Shibing karst World Natural Heritage nominated property is rich in bryophytes because of its superior geography, huge elevation difference, high heterogeneity in habitats, and little human disturbance. A total of 286 species of bryophytes (including subspecies and varieties) in 128 genera, 50 families were found. There were 43 species of Hepaticae in 23 genera, 17 families and 243 species of Musci in 105 genera, 33 families. Both the dominant families and genera suggest that the bryoflora of Shibing karst area is transitional between temperate zone and tropic. The phytogeographical elements were dominated by northern temperate elements (3712%), tropical elements (3182%) and eastern Asia elements (3030%), while areapattern of endemic to China occupied 1212%. Therefore, the bryoflora of Shibing karst area is of the nature of both the temperate and tropical elements, and possessed strong easternAsia colour and relatively high endemism. The results of comparison with other five sites show that the species abundance of Shibing karst area was higher and its bryoflora was most similar to Xiangzhigou, Malinghe and Luoping karst areas in YunnanGuizhou Bryological Region.
Total DNA from 56 individual plants collected in 28 sample sites of 10 Oxytropis species in Inner Mongolia was extracted in this research, and the psbAtrnH sequence was amplied and sequenced. Then the sequences were analyzed by ClustalX and MEGA 50. The phylogenetic trees were constructed by Maximum Likelihood methods in MEGA 50. The results showed as follows: (1) There were 50 variable sites, 36 informative site and 34% of the interspecific difference in the 10 Oxytropis species, and the GC contents of the psbAtrnH region were between 2318%~2572%. (2) The 10 species of Oxytropis were probably monophyletic, clearly separating from the Astragalus species and the bootstrap value was 99%. (3) The samples of Oxytropis glabra var. tenuis and Oglabra clustered a group independently, thus supported the opinion of treating Oxytropis glabra var. tenuis as a variant of Oglabra. (4)The samples of Overticillaris, Oracemosa and Oochrantha mixed. Therefore they showed a close relationship. We are congruent with the points in Flora of Intromongolica, the consensus putting the three species into Subgen. Euoxytropis Sect. Baicalia Stell. ex Bunge. (5) The samples of Ociliata and Oleptophylla clustered a group, which also supported the consensus which put them into sect. Xerobia Bunge. The investigation results indicated that psbAtrnH sequences provided the molecular evidences for the study of the phylogenetic relationships in the Oxytropis at subgenus, sects and species levels.
Six species and one subspecies of Codonopsis are described from the PanHimalaya as new in the present article. They are Codonopsis bomiensis, Ccampanulata, Celliptica, Chemisphaerica, Clixianica, Creflexa, and Ccardiophylla Diels ex Kom. subsp. megaphylla. The six new species each is provided with an illustration.
Two species of the genus Aconitum (Ranunculaceae), Anovoaxillare and Abasitruncatum, are described as new from Xizang Autonomous Region, China. The diagnostic differences between them and their allies are given.
Codonopsis draco was described by Pampanini as new from NW Hubei ［HuPeh］ Province, China. This species has been ignored since then by all late authors; even Lammers failed in mentioning it. Recently when the present author traced the name of Cdraco Pamp., he found from the figure provided by Pampanini that it is a distinct species but not in Codonopsis. By comparing it with species of Codonopsis and its allies it was found conspecific with Echinocodon lobophyllus DY. Hong, which was described based on a collection also from W Hubei (Fig1). A new combination is made here in the present paper.
