New insight into the phylogeographic pattern of Liriodendron chinense (Magnoliaceae) revealed by chloroplast DNA: east–west lineage split and genetic mixture within western subtropical China

Background Subtropical China is a global center of biodiversity and one of the most important refugia worldwide. Mountains play an important role in conserving the genetic resources of species. Liriodendron chinense is a Tertiary relict tree largely endemic to subtropical China. In this study, we aimed to achieve a better understanding of the phylogeographical pattern of L. chinense and to explore the role of mountains in the conservation of L. chinense genetic resources. Methods Three chloroplast regions (psbJ-petA, rpl32-ndhF, and trnK5’-matK) were sequenced in 40 populations of L. chinense for phylogeographical analyses. Relationships among chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotypes were determined using median-joining networks, and genetic structure was examined by spatial analysis of molecular variance (SAMOVA). The ancestral area of the species was reconstructed using the Bayesian binary Markov Chain Monte Carlo (BBM) method according to its geographic distribution and a maximum parsimony (MP) tree based on Bayesian methods. Results Obvious phylogeographic structure was found in L. chinense. SAMOVA revealed seven groups matching the major landscape features of the L. chinense distribution area. The haplotype network showed three clades distributed in the eastern, southwestern, and northwestern regions. Separate northern and southern refugia were found in the Wu Mountains and Yungui Plateau, with genetic admixture in the Dalou Mountains and Wuling Mountains. BBM revealed a more ancient origin of L. chinense in the eastern region, with a west–east split most likely having occurred during the Mindel glacial stage. Discussion The clear geographical distributions of haplotypes suggested multiple mountainous refugia of L. chinense. The east–west lineage split was most likely a process of gradual genetic isolation and allopatric lineage divergence when the Nanling corridor was frequently occupied by evergreen or coniferous forest during Late Quaternary oscillations. Hotspots of haplotype diversity in the Dalou Mountains and Wuling Mountains likely benefited from gene flow from the Wu Mountains and Yungui Plateau. Collectively, these results indicate that mountain regions should be the main units for conserving and collecting genetic resources of L. chinense and other similar species in subtropical China

Analytic Bethe Ansatz and Baxter equations for long-range psl(2|2) spin chain

We study the largest particle-number-preserving sector of the dilatation operator in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory. After exploring one-loop Bethe Ansatze for the underlying spin chain with psl(2|2) symmetry for simple root systems related to several Kac-Dynkin diagrams, we use the analytic Bethe Anzats to construct eigenvalues of transfer matrices with finite-dimensional atypical representations in the auxiliary space. We derive closed Baxter equations for eigenvalues of nested Baxter operators. We extend these considerations for a non-distinguished root system with FBBF grading to all orders of perturbation theory in 't Hooft coupling. We construct generating functions for all transfer matrices with auxiliary space determined by Young supertableaux (1^a) and (s) and find determinant formulas for transfer matrices with auxiliary spaces corresponding to skew Young supertableaux. The latter yields fusion relations for transfer matrices with auxiliary space corresponding to representations labelled by square Young supertableaux. We derive asymptotic Baxter equations which determine spectra of anomalous dimensions of composite Wilson operators in noncompact psl(2|2) subsector of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory.Comment: 32 pages, 2 figure

Effect of sildenafil on NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway in the aorta vascular tissue of rat models with erectile dysfunction

Objective To investigate the effect of sildenafil (Sil) on the expression of NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway in the aorta vascular tissue of erectile dysfunction (ED) rat models. Methods ED rat model was established and randomly divided into ED group and Sil group. Another 10 rats were selected as control group. After intragastric administration of Sil(20 mg /kg, once a day for 2 weeks), HE staining was used to observe the morphological change of aorta. Aortic fibrosis was detected by Masson staining. The content and distribution of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in aorta were determined by immunohistochemistry. RT-qPCR and Western blot were used to detect the expression of NLRP3, caspase-1, GSDMD, IL-1β and eNOS in the aorta. Results In ED group, there were pathological changes in aortic morphology, more local exfoliation of endothelial cells and obvious fibrosis. The mRNA and protein expressions of NLRP3, caspase-1, GSDMD and IL-1β were increased, and the mRNA and protein expressions of eNOS were decreased in the aorta of the rats in the experimental group(P＜0.05). Compared with the ED group, the aortic morphological changes of the Sil group were improved, the local endothelial cell shedding was reduced, and the fibrosis was alleviated. The mRNA and protein expression of NLRP3, caspase-1, GSDMD and IL-1β decreased, while the mRNA and protein expression of eNOS increased in aorta(P＜0.05). Conclusions The expression of NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway protems in the aorta vescular tissue of rats with ED is up-regulated by Sil, which may improve the inflammatory response, vascular fibrosis and endothelial dysfunction by inhibiting the NLRP3/caspase-1 pathway in the aorta vascular tissue of rats with ED

RAD-Seq Data Point to a Distinct Split in Liriodendron (Magnoliaceae) and Obvious East–West Genetic Divergence in L. chinense

Liriodendron is a Tertiary period relic tree genus with a typical East Asian and North American disjunction distribution pattern. As an angiosperm base group of trees, Liriodendron provides a valuable resource for the study of evolution processes. Here, we reconstruct the phylogeny and population genetic structure of Liriodendron based on the restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq) of a wide collection of individuals from 16 populations. Our results reveal a clear phylogenetic break between L. chinense and L. tulipifera and obvious genetic divergence between the eastern and western populations of L. chinense, which are consistent with the patterns of geographical distributions. The phylogeographic history and long-term geographical isolation of the genus may be responsible for this pattern. Furthermore, a closer relationship was found between L. tulipifera and the eastern populations of L. chinense, indicating the ancient phylogeny of L. chinense in this area. The results of this study will aid in the development of scientific strategies for the conservation and utilization of the Liriodendron germplasm

