Development of a Mobile Application, “Wild Flowers of Bukhansan National Park (version 1.0)”, for Identification of Plants in Bukhansan National Park

AbstractWe developed the educational purpose mobile application, named “Wild Flowers of Bukhansan National Park (version 1.0)”, aiming for easy identification of wildflowers for students and visitors in the park. When visitors find a flower or part of plant in the park, visitors can search for its name utilizing the pictures and characters provided in their own smartphone mobile devices or tablet PCs. The application provides pictures of wildflowers in the park and character-based searching system based on 12 diagnostic features (e.g., growth form, leaf arrangement, flower symmetry, petal color, petal number, sepal number, etc). We adopted the complete floristic survey of Chung and Lee (1962) and added species that we confirmed their distribution in the park during the development of this application. In summary, number of vascular plants in this park was estimated to be 428 taxa including 100 families, 280 genera, 327 species, 1 subspecies, 50 varieties, and 5 formas. We provided a total of 588 pictures representing 358 taxa and each taxon includes multiple pictures in many cases. Included identification quizzes can be an efficient educational tool as well as fun activity for students and visitors who are learning plant species in Korea. Our next step will include GPS function in the application for indicating visitor's location and for providing previously reported sites of the species that we interested in the map of the park. The future application which includes GPS function will be a valuable tool for the monitoring of rare plants, plant researches related to the climate changes, etc. We currently provide Korean iPhone version only, and English version and both of android versions will be serviced soon

Pollen and seed morphology of cleome species (Cleomaceae) in Vietnam

Cleomaceae is a family that includes 18 genera distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate regions. Cleome L. is the largest genus having 207 species, widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions (POWO 2019). In Vietnam, the genus is represented by four species Cleome rutidosperma DC., C. houtteana Schltdl., C. viscosa L. and C. gynandra L. The present study documents the pollen and seed characteristics of all four species of Cleome in Vietnam, and the data obtained using light microscope and scanning electron microscope are analyzed considering their importance in taxonomic delimitation and understanding their phylogenetic relationship. The results indicated a close relationship between different pollen and aperture types. The striking differences between the pollen shapes among different species of Cleome could be useful in taxonomic and evolutionary studies. Similarly, seed shape and surface characters provided important clues for their delimitation. Based on the pollen and seed morphological characteristics, a taxonomic key has been provided for easy identification of the Cleome species in Vietnam

The complete plastome of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, Papaveraceae), a spring ephemeral from eastern North America

The complete plastome of Sanguinaria canadensis was sequenced, which is 160,117 bp in length, consisting of 87699 bp large single-copy (LSC), a 19,136 bp small single copy (SSC), and a pair of 26,638 bp inverted repeat (IR) regions. The S. canadensis plastome encodes 137 annotated genes including 37 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes, and 89 protein coding genes. Phylogenetic analysis strongly supported that it is a member of Chelidonieae

Nomenclatural notes and typification of nine names related to Jasminum (Oleaceae)

Lectotypes are designated here for the following nine validly published names: Jasminum alongense, J. anodontum, J. eberhardtii, J. harmandianum, J. lang, J. laxiflorum, J. pierreanum, J. rufohirtum, and J. sinense. Jasminum lang is reinstated as a distinct species

Data from: Floral paedomorphy leads to secondary specialization in pollination of Malagasy Dalechampia (Euphorbiaceae)

The traditional evolutionary interpretation of Von Baer’s “laws” of embryology is that retention of early developmental forms into adulthood (paedomorphosis) leads to the evolution of simpler or more generalized morphology and ecology. Here we show that paedomorphosis can also be involved in an increase in ecological specialization, in this case of plant-pollinator relationships. A paedomorphic transition from generalized pollination (by several functional types of pollinators) to specialized pollination (by one or a few species in one functional type) occurred in a clade of endemic Malagasy vines (Dalechampia spp., Euphorbiaceae). This evolutionary transition involved staminate flowers that fail to develop “normally,” instead holding mature pollen inside virtually unopened, bud-like flowers. This paedomorphic morphology restricts reward access to “buzz-pollinating” bees, specifically Xylocopa sp. (carpenter bees), which can remove pollen by sonication. This is one of very few reports of paedomorphic specialization, and, as far as we are aware, the first documented case of a rapid reversal to specialized pollination in a lineage of plants that had previously switched from specialized to generalized pollination in conjunction with dispersing to a new region

Morphological measurements of stamnate flowers and pith cells

Measurements of lengths of staminal columns and pith cells of Dalechampia bernieri and D. parvifolia. Measurements made on FAA-preserved material that were thin-sectioned, using a compound microscope in the lab

Cytogeography of the East Asian Tulips (<i>Amana</i>, Liliaceae)

Amana Honda (Liliaceae), known as ‘east Asian tulips’, is a spring ephemeral genus endemic to Sino-Japanese Floristic Subregion, mainly distributed in eastern and central China, Japan and the Korean peninsula. Chromosome numbers are reported here for the first time from 89 populations of Amana (representing all seven accepted species, two new species about to be published, and two suspected new species). Three ploidy levels are found in this genus. These are diploid (2n = 2x = 24) and tetraploid (2n = 4x = 48) in the widespread A. edulis, while all the narrow endemics are diploid, except for one population of A. tianmuensis, which is triploid (2n = 3x = 36). The northernmost and southernmost populations of A. edulis are diploid and tetraploid, respectively, while diploids and tetraploids coexist in between, with gradual transition to diploids as the latitude increases. This may indicate polyploids have an advantage in tolerance of environmental stress and are more adaptable to high-temperature environment in subtropical regions than diploids. The species and cytotype distributions in Amana are complex, and these results provide hypotheses about the origins of the genus and the polyploid cytotypes

Binding of small molecules at interface of protein–protein complex – A newer approach to rational drug

Protein–protein interaction is a vital process which drives many important physiological processes in the cell and has also been implicated in several diseases. Though the protein–protein interaction network is quite complex but understanding its interacting partners using both in silico as well as molecular biology techniques can provide better insights for targeting such interactions. Targeting protein–protein interaction with small molecules is a challenging task because of druggability issues. Nevertheless, several studies on the kinetics as well as thermodynamic properties of protein–protein interactions have immensely contributed toward better understanding of the affinity of these complexes. But, more recent studies on hot spots and interface residues have opened up new avenues in the drug discovery process. This approach has been used in the design of hot spot based modulators targeting protein–protein interaction with the objective of normalizing such interactions