Traditional herbal medicines have played important roles in the ways of life of people around the world since ancient times. Despite the advanced medical technology of the modern world, herbal medicines are still used as popular alternatives to synthetic drugs. Due to the increasing demand for herbal medicines, plant species identification has become an important tool to prevent substitution and adulteration. Here we propose a method for biological assessment of the quality of prescribed species in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia by use of high resolution melting (HRM) analysis of microsatellite loci. We tested this method on licorice, a traditional herbal medicine with a long history. Results showed that nine simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers produced distinct melting curve profiles for the five licorice species investigated using HRM analysis. These results were validated by capillary electrophoresis. We applied this protocol to commercially available licorice products, thus enabling the consistent identification of 11 labels with non-declared Glycyrrhiza species. This novel strategy may thus facilitate DNA barcoding as a method of identification of closely related species in herbal medicine products. Based on this study, a brief operating procedure for using the SSR-HRM protocol for herbal authentication is provided.

Garcinia paucinervis is an evergreen tree with high medicinal value. Due to its vulnerable reproductive capacity coupled with excessive logging by humans, G. paucinervis has become an endangered species. In order to protect this species effectively, we drew the complete chloroplast genome of G. paucinervis and performed a series of comparative analyses on G. paucinervis and its neighbouring species. The chloroplast genome size of G. paucinervis is 157702 bp. In the chloroplast genome, we identified 130 genes, 56 RNA editing sites in the protein-coding genes, as well as 241 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 49 complex repetitive sequences. Comparative analysis identified some high divergent sequences in the intergenic spacers, which can be used as candidate markers for phylogenetic study. From an adaptive evolution point of view, a branch-site model analysis identified positively selected sites in 5 genes, most of which are involved in ribosome biogenesis, protein synthesis and other developmental processes. The detected codon substitutions may be associated with the evolution of G. paucinervis to adapt to the extreme habitat in karst. In addition, the result of the phylogenetic analysis supports the previous phylogenomic studies of taxa within the rosids clade. The ML tree revealed that G. mangostana was a sister to G. gummi-gutta, and they formed a diverging lineage to G. paucinervis in Garcinia. The above information is of great significance for us to understand the evolution of G. paucinervis chloroplast and lays the foundations for future studies in species conservation.

Neolamarckia cadamba is a miracle tree species with considerable economic potential uses as a timber wood, woody forage and traditional medicine resource. The present study aimed to establish a highly efficient and robust protocol of plant regeneration for N. cadamba. Greenish callus was induced from very young leaf explants of sterile in vitro plantlets cultured on Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium supplemented with 3 mg l−1 thidiazuron (TDZ), 0.1 mg l−1 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 0.05 mg l−1 α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The callus could differentiate into nodular embryogenic structures or adventitious shoots, and these two regeneration pathways often occurred in the same callus clumps. The micro-shoots developed roots in MS supplemented with 0.05 mg l−1 NAA and 0.05 mg l−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), while the nodular embryogenic structures germinated directly and developed into plantlets on induction medium contained with 0.5 mg l−1 (or 1 mg l−1) 6-benzyladenine (6-BA) and 0.05 mg l−1 NAA. The rooted plantlets could be successfully acclimatized to a greenhouse with more than 92.0% survival. This regeneration protocol can be used in large scale cultivation needs and may be useful for future genetic modifications of N. cadamba.

Morphological novelties, or key innovations, are instrumental to the diversification of the organisms. In plants, one such innovation is the evolution of zygomorphic flowers, which is thought to promote outcrossing and increase flower morphological diversity. We isolated three allelic mutants from two Mimulus species displaying altered floral symmetry and identified the causal gene as the ortholog of Arabidopsis BLADE-ON-PETIOLE . We found that MlBOP and MlCYC2A physically interact and this BOP-CYC interaction module is highly conserved across the angiosperms. Furthermore, MlBOP self-ubiquitinates and suppresses MlCYC2A self-activation. MlCYC2A, in turn, impedes MlBOP ubiquitination. Thus, this molecular tug-of-war between MlBOP and MlCYC2A fine-tunes the expression of MlCYC2A , contributing to the formation of bilateral symmetry in flowers, a key trait in angiosperm evolution.