Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) belong to the group of thin-film solar cells which have been under extensive research for more than two decades due to their low cost, simple preparation methodology, low toxicity and ease of production. Still, there is lot of scope for the replacement of current DSSC materials due to their high cost, less abundance, and long-term stability. The efficiency of existing DSSCs reaches up to 12%, using Ru(II) dyes by optimizing material and structural properties which is still less than the efficiency offered by first- and second-generation solar cells, i.e., other thin-film solar cells and Si-based solar cells which offer ~ 20-30% efficiency. This article provides an in-depth review on DSSC construction, operating principle, key problems (low efficiency, low scalability, and low stability), prospective efficient materials, and finally a brief insight to commercialization.

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Fruits are the defining feature of angiosperms, likely have contributed to angiosperm successes by protecting and dispersing seeds, and provide foods to humans and other animals, with many morphological types and important ecological and agricultural implications. Rosaceae is a family with ∼3000 species and an extraordinary spectrum of distinct fruits, including fleshy peach, apple, and strawberry prized by their consumers, as well as dry achenetum and follicetum with features facilitating seed dispersal, excellent for studying fruit evolution. To address Rosaceae fruit evolution and other questions, we generated 125 new transcriptomic and genomic datasets and identified hundreds of nuclear genes to reconstruct a well-resolved Rosaceae phylogeny with highly supported monophyly of all subfamilies and tribes. Molecular clock analysis revealed an estimated age of ∼101.6 Ma for crown Rosaceae and divergence times of tribes and genera, providing a geological and climate context for fruit evolution. Phylogenomic analysis yielded strong evidence for numerous whole genome duplications (WGDs), supporting the hypothesis that the apple tribe had a WGD and revealing another one shared by fleshy fruit-bearing members of this tribe, with moderate support for WGDs in the peach tribe and other groups. Ancestral character reconstruction for fruit types supports independent origins of fleshy fruits from dry-fruit ancestors, including the evolution of drupes (e.g., peach) and pomes (e.g., apple) from follicetum, and drupetum (raspberry and blackberry) from achenetum. We propose that WGDs and environmental factors, including animals, contributed to the evolution of the many fruits in Rosaceae, which provide a foundation for understanding fruit evolution.

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Premise of the study Here we present a series of protocols for RNA extraction across a diverse array of plants; we focus on woody, aromatic, aquatic, and other chemically complex taxa. Methods and results Ninety-one taxa were subjected to RNA extraction with three methods presented here: (1) TRIzol/TURBO DNA-free kits using the manufacturer's protocol with the addition of sarkosyl; (2) a combination method using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and TRIzol/sarkosyl/TURBO DNA-free; and (3) a combination of CTAB and QIAGEN RNeasy Plant Mini Kit. Bench-ready protocols are given. Conclusions After an iterative process of working with chemically complex taxa, we conclude that the use of TRIzol supplemented with sarkosyl and the TURBO DNA-free kit is an effective, efficient, and robust method for obtaining RNA from 100 mg of leaf tissue of land plant species (Embryophyta) examined. Our protocols can be used to provide RNA of suitable stability, quantity, and quality for transcriptome sequencing.

