To examine physiological responses of garlic to salinity, 17-day-old seedlings of eight soft-neck accessions were treated with 200 mM NaCl for seven days in a hydroponic system. Several morphological and physiological traits were measured at the end of the treatment, including shoot height, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root length, root fresh weight, root dry weight, photosynthesis rate, and concentrations of Na⁺ and K⁺ in leaves. The principal component analysis showed that shoot dry weight and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio contribute the most to salt tolerance among the garlic accessions. As a result, salt-tolerant and sensitive accessions were grouped based on these two parameters. Furthermore, to investigate the molecular mechanisms in garlic in response to salinity, the transcriptomes of leaves and roots between salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive garlic accessions were compared. Approximately 1.5 billion read pairs were obtained from 24 libraries generated from the leaves and roots of the salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive garlic accessions. A total of 47,509 genes were identified by mapping the cleaned reads to the garlic reference genome. Statistical analysis indicated that 1282 and 1068 genes were upregulated solely in the tolerant leaves and roots, whereas 1505 and 1203 genes were downregulated exclusively in the tolerant leaves and roots after NaCl treatment, respectively. Functional categorization of these genes revealed their involvement in a variety of biological processes. Several genes important for carotenoid biosynthesis, auxin signaling, and K⁺ transport were strongly altered in roots by NaCl treatment and could be candidate genes for garlic salt tolerance improvement.

Blumea balsamifera is a widely used ancient medicinal herb in tropical and subtropical Asia. Studying the genetic diversity of B. balsamifera germplasm resources and developing molecular markers related to the content of active constituents in B. balsamifera are of great significance for breeding varieties with high active ingredient content. In this study, the contents of 6 key active constituents were determined in 51 B. balsamifera accessions. EST-SSR markers were used to study their genetic diversity. At the same time, genetic structure analysis and linkage disequilibrium analysis were performed. On this basis, association analysis between EST-SSR markers and active ingredient content was performed. Quantitative analysis revealed substantial variation in six bioactive compounds, with coefficients of variation (CV) exceeding 50% across all metabolites. This result revealed its suitability for association analysis. Genetic diversity analysis revealed a total of 102 alleles amplified from 22 pairs of primers, with effective alleles accounting for 53.52%. The average polymorphism information content was 0.488, with 9 pairs of primers exhibiting high polymorphism (PIC > 0.5), 11 pairs of primers showing moderate polymorphism (0.25 < PIC < 0.5). The proposed primers demonstrated strong effectiveness and good polymorphism. The average Nei diversity index and Shannon information index were 0.542 and 1.023, respectively, indicating a high level of genetic diversity within the population. UPGMA clustering and population structure analyses classified the 51 accessions into four distinct groups correlated with geographical origins. LD analysis indicated over 50% of marker pairs showed substantial linkage (D’ > 0.5), validating the suitability of this germplasm set for association mapping. Association analysis between quality traits and EST-SSR markers showed that, in both GLM and MLM models, Bbf137 and Bbf377 were found to be associated with 3,3’,5,7-tetrahydroxy-4’- methoxyflavanone (TMF, P < 0.05) and Blumeatin (P < 0.01) respectively. These findings lay a robust foundation for future breeding strategies and genetic enhancement of B. balsamifera.

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge is an important Chinese herbal medicine, mainly used to treat cardiovascular disease. At present, the planting area of S. miltiorrhiza is near 20,000 hectares in China, ma...

Yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb.) is cultivated mainly as a functional food and for nutritional and medicinal purposes in China (1). It is propagated through tubers and this facilitates the spread an...

Pueraria thomsonii Benth. is a perennial leguminous vine with medicinal and nutritional value. However, rapid postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) reduces its quality and market value. To detect gene expression levels, the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) technique requires stable internal reference genes (IRGs). Our findings indicated that an ethephon (C₂H₆ClO₃P) treatment delayed PPD in P. thomsonii tuberous roots and an RNA-seq analysis revealed a significant number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs). To find stable IRGs for the further identification of the genes associated with delayed PPD in P. thomsonii, eight candidate IRGs of the tuberous roots were screened and assessed using qRT-PCR. The expression stability of these genes was determined and ranked using five different algorithms, including NormFinder, BestKeeper, ΔCt, GeNorm, and ReFinder. Consequently, we identified two genes, PtUBC10 and PtACT7, as the best candidate IRGs for qRT-PCR normalization in P. thomsonii, both exposed to ethephon treatment and in different tissues. Moreover, PtUBC10 was found to be the most stably expressed IRG of P. thomsonii during the ethephon treatment. The findings of this investigation furnish significant insights for future gene expression analyses concerning the delay of PPD via ethephon administration, which could also be used in other tuberous plants.