Three novel species of Aquapteridospora (Distoseptisporales, Aquapteridosporaceae) from freshwater habitats in Tibetan Plateau, China.

During an investigation of lignicolous freshwater fungi in the Tibetan Plateau, three Aquapteridospora taxa were collected from freshwater habitats in Xizang, China. The new species possess polyblastic, sympodial, denticles conidiogenous cells and fusiform, septate, with or without sheath conidial, that fit within the generic concept of Aquapteridospora, and multi-gene phylogeny placed these species within Aquapteridospora. Detailed morphological observations clearly demarcate three of these from extant species and are hence described as new taxa. The multi-gene phylogeny of the combined LSU, TEF1-α, and ITS sequence data to infer phylogenetic relationships and discuss phylogenetic affinities with morphologically similar species. Based on morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses, three new species viz. A.linzhiensis, A.yadongensis, and A.submersa are introduced. Details of asexual morphs are described, and justifications for establishing these new species are also provided in this study.

Additional four species of Tatraea (Leotiomycetes, Helotiales) in Yunnan Province, China.

During the investigations of discomycetes in Yunnan, China, five species of Tatraea were discovered on decayed, decorticated oak trees or unidentified wood. All species have typical disc-like, large fruiting bodies with grey, brown or greyish-green colors. The ITS sequence analysis showed that they belong to Tatraea (Helotiaceae, Helotiales) and the LSU and ITS combination revealed a different topology within the genus. Four species, T.clepsydriformis, T.griseoturcoisina, T.yunnanensis and T.yuxiensis were established as new species, and T.aseptata was collected and described on oak woods. The pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) test results indicated that there is no significant genetic recombination (Φw = 1.0) between all related species pairs. All the species described here are supported by descriptions, illustrations and multi-gene analyses.

Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Hyphomycetous Muriform Conidial Taxa from the Tibetan Plateau, China.

During the investigation of lignicolous freshwater fungi in the Tibetan Plateau habitat, fifteen collections were isolated from submerged decaying wood. Fungal characteristics are commonly found as punctiform or powdery colonies with dark pigmented and muriform conidia. Multigene phylogenetic analyses of combined ITS, LSU, SSU and TEF DNA sequences showed that they belong to three families in Pleosporales. Among them, Paramonodictys dispersa, Pleopunctum megalosporum, Pl. multicellularum and Pl. rotundatum are established as new species. Paradictyoarthrinium hydei, Pleopunctum ellipsoideum and Pl. pseudoellipsoideum are reported as new records on the freshwater habitats in Tibetan Plateau, China. The morphological descriptions and illustrations of the new collections are provided.

[Dynamic Assessment of PM2.5 Health Damage Value in China from 2015 to 2018].

With the development of industrialization and urbanization in China, there are many environmental problems especially air pollution, which has serious impacts on the sustainable development of economy, ecological environment and public health. Since 2013, a series of environmental protection laws and regulations, and industrial and energy policies have been successively implemented, including Action Plan for Air Pollution Control, and Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Blue Sky Defense War etc. The air quality of the whole country has been improved. In order to evaluate the dynamic changes of environmental health benefits from air pollution control in China, this paper estimates the health effects and health economic losses caused by PM2.5 pollution, and makes a comparative analysis among different regions and cities based on the data of 297 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2015 to 2018. The results show that, due to sharp decline of ρ(PM2.5), the population exposed to ρ(PM2.5)>35 µg·m-3 decreased year by year, and the proportion of the total population decreased from 80.88% to 62.32%. The total number of all kinds of health endpoints decreased from 33.23 million to 15.91 million, health economic loss decreased from 1579.04 billion yuan to 838.42 billion yuan, the proportion of healthy economic loss in GDP dropped from 2.31% to 0.99%. Among the six regions, the index values of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and surrounding areas, and Chengyu areas have declined year by year. However, Fenwei Plain areas, Yangtze River Delta areas, Pearl River Delta areas, and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River show a complex trend of increasing in some years and decreasing later. However, the situation of Fenwei Plain is still more serious than other areas, and the ρ(PM2.5) is next to Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounding areas. ρ(PM2.5) of all 11 cities still exceed 35 µg·m-3 in 2018. Compared with 2015, the number of early deaths decreased by 1500, but the total number of all kinds of health endpoints increased by 18900. The health economic loss is 80.711 billion yuan, an increase of 10.714 billion yuan than that in 2015. The proportion of health economic loss in GDP is 3.16%, which is 0.25% lower than that in 2015. The per capita health economic loss is 182.67 yuan higher than that in 2015. In terms of cities, from 2015 to 2018, ρ(PM2.5) in 228 cities decreased with varying degrees. Among which, Dezhou and Baoding dropped the most, only 10 cities saw ρ(PM2.5) rise. 14 cities saw an increase in the number of healthy endpoints, and 11 cities saw an increase in the proportion of healthy economic loss to GDP. Although the index values of Baoding, Xingtai, Handan, and other cities have declined year by year, they still rank top 10 every year. The index value of Xi'an, Xianyang, Linfen, and other cities in 2018 is more than that in 2015. The research shows that the environmental health benefits of air pollution control are significant in China, but it is still necessary to further strengthen regional joint prevention and control, as well as one city one policy.

