Secure and Sustainable Sourcing of Plant Tissues for the Exhaustive Exploration of Their Chemodiversity

The main challenge of plant chemical diversity exploration is how to develop tools to study exhaustively plant tissues. Their sustainable sourcing is a limitation as bioguided strategies and dereplication need quite large amounts of plant material. We examine if alternative solutions could overcome these difficulties by obtaining a secure, sustainable, and scalable source of tissues able to biosynthesize an array of metabolites. As this approach would be as independent of the botanical origin as possible, we chose eight plant species from different families. We applied a four steps culture establishment procedure, monitoring targeted compounds through mass spectrometry-based analytical methods. We also characterized the capacities of leaf explants in culture to produce diverse secondary metabolites. In vitro cultures were successfully established for six species with leaf explants still producing a diversity of compounds after the culture establishment procedure. Furthermore, explants from leaves of axenic plantlets were also analyzed. The detection of marker compounds was confirmed after six days in culture for all tested species. Our results show that the first stage of this approach aiming at easing exploration of plant chemodiversity was completed, and leaf tissues could offer an interesting alternative providing a constant source of natural compounds.     

Oligosaccharides: Defense Inducers,Their Recognition in Plants,Commercial Uses and Perspectives

Plants have innate immune systems or defense mechanisms that respond to the attack of pathogenic microorganisms. Unlike mammals, they lack mobile defense cells, so defense processes depend on autonomous cellular events with a broad repertoire of recognition to detect pathogens, which compensates for the lack of an adaptive immune system. These defense mechanisms remain inactive or latent until they are activated after exposure or contact with inducing agents, or after the application of the inductor; they remain inactive only until they are affected by a pathogen or challenged by an elicitor from the same. Resistance induction represents a focus of interest, as it promotes the activation of plant defense mechanisms, reducing the use of chemical synthesis pesticides, an alternative that has even led to the generation of new commercial products with high efficiency, stability and lower environmental impact, which increase productivity by reducing not only losses but also increasing plant growth. Considering the above, the objective of this review is to address the issue of resistance induction with a focus on the potential of the use of oligosaccharides in agriculture, how they are recognized by plants, how they can be used for commercial products and perspectives.     

Biosurfactant trehalose lipid‐enhanced ultrasound‐assisted micellar extraction and determination of the main antioxidant compounds from functional plant tea

Hydrosoluble trehalose lipid (a biosurfactant) was employed for the first time as a green extraction solution to extract the main antioxidant compounds (geniposidic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, and rutin) from functional plant tea (Eucommia ulmoides leaves). Single‐factor tests and response surface methodology were employed to optimize the extraction conditions for ultrasound‐assisted micellar extraction combined with ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography in succession. A Box‐Behnken design (three‐level, three‐factorial) was used to determine the effects of extraction solvent concentration (1–5 mg/mL), extraction solvent volume (5–15 mL), and extraction time (20–40 min) at a uniform ultrasonic power and temperature. In consequence, the best analyte extraction yields could be attained when the trehalose lipid solution concentration was prepared at 3 mg/mL, the trehalose lipid solution volume was 10 mL and the extraction time was set to 35 min. In addition, the recoveries of the antioxidants from Eucommia ulmoides leaves analyzed by this analytical method ranged from 98.2 to 102%. These results indicated that biosurfactant‐enhanced ultrasound‐assisted micellar extraction coupled with a simple ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography method could be effectively applied in the extraction and analysis of antioxidants from Eucommia ulmoides leaf samples.     

