Taxonomic significance of leaves in family Aizoaceae

Genomic exploration of Sesuvium sesuvioides: comparative study and phylogenetic analysis within the order Caryophyllales from Cholistan desert, Pakistan

BACKGROUND

The Aizoaceae family's Sesuvium sesuvioides (Fenzl) Verdc is a medicinal species of the Cholistan desert, Pakistan. The purpose of this study was to determine the genomic features and phylogenetic position of the Sesuvium genus in the Aizoaceae family. We used the Illumina HiSeq2500 and paired-end sequencing to publish the complete chloroplast sequence of S. sesuvioides.

RESULTS

The 155,849 bp length cp genome sequence of S. sesuvioides has a 36.8% GC content. The Leucine codon has the greatest codon use (10.6%), 81 simple sequence repetitions of 19 kinds, and 79 oligonucleotide repeats. We investigated the phylogeny of the order Caryophyllales' 27 species from 23 families and 25 distinct genera. The maximum likelihood tree indicated Sesuvium as a monophyletic genus, and sister to Tetragonia. A comparison of S. sesuvioides, with Sesuvium portulacastrum, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Mesembryanthemum cordifolium, and Tetragonia tetragonoides was performed using the NCBI platform. In the comparative investigation of genomes, all five genera revealed comparable cp genome structure, gene number and composition. All five species lacked the rps15 gene and the rpl2 intron. In most comparisons with S. sesuvioides, transition substitutions (Ts) were more frequent than transversion substitutions (Tv), producing Ts/Tv ratios larger than one, and the Ka/Ks ratio was lower than one. We determined ten highly polymorphic regions, comprising rpl22, rpl32-trnL-UAG, trnD-GUC-trnY-GUA, trnE-UUC-trnT-GGU, trnK-UUU-rps16, trnM-CAU-atpE, trnH-GUG-psbA, psaJ-rpl33, rps4-trnT-UGU, and trnF-GAA-ndhJ.

CONCLUSION

The whole S. sesuvioides chloroplast will be examined as a resource for in-depth taxonomic research of the genus when more Sesuvium and Aizoaceae species are sequenced in the future. The chloroplast genomes of the Aizoaceae family are well preserved, with little alterations, indicating the family's monophyletic origin. This study's highly polymorphic regions could be utilized to build realistic and low-cost molecular markers for resolving taxonomic discrepancies, new species identification, and finding evolutionary links among Aizoaceae species. To properly comprehend the evolution of the Aizoaceae family, further species need to be sequenced.

Antioxidant and Anti-Aging Phytoconstituents from Faucaria tuberculosa: In Vitro and In Silico Studies

Research targeting natural cosmeceuticals is now increasing due to the safety and/or limited side effects of natural products that are highly valued in cosmetology. Within a research program exploring botanical sources for valuable skincare antioxidant components, the current study investigated the phytochemical content and the biological potential of Faucaria tuberculosa. Phytochemical investigation of F. tuberculosa extract resulted in purification and characterization of six phytoconstituents, including a new one. The structure of the new constituent was elucidated as (-) catechin-(2→1',4→2')-phloroglucinol (4). The structural identity of all isolated compounds were confirmed on the basis of extensive physical and spectral (1D, 2D-NMR and HRESIMS) investigations. The ethanolic extract exhibits a rich content of total phenolics (TPC) and total flavonoids (TFC), estimated as 32 ± 0.034 mg GAE/g and 43 ± 0.004 mg RE/g, respectively. In addition, the antioxidant (ABTS and FRAP), antihyaluronidase and antityrosinase activities of all purified phytoconstituents were evaluated. The results noted (-) catechin-(2→1',4→2') phloroglucinol (4) and phloroglucinol (1) for their remarkable antioxidant activity, while isorhamnetin 3-O-rutinoside (3) and 3,5-dihydroxyphenyl β-D-glucopyranoside (2) achieved the most potent inhibitory activity against tyrosinase (IC50 22.09 ± 0.7 µM and 29.96 ± 0.44 µM, respectively) and hyaluronidase enzymes (IC50 49.30 ± 1.57 µM and 62.58 ± 0.92, respectively) that remarkably exceeds the activity of the standard drugs kojic acid (IC50 = 65.21 ± 0.47 µM) and luteolin, (IC50 = 116.16 ± 1.69 µM), respectively. A molecular docking study of the two active compounds (3 and 2) highlighted their high potential to bind to the active sites of the two enzymes involved in the study.

A comparative study on the leaf anatomical structure of Camellia oleifera in a low-hot valley area in Guizhou Province, China

The leaf serves as an important assimilation organ of plants, and the anatomical structure of leaves can reflect the adaptability of the plant to the environment to a certain extent. The current study aimed to cultivate superior local cultivars, and 35 healthy individual plants were selected from the Camellia oleifera germplasm resource nursery for a comparative study of the leaf structure. In July 2019, the leaves were collected from 35 selected healthy C. oleifera plants, and the leaf structure was observed by using the paraffin section method. Healthy individual plants were screened using variance analysis, correlation analysis and cluster analysis. The representative indices were selected according to the cluster membership, correlation indices and coefficient of variation (C/V) for a comprehensive evaluation of drought resistance via the membership function. There were extremely significant differences in 11 indices of leaf structure for these 35 healthy plants. C18 had the greatest leaf thickness, C7 the largest spongy tissue, and C38 the largest ratio of palisade tissue thickness to spongy tissue thickness (P/S). The clustering results of the healthy individual plants differed significantly. The membership function showed that the drought resistance of 35 C. oleifera plants was divided into five categories. C18 had very strong drought resistance, and C3, C7 and C40 had strong drought resistance. There were significant differences in terms of the upper epidermis, P/S ratio and spongy tissue among the C. oleifera plants. C18, C3, C7 and C40 exhibited satisfactory drought resistance. Although C39 and C26 had moderate drought resistance, their P/S ratios were high, which might be used to cultivate high-yield and drought-resistant C. oleifera varieties. The leaf P/S ratio of C. oleifera from low-hot valley areas was high. Among various leaf structures, spongy tissue, upper epidermis, P/S ratio and cuticle constitute the drought resistance evaluation indices for C. oleifera grown in low-hot valley areas.

Investigating the Phenotypic Plasticity of the Invasive Weed Trianthema portulacastrum L

Phenotypic plasticity is frequently highlighted as a key factor in plant invasiveness, as it enables invasive species to adapt to diverse, complicated habitats. Trianthema portulacastrum is one of the most common aggressive species that threaten different crops around the world. Phenotypic plasticity in T. portulacastrum was investigated by comparing variation in germination, vegetative macromorphology, photosynthetic pigments, stomatal complexes, and seed micromorphological traits of 35 samples collected from 35 different localities. One-way cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to classify samples into homogeneous groups based on the measured traits. Pairwise statistical comparisons were conducted between the three resulting groups. The phenotypic plasticity index (PI) was calculated and compared among different groups of characters. Results showed that photosynthetic pigments and macromorphological characteristics had the highest PI, followed by seed micromorphology, and then stomatal complex traits, while germination parameters showed the lowest PI. We propose that soil moisture, salinity, and temperature are the most determinative and explanative variables of the variation between the three classified groups. We strongly believe that the phenotypic plasticity of T. portulacastrum will support species abundance and spread even under expected changes in climatic conditions, in contrast to the vulnerable traditional crops.