Climate change is affecting the phenology of plants and animals throughout the world, but few studies have evaluated the climatic response of fruit trees in East Asia. Specifically, the response of fruit tree phenology to warming during different parts of the year has not been explored. XU Jianchu’s group, from Kunming Institute of Botany, evaluated long-term records (1963-2008) of chestnut fi...
Senescence is the last phase of the plant life cycle and has an important role in plant development. The senescence process takes place in a highly regulated manner and the cell constituents are dismantled in an ordered progression. Degradation of membrane lipids is an essential process during leaf senescence. Nonetheless, little is known about the role of lipolytic enzymes in mediating specifi...
The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has resulted in a profound reduction in morbidity and mortality from AIDS. However, the emergence of drug-resistant HIV-1 strains and drug side effects, such as long-term toxicities, drug-drug interactions, and individual intolerance for chronic antiretroviral agents, creates a pressing need for novel anti-HIV-1 agents with unexpl...
Cyananthus (Campanulaceae) is a small genus consistingof ca. 20 species endemic to the Sino-Himalayan region, and it was proposed as one of the most primitive genera of Campanulaceae. Three sections within Cyananthus based on habit, corolla lobes, and types of trichomes on the calyx are recognized: sect. Cyananthus, sect. Stenolobi Franch. and sect. Annui (Lian) Hong et Ma. SUN Hang’s group, f...
The uplift of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), caused by the collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate, was one of the most important geological events during the Cenozoic. This event deeply affected the climate and environment of the QTP and its adjacent regions, which had a profound impact on the evolutionary dynamics of many organisms in this area. Climatic oscillations during ...
BEP clade of the grass family (Poaceae) is composed of three subfamilies, i.e. Bambusoideae, Ehrhartoideae, and Pooideae. Controversies on the phylogenetic relationships among three subfamilies still persist in spite of great efforts. However, previous evidence was mainly provided from plastid genes with only a few nuclear genes utilized. Given different evolutionary histories recorded by plast...
Pantropical disjunctions usually involve tropical regions of the Americas, Africa, south-eastern Asia and Australia. Studies of the origin and diversification of tropical intercontinental disjunctions in plants may provide important insights into the evolutionary assembly of tropical forests. However, most studies have focused on the family level, and only a few groups have been examined a...
Many temperate angiosperm genera exhibit disjunct distribution patterns among Asia, North America and Europe, with the most common studied disjunction pattern being eastern Asia–eastern North America. Within Asia, many plant species researched show a disjunct distribution between China and Japan. To date, there have been a few phylogeographical studies of the origins of disjunct distribution...
Tribe Gomphostemmateae Scheen & Lindqvist (Lamiaceae: Lamioideae) includes three genera—Bostrychanthera Benth., Gomphostemma Wall. ex Benth. and Chelonopsis Miq., which together comprise about 46 species. Chelonopsis is an East Asian genus and subdivided into two subgenera: subg. Chelonopsis is a Sino-Japanese group while subg. Aequidens is a Sino-Himalaya group. As currently circumscribe...
