Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. is an important medicinal plant in northeast China. Cutting propagation is an effective method for the rapid propagation of many tree species. This research aimed to determine a suitable growing medium and appropriate root hormone type, concentration and treatment time through the utilization of different substrates and hormones to treat one-year-old branches of S. chinensis. The optimal treatment achieved a rooting rate of 60% with 225 ppm ABT and 75 ppm NAA for 2.5 h. The substrate of vermiculite/perlite = 1:1 (urea+potassium) was beneficial to the adventitious root formation, which reached 79%. The adventitious root primordium of S. chinensis originated from the junction of the xylem and cambium. ABT and NAA treatments altered the peak timing of POD, PPO and IAAO in S. chinensis cuttings. During the adventitious root formation of S. chinensis cuttings, the high endogenous IAA concentration promoted the occurrence of adventitious roots in the early stage and the lower endogenous IAA and GA₃ concentrations promoted the elongation and growth of adventitious roots in the later period. Low ABA and ZR concentrations enabled adventitious root formation and elongation. An efficient cutting propagation system would enable the mass propagation of S. chinensis seedlings.

Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. is an important traditional medicinal plant. Lignans, the main active components of S. chinensis, have pharmacological effects, including liver protection, antioxidant, and anticancer properties. In this study, we investigated the dynamic changes and differences in appearance quality, contents of key lignan compounds, and antioxidant capacity of three S. chinensis varieties during the ripening of fruits and seeds. The lignan content in the seeds of the three varieties reached up to 91.9%, it showed an ‘M’-type trend of ‘increase–decrease–increase–decrease’ during fruit ripening; this lignan content was significantly higher than that measured in the fruit. The antioxidant capacity of the seeds surpassed that of the grains, and the maturation trends of the grains and seeds remained relatively aligned. The overall change in free radical (DPPH)-scavenging ability in the seeds during ripening exhibited an inverted ‘N’-type trend of ‘decrease–increase–decrease’. The trends in TFC and TPC were consistent with this ‘N’-type pattern of ‘increase–decrease–increase’. In summary, our results suggest 104 days after flowering as the best harvesting period for S. chinensis. Additionally, this study elucidates the synthesis patterns of lignan content and the corresponding changes in antioxidant capacity in S. chinensis, thereby providing a foundation for the evaluation and screening of germplasm resources.

Actinidia arguta is a cold-resistant fruit tree but intolerant to waterlogging. Waterlogging stress is the major abiotic stress in A. arguta growth, and several pathways are involved in the response mechanisms. Fifteen physiological indices and transcriptome data of two A. arguta cultivars, which showed two forms under waterlogging, were used to identify the major factor following the leaf senescence in waterlogging. Through principal component analysis (PCA) of 15 physiological indices in ‘Kuilv’ and ‘Lvwang’, the hormone contents were selected as the most important principal component (PCA 2) out of four components in response to waterlogging stress. According to the analysis of transcriptome data, 21,750 differentially expressed genes were identified and 10 genes through WGCNA, including hormone metabolism and sucrose metabolism, were screened out on the 6th day of waterlogging. In particular, the ABA signal transduction pathway was found to be closely related to the response to waterlogging based on the correlation analysis between gene expression level and plant hormone content, which may have regulated physiological indicators and morphological changes together with other hormones. Overall, the phenomenon of leaves falling induced by ABA might be a protective mechanism. The results provided more insights into the response mechanism of coping with waterlogging stress in A. arguta.

Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is a highly efficient and sensitive technique for quantifying gene transcript levels. The accuracy of gene expression analysis depends critically on the selection of appropriate reference genes for normalization, which is essential to minimize technical variation arising from differences in RNA quality, reverse transcription efficiency, and sample handling. Schisandra chinensis is a medicinally important plant with a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine and has gained increasing global recognition. In recent years, a growing number of studies have employed molecular biology approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying secondary metabolite biosynthesis in S. chinensis. However, systematically validated reference genes for RT-qPCR analysis in this species have not yet been established. In the present study, the expression stability of eleven candidate reference genes was evaluated across different tissues and under various abiotic stress conditions in S. chinensis using four statistical algorithms: geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and RefFinder. Comprehensive analysis revealed that PP2A15 and UBC2 were the optimal reference gene combination for leaves; UBC2 and UBC11 for stems; RPL6 and PP2A15 for roots; RPL21 and RPL6 for fruits; and RPL6 and UBC11 as the best-performing pair across all tissue types. Under abiotic stress conditions, UBC11 and UBC2 exhibited the highest stability in both leaves and roots under salt stress; UBC2 and GPN1 proved most stable under alkaline stress; UBC2 and RPL6 were identified as the most suitable combination under drought stress; and UBC2 and UBQ12 demonstrated consistently stable expression across all three abiotic stress treatments. The reliability of these reference gene combinations was further validated by examining the expression profiles of three target genes. Collectively, these findings establish a validated reference gene toolkit for future gene expression studies in S. chinensis, particularly for the functional characterization of genes involved in lignan biosynthesis and abiotic stress responses.