Effects of Ultraviolet-B Radiation on the Regulation of Ascorbic Acid Accumulation and Metabolism in Lettuce

To understand the effect of ultraviolet (UV)-B irradiation on the antioxidant capacity and growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa), we subjected lettuce plants to UV-B irradiation (15.55 kJ m−2 d−1) for 7 days and measured yield, photosynthetic performance, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), reduced glutathione (GSH), and ascorbic acid (AsA) contents, and the enzyme activity and expression of genes involving AsA recycling. UV-B exposure did not significantly decrease the fresh/dry weight of the lettuce shoots. The net photosynthesis rate, internal CO2 concentration, transpiration rate, and stomatal conductance decreased during the first 4 days of irradiation and light but recovered at day 7. In UV-B-treated plants, the levels of AsA, GSH, and H2O2 increased significantly and simultaneously, with a positive correlation found between H2O2 and AsA or GSH levels. UV-B exposure upregulated the expression level of most genes encoding the enzymes involving AsA recycling but downregulated the associated enzymatic activities. The increase of AsA content in UV-B-exposed lettuce might contribute to the AsA–GSH cycle, leading to downregulation of ascorbate oxidase (AO) enzymatic activity and gene expression. UV-B irradiation had a greater impact on metabolite levels than time of UV-B treatment. These results suggest that AsA homeostasis in UV-B-treated lettuce is regulated through a feedback loop between the expression and activity of enzymes associated with AsA recycling. Short-term UV-B supplementation (24 h) could be a promising approach to enhance AsA content in lettuce

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Actinidia styracifolia C. F. Liang

The complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of Actinidia styracifolia C. F. Liang was assembled using Illumina pair-end sequencing data in this study. The assembled plastome was 156,845 bp in length, including a large single copy (LSC) region of 88,624 bp and a small single copy (SSC) region of 20,535bp, which were separated by two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 23,843 bp. The plastome contains 113 different genes, consisting of 79 unique protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and 4 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis based on chloroplast genomes revealed that A. styracifolia has a close genetic relationship with A. eriantha

Transcriptome comparison analyses in UV-B induced AsA accumulation of Lactuca sativa L

Abstract Background Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) cultivated in facilities display low vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid (AsA)) contents which require augmentation. Although UV-B irradiation increases the accumulation of AsA in crops, processes underlying the biosynthesis as well as metabolism of AsA induced by UV-B in lettuce remain unclear. Results UV-B treatment increased the AsA content in lettuce, compared with that in the untreated control. UV-B treatment significantly increased AsA accumulation in a dose-dependent manner up until a certain dose.. Based on optimization experiments, three UV-B dose treatments, no UV-B (C), medium dose 7.2 KJ·m− 2·d− 1 (U1), and high dose 12.96 KJ·m− 2·d− 1 (U2), were selected for transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) in this study. The results showed that C and U1 clustered in one category while U2 clustered in another, suggesting that the effect exerted on AsA by UV-B was dose dependent. MIOX gene in the myo-inositol pathway and APX gene in the recycling pathway in U2 were significantly different from the other two treatments, which was consistent with AsA changes seen in the three treatments, indicating that AsA accumulation caused by UV-B may be associated with these two genes in lettuce. UVR8 and HY5 were not significantly different expressed under UV-B irradiation, however, the genes involved in plant growth hormones and defence hormones significantly decreased and increased in U2, respectively, suggesting that high UV-B dose may regulate photomorphogenesis and response to stress via hormone regulatory pathways, although such regulation was independent of the UVR8 pathway. Conclusions Our results demonstrated that studying the application of UV-B irradiation may enhance our understanding of the response of plant growth and AsA metabolism-related genes to UV-B stress, with particular reference to lettuce

Transcriptomic divergence of the Rheum palmatum complex derived from top-geoherb and non-geoherb areas provides the insights into geoherbalism properties of rhubarb

Abstract Geoherb usually represents high-quality medicinal herbs with better clinical therapeutic effects, and elucidating the geoherbalism is essential for the quality improvement of traditional Chinese Medicine. However, few researches were conducted to clarify the geoherbalism based on a large scale of transcriptomics. In the present study, we compared the transcriptomes of Rheum palmatum complex derived from top-geoherb and non-geoherb areas to show the geoherbalism properties of rhubarb. A total of 412.32 Gb clean reads were obtained with unigene numbers of 100,615 after assembly. Based on the obtained transcriptome datasets, key enzyme-encoding genes involved in the anthraquinones biosynthesis were also obtained. We also found that 21 anthraquinone-related unigenes were differentially expressed between two different groups, and some of these DEGs were correlated to the content accumulation of five free anthraquinones, indicating that the gene expression profiles may promote the geoherbalism formation of rhubarb. In addition, the selective pressure analyses indicated that most paired orthologous genes between these two groups were subject to negative selection, and only a low proportion of orthologs under positive selection were detected. Functional annotation analyses indicated that these positive-selected genes related to the functions such as gene expression, substance transport, stress response and metabolism, indicating that discrepant environment also enhanced the formation of geoherbalism. Our study not only provided insights for the genetic mechanism of geoherbalism of rhubarb, but also laid more genetic cues for the future rhubarb germplasms improvement and utilization