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The anamorphic genus Phoma was subdivided into nine sections based on morphological characters, and included teleomorphs in Didymella, Leptosphaeria, Pleospora and Mycosphaerella, suggesting the polyphyly of the genus. Recent molecular, phylogenetic studies led to the conclusion that Phoma should be restricted to Didymellaceae. The present study focuses on the taxonomy of excluded Phoma species, currently classified in Phoma sections Plenodomus, Heterospora and Pilosa. Species of Leptosphaeria and Phoma section Plenodomus are reclassified in Plenodomus, Subplenodomus gen. nov., Leptosphaeria and Paraleptosphaeria gen. nov., based on the phylogeny determined by analysis of sequence data of the large subunit 28S nrDNA (LSU) and Internal Transcribed Spacer regions 1 & 2 and 5.8S nrDNA (ITS). Phoma heteromorphospora, type species of Phoma section Heterospora, and its allied species Phoma dimorphospora, are transferred to the genus Heterospora stat. nov. The Phoma acuta complex (teleomorph Leptosphaeria doliolum), is revised based on a multilocus sequence analysis of the LSU, ITS, small subunit 18S nrDNA (SSU), β-tubulin (TUB), and chitin synthase 1 (CHS-1) regions. Species of Phoma section Pilosa and allied Ascochyta species were determined to belong to Pleosporaceae based on analysis of actin (ACT) sequence data. Anamorphs that are similar morphologically to Phoma and described in Ascochyta, Asteromella, Coniothyrium, Plectophomella, Pleurophoma and Pyrenochaeta are included in this study. Phoma-like species, which grouped outside the Pleosporineae based on a LSU sequence analysis, are transferred to the genera Aposphaeria, Paraconiothyrium and Westerdykella. The genera Medicopsis gen. nov. and Nigrograna gen. nov. are introduced to accommodate the medically important species formerly known as Pyrenochaeta romeroi and Pyrenochaeta mackinnonii, respectively. Taxonomic novelties New genera: Medicopsis Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, Nigrograna Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, Paraleptosphaeria Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, Subplenodomus Gruyter, Verkley & Crous. New species: Aposphaeria corallinolutea Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Paraconiothyrium maculicutis Verkley & Gruyter. New combinations: Coniothyrium carteri (Gruyter & Boerema) Verkley & Gruyter, C. dolichi (Mohanty) Verkley & Gruyter, C. glycines (R.B. Stewart) Verkley & Gruyter, C. multiporum (V.H. Pawar, P.N. Mathur & Thirum.) Verkley & Gruyter, C. telephii (Allesch.) Verkley & Gruyter, Heterospora (Boerema, Gruyter & Noordel.) Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, H. chenopodii (Westend.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, H. dimorphospora (Speg.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Leptosphaeria errabunda (Desm.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. etheridgei (L.J. Hutchison & Y. Hirats.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. macrocapsa (Trail) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. pedicularis (Fuckel) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. rubefaciens (Togliani) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. sclerotioides (Sacc.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. sydowii (Boerema, Kesteren & Loer.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, L. veronicae (Hollós) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Medicopsis romeroi (Borelli) Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, Nigrograna mackinnonii (Borelli) Gruyter, Verkley & Crous, Paraconiothyrium flavescens (Gruyter, Noordel. & Boerema) Verkley & Gruyter, Paracon. fuckelii (Sacc.) Verkley & Gruyter, Paracon. fusco-maculans (Sacc.) Verkley & Gruyter, Paracon. lini (Pass.) Verkley & Gruyter, Paracon. tiliae (F. Rudolphi) Verkley & Gruyter, Paraleptosphaeria dryadis (Johanson) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Paralept. macrospora (Thüm.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Paralept. nitschkei (Rehm ex G. Winter) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Paralept. orobanches (Schweinitz: Fr.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Paralept. praetermissa (P. Karst.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plenodomus agnitus (Desm.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. biglobosus (Shoemaker & H. Brun) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. chrysanthemi (Zachos, Constantinou & Panag.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. collinsoniae (Dearn. & House) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. confertus (Niessl ex Sacc.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. congestus (M.T. Lucas) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. enteroleucus (Sacc.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. fallaciosus (Berl.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. hendersoniae (Fuckel) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. influorescens (Boerema & Loer.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. libanotidis (Fuckel) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. lindquistii (Frezzi) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. lupini (Ellis & Everh.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. pimpinellae (Lowen & Sivan.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. tracheiphilus (Petri) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Plen. visci (Moesz) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Pleospora fallens (Sacc.) Gruyter & Verkley, Pleo. flavigena (Constantinou & Aa) Gruyter & Verkley, Pleo. incompta (Sacc. & Martelli) Gruyter & Verkley, Pyrenochaetopsis pratorum (P.R. Johnst. & Boerema) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Subplenodomus apiicola (Kleb.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Subplen. drobnjacensis (Bubák) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Subplen. valerianae (Henn.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Subplen. violicola (P. Syd.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, Westerdykella capitulum (V.H. Pawar, P.N. Mathur & Thirum.) de Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley, W. minutispora (P.N. Mathur ex Gruyter & Noordel.) Gruyter, Aveskamp & Verkley. New names: Pleospora angustis Gruyter & Verkley, Pleospora halimiones Gruyter & Verkley.

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Background and aims Silicon (Si) in plants provides structural support and improves tolerance to diseases, drought and metal toxicity. Shoot Si concentrations are generally considered to be greater in monocotyledonous than in non-monocot plant species. The phylogenetic variation in the shoot Si concentration of plants reported in the primary literature has been quantified. Methods Studies were identified which reported Si concentrations in leaf or non-woody shoot tissues from at least two plant species growing in the same environment. Each study contained at least one species in common with another study. Key results Meta-analysis of the data revealed that, in general, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms accumulated less Si in their shoots than non-vascular plant species and horsetails. Within angiosperms and ferns, differences in shoot Si concentration between species grouped by their higher-level phylogenetic position were identified. Within the angiosperms, species from the commelinoid monocot orders Poales and Arecales accumulated substantially more Si in their shoots than species from other monocot clades. Conclusions A high shoot Si concentration is not a general feature of monocot species. Information on the phylogenetic variation in shoot Si concentration may provide useful palaeoecological and archaeological information, and inform studies of the biogeochemical cycling of Si and those of the molecular genetics of Si uptake and transport in plants.

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