Vitis vinifera ( grape ) is one of the most economically significant fruit crops in the world. The availability of the recently released grape genome sequence offers the opportunity to identify and analyze some important gene families in this species. Subtilases are a group of subtilisin-like serine proteases that are involved in many biological processes in plants. However, no comprehensive st...
Variation in plant phenology is one of the most sensitive ecological responses to climate change. Changes to species’ phenology can have a wide range of impacts on ecological processes, agriculture, forestry, food supply, and human healthy. Most studies that evaluated species responses to global warming have shown progressive advances in spring phenology. However, unchanged and delayed spring ...
The genus Pestalotiopsis is a highly creative genus which has been shown to produce more than 300 chemically novel, diverse, bioactive metabolites. Species of Pestalotiopsis commonly occur as plant pathogens or endophytes and have been the subject of considerable novel compound discovery research. Most of these novel compounds discovered from Pestalotiopsis were derived from unnamed species of ...
Eriocalyxin B, an ent-kaurene diterpenoid, possesses potent bioactivity of antitumor and anti-autoimmune. Related studies have been devoted to elucidating the underlying mechanisms of the bioactivities of EriB, among which the NF-κB signaling is largely involved. Though extensive investigations of the mechanism involved in the inhibition of NF-κB signaling by EriB have been reported, the ...
Broad bean (Vicia faba L.) is an important leguminous crop worldwide. It is extensively used as a grain, a vegetable, a fodder etc. because of its nutrient-rich seeds. In China, broad bean is widely cultivated in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Qinghai provinces, and the planting area and total production both account for over half of those worldwide. Like oth...
Polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs) are a special class of complex natural products that have only been isolated from plants of the family Guttiferae so far. Biogenetically, the acylphloroglucinol cores are presumably derived from a characteristic polyketide-type biosynthesis and their prenylation is realized through an enzyme-catalyzed addition to afford monocyclic polyprenyl...
The temperate woody bamboos, i.e., tribe Arundinarieae are widely distributed in Asia, North America, and Africa, with China as the center of diversification at the species and generic levels. This tribe includes economically important species, such as moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis (Carrière) J. Houzeau), and the staple bamboos for the giant panda (e.g. Fargesia spp.). Species delimita...
The altitude gradient limits the growth and distribution of alpine plants. Multiple environmental stresses along the altitude gradient, including sharp temperature shifts, strong ultraviolet radiation exposure, and low oxygen content, are implicated in this phenomenon. Alpine plants have developed special strategies to survive the chilling environment in high mountains, but the mechanism un...
The problem of missing data in phylogenetic analysis is an important issue, because missing data are common in many data matrices and are only absent in many others because taxa and genes are deliberately excluded in order to avoid them. Phylogeneticists often design their studies to maximize the number of genes included but minimize the overall amount of missing data. However, few studies ...