Five forms of flower are included in lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). The single flower is the primitive type of lotus flowers, followed by semidouble, double, duplicated and thousandpetalled flower. To understand the molecular mechanism underlying the flower doubling in Nelumbo, it is necessary to investigate morphologically the origin of different flower forms. We studied the differentiation of lotus floral buds by paraffin section of five cultivars in Nnucifera, representing the five forms of flower, ie.‘Dan Sajin’ (single), ‘Da Sajin’ (double), ‘Zhongshan Hongtai’ (duplicated), ‘Zhizun Qianban’ (fullydouble) and ‘Qianban Lian’ (thousandpetalled), respectively. The anatomical examination showed that the differentiation of the sepal and petal primodia shared a similar pattern, but the stamen and carpel primordia were distinct in differentiation. The normal differentiation processes of stamen and carpel primordia were observed in the flower buds of single, double and duplicatedpetalled cultivars. However, in ‘Zhizun Qianban’, a fullydouble cultivar, all the primordial stamens and carpels were transformed into the petals. The thousandpetalled cultivar didn’t produce either stamen primordia or carpel primordia but developed the tiny petals instead. These results suggested that the petals of doubleflowered lotus were mainly derived from the petalody of stamens, followed by pistils. For the thousandpetalled cultivar, further molecular studies are needed to understand the origin of the petals and the role of receptacle in flower doubling of lotus.
In marginal tropical areas, air temperature in winter usually decreases by 10℃ compared with summer at night/day. Although tropical plants are sensitive to low temperature, the mechanism underlying photosynthetic acclimation of tropical trees to winter low temperature is unclear. To address this question, the photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII) activities, and energy distribution in PSI and PSII were examined in summer and winter in two tropical highquality timber tree species Erythrophleum guineense and Dalbergia odorifera grown in a marginal tropical area (21°54′N, 101°46′E). Our results indicated that the photosynthetic apparatus of Eguineense and Dodorifera was maintained stable in winter. The effective quantum yield of PSII decreased significantly in winter, but nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) significantly increased. In winter, cyclic electron flow (CEF) was significantly stimulated in both species, which was significantly and positively correlated with NPQ. Meanwhile, the stimulation of CEF led to an increase in P700 oxidation ratio and the overreduction of PSI acceptor side was prevented. Antimycin A (a specific inhibitor of PGR5dependent CEF) significantly aggravated PSII photoinhibition under high light in both species. These results suggested that stimulation of CEF is an important mechanism for photosynthetic acclimation to winter low temperature in a marginal tropical area in the two tropical tree species.
Mycorrhizal associations play a key role in the life cycle and evolutionary history of orchids. Although most orchid species are tropical and epiphytic, their mycorrhizae are poorly understood compared with those of temperate, terrestrial orchids. To investigate the influences of such fungi on photosynthetic, epiphytic orchids, we inoculated seedlings of Dendrobium nobile with Epulorhiza sp. (S1) or Tulasnella sp. (S3). These fungi had been identified based on their morphological and molecular characters. Both S1 and S3 formed symbiotic associations with our seedlings, promoting their growth and development to various degrees. Results from signature experiments with the 15N stable isotope suggested that the utilization of organic nitrogen by orchid seedlings was significantly improved by S1, but not by S3. Dendrobine contents were significantly higher in all inoculated seedlings. Our findings demonstrate that these mycorrhizal fungi enhance plant growth, their utilization of organic nitrogen, and the accumulation of secondary metabolites in this epiphytic orchid species.
MicroRNA (miRNA) is a class of endogenous noncoding small RNAs with important posttranscriptional regulatory roles in eukaryotes. Plant miRNAs play important roles in the posttranscriptional regulatory network through mediating cleavage or silencing of target mRNAs. As one of the ancient MIRNA family, miR165/166 (miR166) is a key regulator in land plants. In this study, we analyzed the diversity and molecular evolution of MIR166 genes in land plants, and identified the replication and evolution of MIR166 genes in Physcomitrella patens. Homeodomain Leucinezipper of class III (HDZIP III) proteins are important transcription factors in plants, HDZIP III genes are conserved targeting of miR166 in angiosperms, gymnosperms, ferns, and mosses. Here, a preliminary study was conducted to make clear the relationships between HDZIP III genes and miR166 during the evolutionary process.
