Functional ingredients in blueberry have the best health benefits. To obtain a better understanding of the health role of blueberry in chronic disease, we conducted systematic preventive strategies for functional ingredients in blueberry, based on comprehensive databases, especially PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and CNKI for the period 2008–2018. Blueberry is rich in flavonoids (mainly anthocyanidins), polyphenols (procyanidin), phenolic acids, pyruvic acid, chlorogenic acid, and others, which have anticancer, anti-obesity, prevent degenerative diseases, anti-inflammation, protective properties for vision and liver, prevent heart diseases, antidiabetes, improve brain function, protective lung properties, strong bones, enhance immunity, prevent cardiovascular diseases, and improve cognitive decline. The anthocyanins and polyphenols in blueberry are major functional ingredients for preventive chronic disease. These results support findings that blueberry may be one of the best functional fruits, and further reveals the mechanisms of anthocyanins and polyphenols in the health role of blueberry for chronic disease. This paper may be used as scientific evidence for developing functional foods, nutraceuticals, and novel drugs of blueberry for preventive chronic diseases.

Luculia plants are famed ornamental plants with sweetly fragrant flowers, of which L. pinceana Hooker, found primarily in Yunnan Province, China, has the widest distribution. Solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) was employed to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from different flower development stages of L. pinceana for the evaluation of floral volatile polymorphism. Peak areas were normalized as percentages and used to determine the relative amounts of the volatiles. The results showed that a total of 39 compounds were identified at four different stages of L. pinceana flower development, including 26 at the bud stage, 26 at the initial-flowering stage, 32 at the full-flowering stage, and 32 at the end-flowering stage. The most abundant compound was paeonol (51%–83%) followed by (E,E)-α-farnesene, cyclosativene, and δ-cadinene. All these volatile compounds create the unique fragrance of L. pinceana flower. Floral scent emission offered tendency of ascending first and descending in succession, meeting its peak level at the initial-flowering stage. The richest diversity of floral volatile was detected at the third and later periods of flower development. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the composition and its relative content of floral scent differed throughout the whole flower development. The result has important implications for future floral fragrance breeding of Luculia. L. pinceana would be adequate for a beneficial houseplant and has a promising prospect for development as essential oil besides for a fragrant ornamental owing to the main compounds of floral scent with many medicinal properties.

Luculia plants are famed ornamentals with sweetly fragrant flowers. Luculia yunnanensis Hu is an endemic plant from Yunnan Province, China. Headspace-solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) was used to identify the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of the different flower development stages of L. yunnanensis for the evaluation of floral volatile polymorphism. The results showed that a total of 40 compounds were identified at four different stages. The main aroma-active compounds were 3-carene, α-cubebene, α-copaene, δ-cadinene, and isoledene. Floral scent emission had the tendency to ascend first and descend in succession, reaching its peak level at the initial-flowering stage. The richest diversity of floral volatiles was detected at the full-flowering stage. Principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that the composition and its relative content of floral scent differed at the whole flower development stage. In comparison with the other two species of Luculia (L. pinceana and L. gratissima), the composition and its relative content of floral scent were also different among the tree species.

Bract coloration is one of the key ornamental traits in Bougainvillea, yet research has predominantly focused on phenotypic color traits and pigment composition, with limited understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying color formation. This gap hinders the improvement and innovation in bract coloration. To elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of bract coloration in Bougainvillea and to enhance the utilization of its germplasm resources, this study employed the Illumina Novaseq 6000 sequencing platform to conduct transcriptomic sequencing on 21 samples of bracts exhibiting seven distinct phenotypes. Comparative analysis against Nr, Pfam, EggNOG, GO, and KEGG databases annotated 90,279 unigenes. The highest annotation rates were achieved with the Nr (40.13%), GO (30.44%), and EggNOG (25.64%) databases. Among the species annotated, Beta vulgaris (20.08%) and Chenopodium quinoa (14.58%) shared the highest homology with Bougainvillea bract transcriptomes. WGCNA analysis identified 12 positively correlated tissue-specific modules, of which 2 are related to bract color formation. By comparing transcriptome data and genes within these specific modules against the KEGG database, a total of 321 unigenes associated with bract color formation in Bougainvillea were discovered. Among these, 220 unigenes are involved in anthocyanin synthesis, 43 unigenes are involved in betalain synthesis, 23 unigenes are annotated as Chlorophyll a-b binding protein genes, and 35 unigenes participate in carotenoid synthesis. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) validation of 16 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) including PAL2, CHS1, ANS, BZ1, 6GT, CDOPA5GT, ANR, CHS2, and DOPA, revealed significant expression differences among magenta, yellow, white, and cherry-colored bracts, suggesting their potential as candidate genes for bract color development. This study not only enriches the transcriptomic data of Bougainvillea but also identifies genes associated with bract coloration, providing a valuable theoretical basis for future gene cloning, genetic engineering, and breeding efforts in Bougainvillea.

Low temperature stress severely hampers rice productivity, and hence elaborating chilling-mediated physiochemical alterations and unravelling cold tolerance pathways will facilitate cold resilient rice breeding. Various cold tolerant Near-isogenic lines (NILs) selected at the booting stage through backcrossing of a japonica landrace Lijing2 (cold tolerant) with cold sensitive Towada (a japonica cultivar). The cold tolerance attributes of NILs was validated over two years by evaluating the spikelet fertility followed by correlation of nineteen morphological traits with the rate of seed setting (RSS). Results revealed BG, FG, 1-2IL, RSLL, and UIL were significantly correlated with RSS and had nearer marker interval distance with cold tolerance in QTL analysis. Two QTLs, qCTB-7-a and qCTB-7-b, were found for RSS based on a mixed linear model. Alleles of two QTLs were contributed by Lijing2 and genetic distances between the peaks were 0.00 and 0.06cM, which explained 5.70% and 8.36% variation, respectively, One QTL for 1-2IL, RSLL, and ILBS, while two QTLs for FG, BG, and UIL were also identified. These findings can be exploited to engineer low temperature stress tolerant rice in times of climate change.