious shoot differentiation, proliferation, and rooting. According to the results, the optimal medium combination for callus induction was WPM + 1 mg/L TDZ + 0.2 mg/L NAA, and its induction rate reached 95.08%. The optimal medium combination for adventitious shoot differentiation from the callus was WPM + 0.5 mg/L TDZ + 0.1 mg/L NAA, and its differentiation rate reached 91.32%. The optimal medium combination for adventitious shoot proliferation was WPM + 2 mg/L ZT + 0.5 mg/L NAA, for which the proliferation rate reached 95.32% and the proliferation coefficient reached 9.45. The optimal medium combination for rooting from adventitious shoots was WPM + 0.1 mg/L NAA + 1 mg/L IBA, and its rooting rate reached 86.90%. The survival rates of the rooted regenerated plantlets exceeded 90% after acclimatization and transplantation. This regeneration system has the advantages of being simple and highly efficient, and it causes little damage to the shoots of the mother plants, laying a foundation for the plantlet propagation, genetic transformation, and new-variety breeding of R. decorum.

The existing CO 2 absorption by deep eutectic solvents is limited by the unavoidable water absorption problem during use. In this study, we prepared three deep eutectic solvents with different alcohol aminations and added different water contents to discuss the effect of water content on the absorption of carbon dioxide by deep eutectic solvents. All deep eutectic solvents have a low melting point at room temperature as a liquid and have high thermal stability, where the choline chloride-diethanolamine deep eutectic solvents have a high viscosity. Anhydrous choline chloride-monoethanolamine deep eutectic solvents have the largest CO 2 absorption, reaching 0.2715 g/g, and the absorption of CO 2 by anhydrous choline chloride-N-methyldiethanolamine deep eutectic solvents is only 0.0611 g/g. Water content inhibited the absorption of CO 2 in primary amine and secondary amine systems, whereas it enhanced the absorption of CO 2 in tertiary amine systems, which was related to the reaction process of deep eutectic solvent and CO 2 .