In order to discuss the cross compatibility and hybrid seed vigor of sympatric species among Guralensis, Gglabra and Geurycarpa distributed in Xinjiang, the cross fruiting rate, the pollen germination on stigma, the pollen tube growth in style after cross pollination and germination parameters of hybrid seeds were analyzed. Results showed that there was highly cross compatibility among these three Glycyrrhiza plants and their hybrids seeds were highly vigor. It suggested that the interspecific isolation mechanism of the three Glycyrrhiza plants was weak. Moreover, the natural hybridizations may occur and form natural hybrid zone.
The UBX (Ubiquitin regulatory X) protein family plays important roles in ubiquitinrelated processes including cellcycle control, transcriptional regulation, signal transduction, development, stress response, programmed cell death, endocytosis and DNA repair. However, this family has not been studied to date in Populus and Vitis. To better understand the UBX in these two plants, relevant analyses about gene structure, chromosomal location, duplication, phylogenetic relationships were performed. Our study provides the first systematic analysis of the Vitis and Populus UBX proteins. The exon/intron gene structure and motif composition were relatively conserved in the same group. Duplication analyses suggested that tandem duplication and segmental duplication contribute to the expansion of Populus and Vitis UBX gene family, while some gene loss has also occurred. The results presented basic information on UBX proteins, which may show a scaffold for future functional analysis of this family.
A droughtresistance gene was cloned from drought cDNA library of Grimmia pilifera, the gene relatived to ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolytic enzymes (UCH), named GpUCH. The cDNA fragment of GpUCH was cloned from Grimmia pilifera through rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). To further study the function of GpUCH gene, it was necessary to describe the sequence characteristics, evolutionary relationship and gene expression. The full length cDNA was 951bp with an pen reading frame of 711bp which encoded 237 amino acid with a molecular weight of 257kD, and the isoelectric point is 467. The result of bioinformatics showed that this protein was unstable transmembrane protein and had no signal peptide. The phylogenetic tree showed that GpUCH and Physcomitrella patens UCH protein had a close relationship. QRTPCR analysis showed that the expression of GpUCH gene was induced in both rehydration and dehydration.Under different conditions the expression of GpUCH were obviously varius. The results suggested that GpUCH gene might play an important role in drought stress.
Multiplex PCR of microsatellite is a costeffective and highthroughput technique of genotyping. We developed a new 12plex PCR kit for Populus euphratica, the only tree species in desert area ranging from Western China to Mediterranean coast. Three primers were designed for the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) sequences from the NCBI database and the other nine primers were designed based on the EST sequences of Peuphratica obtained by Solexa. The multiplex kit was tested by 96 samples from three natural populations. The results showed sufficient amplification stability and high polymorphism. All the 12 loci used in this kit showed a high transferability (79%) in other seven species from five sections of the genus. The new 12plex kit combined with the two eight multiplex kits we had developed in previous studies, should be useful to reveal the genetic mechanism and evolution history of the Peuphratica and related species. During the research, we found that primers selection, amplification efficiency, null allele detection are the essential parts of the multiplex kit development.
Extracting high quality genome DNA from plant is a vital step in plant molecular biology research. But it is relatively difficult to obtain high quality DNA from plant species which are rich in polysaccharides, polyphenols, and other secondary metabolites. This method was developed bases on common CTAB and commercial kit method with some modifications and features removing interfering material prior to the cell lysis. High quality DNA was obtained by this method from a variety of plant species and evaluated by electrophoresis and spectrometer methods. We demonstrated that it is a common plant genomic DNA extraction method especially suitable for some difficult plant species.
