Magnolia officinalis, a representative tall aromatic tree of the Magnoliaceae family, is a medicinal plant that is widely used in diverse industries from medicine to cosmetics. We report a chromosome-scale draft genome of M. officinalis, in which ∼99.66% of the sequences were anchored onto 19 chromosomes with the scaffold N50 of 76.62 Mb. We found that a high proportion of repetitive sequences was a common feature of three Magnoliaceae with known genomic data. Magnoliids were a sister clade to eudicots-monocots, which provided more support for understanding the phylogenetic position among angiosperms. An ancient duplication event occurred in the genome of M. officinalis and was shared with Lauraceae. Based on RNA-seq analysis, we identified several key enzyme-coding gene families associated with the biosynthesis of lignans in the genome. The construction of the M. officinalis genome sequence will serve as a reference for further studies of Magnolia, as well as other Magnoliaceae.

Curcuma longa, known as the ‘golden spice’ and ‘life spice’, is one of the most commonly utilized spices in the world and also has medicinal, cosmetic, dye and flavoring values. Herein, we present the chromosomal-level genome for turmeric to explore the differences between tubers and rhizomes in the regulation of curcumin biosynthesis and the mechanism of tuber formation. We assembled the turmeric genome into 21 pseudochromosomes using Pacbio long reads complemented with Hi-C technologies, which has a total length of 1.11 Gb with scaffold N50 of 50.12 Mb and contains 49,612 protein−coding genes. Genomic evolutionary analysis indicated that turmeric and ginger have shared a recent WGD event. Contraction analysis of gene families showed possible roles for transcription factors, phytohormone signaling, and plant-pathogen interactions associated genes in adaptation to harsh environments. Transcriptomic data from tubers at different developmental stages indicated that candidate genes related to phytohormone signaling and carbohydrate metabolic responses may be associated with the induction of tuber formation. The difference in curcumin content between rhizomes and tubers reflected the remodeling of secondary metabolites under environmental stress, which was associated with plant defense in response to abiotic stresses. Overall, the availability of the C. longa genome provides insight into tuber formation and curcumin biosynthesis in turmeric as well as facilitating the understanding of other Curcuma species.

Fuzi, the lateral root of A. carmichaelii Debx., is a typical traditional herbal medicine with both poisonousness and effectiveness, and often used in the treatment of heart failure and other heart diseases. In this review, we searched domestic and foreign literature to sort out the molecular mechanisms of cardiotonic and cardiotoxicity of Fuzi, also including its components. The major bioactive components of Fuzi for cardiotonic are total alkaloids, polysaccharide and the water-soluble alkaloids, with specific mechanisms manifested in the inhibition of myocardial fibrosis, apoptosis and autophagy, and improvement of mitochondrial energy metabolism, which involves RAAS system, PI3K/AKT, JAK/STAT, AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway, etc. Diester-diterpenoid alkaloids in Fuzi can produce cardiotoxic effects by over-activating Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ ion channels, over-activating NLRP3/ASC/caspase-3 inflammatory pathway and mitochondria mediated apoptosis pathway. And three clinically used preparations containing Fuzi are also used as representatives to summarize their cardiac-strengthening molecular mechanisms. To sum up, Fuzi has shown valuable cardiotonic effects due to extensive basic and clinical studies, but its cardiotonic mechanisms have not been systematically sorted out. Therefore, it is a need for deeper investigation in the mechanisms of water-soluble alkaloids with low content but obvious therapeutic effect, as well as polysaccharide.

Aconitum carmichaelii, commonly known as Fuzi, is a typical traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) herb that has been grown for more than one thousand years in China. Although root rot disease has been seriously threatening this crop in recent years, few studies have investigated root rot disease in Fuzi, and no pathogens have been identified. In this study, fungal libraries from rhizosphere soils were constructed by internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing using the HiSeq 2500 high-throughput platform. A total of 948,843 tags were obtained from 17 soil samples, and these corresponded to 195,583,495 nt. At 97% identity, the libraries yielded 12,266 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), of which 97.5% could be annotated. In sick soils, Athelia, Mucor and Mortierella were the dominant fungi, comprising 10.3%, 10.1% and 7.7% of the fungal community, respectively. These fungi showed 2.6-, 1.53- to 6.31- and 1.38- to 2.65-fold higher enrichment in sick soils compared with healthy soils, and their high densities reduced the fungal richness in the areas surrounding the rotted Fuzi roots. An abundance analysis suggested that A. rolfsii and Mucor racemosus, as the dominant pathogens, might play important roles in the invading Fuzi tissue, and Phoma adonidicola could be another pathogenic fungus of root rot. In contrast, Mortierella chlamydospora, Penicillium simplicissimum, Epicoccum nigrum, Cyberlindnera saturnus and Rhodotorula ingeniosa might antagonize root rot pathogens in sick soils. In addition, A. rolfsii was further verified as a main pathogen of Fuzi root rot disease through hypha purification, morphological observation, molecular identification and an infection test. These results provide theoretical guidance for the prevention and treatment of Fuzi root rot disease.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of an important medicinal plant of the family Ranunculaceae, Aconitum carmichaelii Debx., was characterized in this study. The assembled chloroplast genome was 154,776 bp in length, which included a large single-copy (LSC), a small single-copy (SSC), and two inverted repeat (IR) regions of 86,330bp, 15,986 bp, and 26,193 bp, respectively. The GC content of the genome was 38.1%. Phylogenetic analysis with the whole nucleotide sequences of reported Aconitum chloroplast genomes indicated a close relationship of A. carmichaelii with A. kusnezoffii.