The Experts below are selected from a list of 3228 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Bingbing Liu - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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genome scale transcriptome analysis of the alpine glasshouse plant rheum nobile polygonaceae with special translucent Bracts
PLOS ONE, 2014Co-Authors: Lizhong Wang, Haihong Zhou, Jin Han, Richard I Milne, Mingyu Wang, Bingbing LiuAbstract:Background Rheum nobile is an alpine plant with translucent Bracts concealing the inflorescence which produce a “glasshouse” effect promoting the development of fertile pollen grains in such conditions. The current understanding of the adaptation of such Bracts to alpine environments mainly focuses on the phenotypic and physiological changes while the genetic basis is very limited. By sequencing the upper Bract and the lower rosulate leaf from the same R. nobile stem, we identified candidate genes that may be involved in alpine adaption of the translucent Bract in “glasshouse” plants and illustrated the changes in gene expression underlying the adaptive and complex evolution of the Bracts phenotype. Results A total of 174.2 million paired-end reads from each transcriptome were assembled into 25,249 unigenes. By comparing the gene expression profiles, we identified 1,063 and 786 genes up-regulated respectively in the upper Bract and the lower leaf. Functional enrichment analyses of these genes recovered a number of differential important pathways, including flavonoid biosynthesis, mismatch repair and photosynthesis related pathways. These pathways are mainly involved in three types of functions: 9 genes in the UV protective process, 9 mismatch repair related genes and 88 genes associated with photosynthesis. Conclusions This study provides the first comprehensive dataset characterizing Rheum nobile gene expression at the transcriptomic scale, and provides novel insights into the gene expression profiles associated with the adaptation of the “glasshouse” plant Bracts. The dataset will be served as a public genetic resources for further functional and evolutionary studies of “glasshouse” plants.
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molecular bases for parallel evolution of translucent Bracts in an alpine glasshouse plant rheum alexandrae polygonaceae
Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 2013Co-Authors: Bingbing Liu, Lars Opgenoorth, Georg Miehe, Dongyuan Zhang, Dongshi Wan, Changming Zhao, Dongrui Jia, Jianquan LiuAbstract:Parallel evolution provides an excellent framework to infer the genetic bases of adaptive traits and understand the importance of natural selection in shaping current biodiversity. The upper leaves of the "glasshouse plants" transform into translucent Bracts that show numerous adaptions in alpine habitats. It remains unknown whether similar molecular changes occur under the parallel Bract evolution of different "glasshouse" species. In this study, we compared the results on phenotypic and physiological differences and presented the results of cDNA-AFLP analyses of transcriptional changes between translucent Bracts and normal leaves in Rheum alexandrae. We also examined the homologous candidate genes with the same expression changes between this species and another "glasshouse" species, R. nobile. We found that Bracts of R. alexandrae are similar to those of R. nobile in anatomical features: chloroplasts have degenerated and chlorophyll contents are greatly reduced, which suggests that foliar photosynthetic functions in Bracts of both species have been reduced or totally altered. Among the 6000 transcript-derived fragments (TDFs) in Bracts and leaves of R. alexandrae, 420 (7%) were differentially expressed (up- or downregulated) between Bracts and normal leaves. There were a total of 13 homologous TDFs with the same expression changes between R. alexandrae and the previously studied R. nobile. Except for the two that were not functionally annotated, eight of the homologous TDFs were found to be involved in stress and defense responses whereas the other three were related to photosynthesis. The up- or downregulation of these candidate genes was highly congruent with anatomical characteristics and adaptive functions of the Bracts found for "glasshouse" plants. These findings suggested that the "glasshouse" phenotypes may have common molecular bases underlying their parallel evolution of similar adaptive functions and highlighted the importance of the natural selection in producing such phenotypes.