[An Assessment of PM2.5-Related Health Risks and Associated Economic Losses in Chinese Cities].

It is important to carry out research on health risks and associated economic losses caused by air pollution using a large sample city in order to control air pollution and improve public health literacy. Using environmental health risk and environmental value assessment methods, the health risks of PM2.5 pollution in 2015, as well as the corresponding economic losses, were estimated in this study using the environmental monitoring data of 62 key cities as samples. The results show that significant impacts due to PM2.5 pollution occurred in 2015, including about 125.1[95% confidence interval (CI):33.29-205.90] thousand premature deaths and 10.10 (95% CI:4.70-15.02) million cases of illness, hospital admissions, and outpatients, which accounted for 3.53% (95% CI:1.64%-5.26%) of the total urban population. The total economic loss associated with the health risks was approximately 570.6 (95% CI:193.08-874.21) billion yuan, which accounts for 1.53% (95% CI:0.52%-2.35%) of the total GDP in 2015. The per capita loss was 1970 (95% CI:667-3018) yuan for these cities. Among the four major urban agglomerations of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and Northeast China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei has the highest health risks, associated economic losses, the proportion of associated economic losses to GDP, and associated economic loss per capita because of its high concentration of PM2.5 and dense population than other three urban agglomerations. Among the three economic areas of Eastern, Central, and Western China, the health risks and associated economic losses were highest in the former. However, economic loss per capita did not differ greatly in the three economic areas. The difference in economic losses was very small between South and North China. However, the proportion of economic loss to GDP and per capita loss were much higher in the North than in the South. As to specific cities, the problems of health risks and economic losses were outstanding in Baoding, Zhengzhou, Jinan, and Beijing, which have higher PM2.5 concentrations.

Backbone tree for Chaetothyriales with four new species of Minimelanolocus from aquatic habitats.

We are studying the freshwater lignicolous fungi along a north-south latitudinal gradient in Asia. In this paper, fresh collections of Minimelanolocus from submerged wood in streams in Yunnan Province, China are characterised based on morphology and molecular phylogeny based on three rDNA regions: 18S (SSU), ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 (ITS) and 28S nuclear rDNA (LSU). The phylogenetic analysis of combined LSU and SSU sequence data and a separate analysis of ITS placed the isolates within the family Herpotrichiellaceae, order Chaetothyriales. An updated phylogenetic backbone tree for Chaetothyriales is provided with available ex-type and additional isolates. One of the isolates collected was identified as Minimelanolocus obscurus based on morphology and molecular data. Minimelanolocus aquaticus, M. asiaticus, M. curvatus and M. melanicus are described as new species considering the interspecific ITS variability and morphology. The phylogenetic placement of Minimelanolocus in Chaetothyriales is novel and provides new sequence data for the genus as a distinct lineage in Chaetothyriales. The conidial characters of all the known species in the genus are summarized. Descriptions and illustrations are provided for the five species of Minimelanolocus with notes on their taxonomy and phylogeny.

[Proteome analysis of potato drought resistance variety in Ninglang 182 leaves under drough stress].

It is utmost important to cultivate potato variety with drought resistance to reduce arid loss by research progress on potato drought resistance molecular mechanism. A comparative study with differences in protein group analysis of potato drought resistance variety in Ninglang 182 leaves was carried out by using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis during drought and normal processing conditions.There were 12 differentially expressed protein spots identified by Electro-phoresis and MALDI-TOF-TOF/MS analysis. The function classification of these proteins results that the potato varieties to drought tolerance could be improved through the protection of photosynthesis and mitochondria, regulation of the signal transduction induced under environmental stress and regulation of plant tissue N and C transport system, these proteins expression were increased under drought.The results showed that these proteins are the drought resistance associated proteins of potato variety in Ninglang 182.This study provided a theoretical basis of the molecular mechanism of improving drought tolerance in order to expound the potato drought resistance variety through multiple paths and the level regulation.