Fragrance is a very important quality traits of rice, fragrant rice research has been an important research issue in rice research fields in nowadays. In our study, using the detection method of molecular markers, genotypes of the 10 genes (Wx, SSII3, SBE3, AGPiso, SSIII2, AGPlar, PUL, SSI, ISA, SSIV2) associated rice eating quality were analyzed in the 23 fragrant rice cultivars. The result indicated that the “2845”rice cultivar possesses the best combination of genotypes related to the highest eating quality, and the next best rice cultivars were “Songxiangzaojing”, ”Suhuxiangjing”, “B1”, “Wuyun2645”, “Tongyunjing”, “Yinxiang28”, “Xiangjing49②”, “99983”, “Wxiang99075”, “07-08”, “Yunjingyou15”, “29185”, “Nanhai318”. Other 9 rice cultivars (“Dahuaxiangjing”, “Wuxiang14”, “Xiangjing”, “Della”, “Dalixiang”, “Taiguoxiangdao”, “Cxiang517”, “Xiangdao No1”, “Zhongxiang No1”) obtain some of bad genotypes which may have adverse effect on rice eating quality. This study was helpful to establish an overall understanding of the genotypes of these ten eating quality related genes in the 23 tested fragrant rice cultivars, and provides the important genotype information in selecting and cultivating new fragrant rice with good eating quality in future via molecular markersassisted selection method.
This article compliments the S18 session (transmission of traditional ecological knowledge and conservation of medicinal plants) at the 13th International Congress of Ethnobiology (ISE) in Montpellier, France (May 2012). The aim of the article is to provide an insight into the livelihoods of a Berber community, a village of the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, of the local biodiversity and most importantly, the prevalent use of medicinal plants for primary health care. It seeks to demonstrate the value of traditional ecological and herbal knowledge for the subsistence of the community and emphasises the vital role that family and community connections play for the transmission of traditional herbal knowledge within the community.
Seed morphological and winddispersed characteristics of Pinus yunnanensis and Keteleeria evelyniana were compared in this study to clarify the relationship among seed morphological, dispersal characteristics and winddispersal ability. The results showed that: 1)Seed wing loading had the greatest effect on the seed settlement velocity, but the effect of seed shape(the ratio of seed wing length to width) on it was unobvious. Seed morphological and dispersal characteristics of two species slightly influenced the horizontal dispersal distance. 2)Seed morphological characteristics(weight, length, width and seed wing area) of Pyunnanensis were significantly lower than Kevelyniana’s. 3) The ratio of seed wing length to width of Pyunnanensis was greater, and had less seed wing loading than Kevelyniana, the seed settlement velocity of Pyunnanensis (773cm·s-1) was lower than Kevelyniana’s (1169cm·s-1). Meanwhile, the seed horizontal dispersal distance(075m) under same wind speed was further than Kevelyniana’s (071m). The present study indicated that winddispersal ability of Pyunnanensis’ seed was stronger. The research results provided more knowledge to understand seed winddispersal mechanism and seed adaptation strategies in term of evolution and ecology.
This study discussed the changes in quality components of Maoyecha (Camellia ptilophylla) during the processing of GABA tea under vacuum anaerobic treatment. The results showed that: (1) After anaerobic treatment, GABA content in Maoyecha was increased significantly and reached to the standard of GABA tea. The contents of free amino acids, flavonoids and alkaloids were also significantly increased, but polyphenols and water extract were reduced. At the same time, vacuum treatment could accelerate the transformation of catechins. Simple catechins content was reduced, and the contents of ECG and CG were significantly increased. The contents of EGCG, GCG and estercatechins were increased first, then following by decreasing, but the final contents had no obvious difference with the untreated Maoyecha. (2) Besides the normal protein amino acids, Theanine, the special amino acid of tea, was determinate in Maoyecha. The free amino acids with high content were Thea, Glu, Asp, with low content were Met, Cit, αABA, Tau, Gly. Cysthi and EOHNH2 were the special amino acids of GABA Maoyecha. In the vacuum anaerobic conditions, the total content of free amino acids in GABA Maoyecha was increased due to protein degradation. The contents of PSer, Thr, Ser, Asn, Pro, Gly, Cit, αABA, Val, Cysthi, Ile, Leu, Tyr, Phe, GABA, Trp, Lys and His were raised, and the contents of Asp, Glu, αAAA were reduced. While the contents of Ala and Arg had the tendency of increasing first and then dropping down. Moreover, the content of Thea, Cys, Met and other amino acids were stable.