Bo Song - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the Bracts of the alpine glasshouse plant rheum alexandrae polygonaceae enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed consuming mutualist
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015Co-Authors: Bo Song, Jürg Stöcklin, De-li Peng, Yong-qian Gao, Hang SunAbstract:Environmental conditions are known to affect the reproductive fitness of insects, as do host plants. Although the highly specialized Bracts of Himalayan 'glasshouse' plants are thought to be an adaptive morphology that allows the plant to reproduce in harsh alpine environments, little information appears to exist concerning the benefit of these Bracts for the pollinating insects. In this study, we examine whether the semi-translucent Bracts of Rheum alexandrae, a giant herb endemic to the alpine zone of the Hengduan Mountains in south-western China, enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinator. Rheum alexandrae depends mainly on mutualistic seed-consuming Bradysia flies for pollination. Bracts increased interior temperature on sunny days, acted as a buffer against fluctuating air humidity, greatly decreased the intensities of ultraviolet B/C radiation and provided shelter from strong winds. Bract removal significantly decreased adult oviposition and offspring performance of pollinators during flowering and fruiting, respectively. Our results indicate that the Bracts of R. alexandrae enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist in alpine environments, which may be attributed to the positive effects of the Bracts on the interior microenvironment. (C) 2015 The Linnean Society of London.
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multifunctional Bracts enhance plant fitness during flowering and seed development in rheum nobile polygonaceae a giant herb endemic to the high himalayas
Oecologia, 2013Co-Authors: Bo Song, Jürg Stöcklin, Zhiqiang Zhang, Yang Yang, Jianguo ChenAbstract:Specialized Bracts are thought to be important for the successful reproduction of some plants and are regarded as adaptations to diverse driving forces. However, few empirical studies have quantified the adaptive significance of Bracts within a cost-benefit framework. We explored the adaptive significance of large and showy Bracts for reproduction in Rheum nobile, a giant herb endemic to the high Himalayas. We examined whether the Bracts enhance reproductive success during flowering and seed development. Bracts increased flower and fruit temperature on sunny days, greatly decreased the intensity of ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation reaching flowers and fruits, and prevented pollen grains being washed away by rain. Experiments indicated that high temperature could promote pollen germination, while pollen grains exposed to rain and UV-B radiation at ambient levels were seriously damaged. Furthermore, Bract removal decreased the number of pollinators visiting flowers. When Bracts were removed before or after flowering, fecundity and progeny quality were adversely affected, but seed predation by larvae of pollinators decreased. A cost-benefit analysis demonstrated that the cost of Bracts, i.e., increased seed predation, is modest. Our results suggest that the Bracts of R. nobile promote pollen germination, protect pollen grains from rain and intense UV-B radiation, enhance pollinator visitation during flowering, and facilitate the development of fertilized ovules during seed development. We conclude that multifunctional Bracts of R. nobile are an effective adaptive strategy in alpine environments and might have been selected for because of abiotic environmental conditions as well as for enhancing pollination success.
Akos Pető - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a morphometric study of variance in articulated dendritic phytolith wave lobes within selected species of triticeae and aveneae
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 2017Co-Authors: Terry Ball, Luc Vrydaghs, Tess Mercer, Madison Pearce, Spencer Snyder, Zsuzsa Lisztesszabo, Akos PetőAbstract:Morphometric analysis has proven to be an effective tool for distinguishing among phytolith assemblages produced by closely related plant taxa. Elongate dendritic epidermal phytoliths are produced in the inflorescence Bracts of many cereal species. Under light microscopy, these articulated dendritic phytoliths produce wave patterns between the margins of the cells that are reported to have taxonomic significance. In this study we explore morphometric variance among the lobes of the wave patterns formed by the articulated dendritic phytoliths within selected species of cereals as a first step towards understanding the variance between species. We found that there is often significant variance in dendritic wave lobes among different accessions of a species, among the different types of inflorescence Bracts of the species (glumes, lemmas and paleae), and among each Bract type’s location on the inflorescence (upper, middle and lower third of inflorescence spike or panicle). We observed that shape morphometries are typically more reliable and require a smaller sample size for statistical confidence than size morphometries. We further observed that adequate samples sizes for analysis of several shape morphometries of articulated dendritic wave lobes are considerably smaller than those reported to be required for analysis of the same morphometries of individual or isolated dendritic phytoliths. To gain a preliminary sense whether there is potential for discriminating between taxa in light of the significant variance within species, we compared our data to archaeological material from the historical center of Brussels. We demonstrate that while there is considerable variance in the morphometries among accessions, Bract types and inflorescence locations within each species, there may yet be potential for discriminating between cereal species in archaeological samples by the morphometries of their dendritic phytolith wave lobes. We present one possible paradigm for conducting such analysis on archaeological material.
Hang Sun - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the Bracts of the alpine glasshouse plant rheum alexandrae polygonaceae enhance reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed consuming mutualist
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015Co-Authors: Bo Song, Jürg Stöcklin, De-li Peng, Yong-qian Gao, Hang SunAbstract:Environmental conditions are known to affect the reproductive fitness of insects, as do host plants. Although the highly specialized Bracts of Himalayan 'glasshouse' plants are thought to be an adaptive morphology that allows the plant to reproduce in harsh alpine environments, little information appears to exist concerning the benefit of these Bracts for the pollinating insects. In this study, we examine whether the semi-translucent Bracts of Rheum alexandrae, a giant herb endemic to the alpine zone of the Hengduan Mountains in south-western China, enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinator. Rheum alexandrae depends mainly on mutualistic seed-consuming Bradysia flies for pollination. Bracts increased interior temperature on sunny days, acted as a buffer against fluctuating air humidity, greatly decreased the intensities of ultraviolet B/C radiation and provided shelter from strong winds. Bract removal significantly decreased adult oviposition and offspring performance of pollinators during flowering and fruiting, respectively. Our results indicate that the Bracts of R. alexandrae enhance the reproductive fitness of its pollinating seed-consuming mutualist in alpine environments, which may be attributed to the positive effects of the Bracts on the interior microenvironment. (C) 2015 The Linnean Society of London.
Richard I Milne - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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genome scale transcriptome analysis of the alpine glasshouse plant rheum nobile polygonaceae with special translucent Bracts
PLOS ONE, 2014Co-Authors: Lizhong Wang, Haihong Zhou, Jin Han, Richard I Milne, Mingyu Wang, Bingbing LiuAbstract:Background Rheum nobile is an alpine plant with translucent Bracts concealing the inflorescence which produce a “glasshouse” effect promoting the development of fertile pollen grains in such conditions. The current understanding of the adaptation of such Bracts to alpine environments mainly focuses on the phenotypic and physiological changes while the genetic basis is very limited. By sequencing the upper Bract and the lower rosulate leaf from the same R. nobile stem, we identified candidate genes that may be involved in alpine adaption of the translucent Bract in “glasshouse” plants and illustrated the changes in gene expression underlying the adaptive and complex evolution of the Bracts phenotype. Results A total of 174.2 million paired-end reads from each transcriptome were assembled into 25,249 unigenes. By comparing the gene expression profiles, we identified 1,063 and 786 genes up-regulated respectively in the upper Bract and the lower leaf. Functional enrichment analyses of these genes recovered a number of differential important pathways, including flavonoid biosynthesis, mismatch repair and photosynthesis related pathways. These pathways are mainly involved in three types of functions: 9 genes in the UV protective process, 9 mismatch repair related genes and 88 genes associated with photosynthesis. Conclusions This study provides the first comprehensive dataset characterizing Rheum nobile gene expression at the transcriptomic scale, and provides novel insights into the gene expression profiles associated with the adaptation of the “glasshouse” plant Bracts. The dataset will be served as a public genetic resources for further functional and evolutionary studies of “glasshouse” plants.