Accumulation of selected metals in the fruits of medicinal plants grown in urban environment of Islamabad,Pakistan

The present study is based on the measurement of selected metals (Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Pb, Sr and Zn) in the fruits of eight medicinal plants (Carrisa opeca, Phyllanthus emblica, Solanum nigrum, Zizyphus nummularia, Zizyphus mauritiana, Physalis minima, Opuntia dillenii and Phoenix dactylifera) and relevant soil samples by atomic absorption spectrometry. Highest average concentrations of Cu (14.4 mg/kg), Cr (19.0 mg/kg), and Zn (125 mg/kg) were found in the fruits of P. minima, C. opeca and Z. nummularia, respectively, while O. dillenii showed the elevated mean levels of Cd (3.49 mg/kg), Sr (61.4 mg/kg), Mg (0.21%), Ca (6.62%) and Mn (44.6 mg/kg). However, highest average levels of Pb (41.7 mg/kg) and Co (38.4 mg/kg) were found in Z. mauritiana. Overall, most of the fruit samples showed higher contributions of Ca and Mg, followed by Fe, Zn, Co and Pb. In the case of soil samples, highest concentration was observed for Ca, followed by Fe, Mg, Mn and Sr, while lowest concentration was shown by Cd. Bioaccumulation factors exhibited significantly higher accumulation of Co (0.813–1.829) and Pb (0.060–2.350) from the soil to the fruits. Principal component analysis revealed significant anthropogenic contributions of Pb, Fe and Co in the fruit samples. Contamination factors and enrichment factors of Cd and Pb in the soil indicated very high contamination and extreme enrichment of these metals.     

昆明松花坝水源保护区云南松林地表蚂蚁多样性

 运用陷阱法调查了昆明市松花坝水源保护区无干扰及干扰云南松林地表蚂蚁群落.无干扰样地蚂蚁群落由3亚科13种组成,亮毛蚁Lasius fuliginosus最常见;干扰样地由4亚科21种组成,细胸蚁2 Leptothorax sp.2和玉米毛蚁Lasius alienus最常见;2个样地的蚂蚁物种丰富度ACE估计值分别为24.76和26.27,样地间多度及物种丰富度估计值没有显著差异;无干扰样地蚂蚁群落物种组成不同于干扰样地,但部分样带与干扰样地接近;亮毛蚁是无干扰样地的指示物种(IndVal=0.9787,P=0.001),邵氏厚结猛蚁Pachycondyla sauteri是干扰样地的指示物种(IndVal=0.6667,P=0.001);地表蚂蚁多样性与植物多样性具有显著相关性.研究显示:云南松林地表蚂蚁多样性能够指示植物多样性;松花坝水源保护区云南松林地表蚂蚁多样性相对较低;干扰已经改变了云南松林的地表蚂蚁群落组成;保护区的建立对当地生物多样性有积极作用,但保护力度仍然不够.     

城市绿地植物群落空气负离子浓度及影响要素研究

通过对上海市6种典型城市绿地植物群落夏、秋两季空气负离子浓度的测定,分析了季节因素和群落因素对空气负离子浓度的影响关系,并重点进行了群落因素对空气负离子浓度影响的定量分析研究.研究结果表明:(1) 城市绿地植物群落空气负离子浓度受到季节和群落两个因素的协同作用;(2)城市绿地植物群落夏季的平均负离子浓度高于秋季;(3)...     

于桥水库菹草过度生长对水质的影响及成因分析

通过对于桥水库水生植物种群群落和生物量的调查,分析水质监测成果和影响菹草生长的因素,研究菹草过度生长对水库水质的影响,探究于桥水库菹草疯长发生成因.对Lambert-Beer定律公式进行变换,分析水下太阳辐照度与水深和透明度的关系.结果表明:在菹草死亡腐败期,过量菹草衰亡释放的高营养盐和有机质对水质影响较大,恶化程度近1倍,持续时间约为1周;导致于桥水库出现菹草疯长现象的主要原因是光照度、透明度、水深和水温等条件;当透明度一定时,4月水位提高1,m,水下太阳辐照度将降低56.5%,菹草所能获得的光照能量大大减少,从而抑制了菹草过度生长.以Lambert-Beer定律为理论依据,提出采用提高水位、改变高水位运行时间抑制菹草过度生长的新方法.     

两种植物内生菌分离的影响因素研究

 在开展核桃树(Juglans regia L.)和飞龙斩血(Toddalia asiatica(L.)Lam.)植物内生菌多样性研究过程中,对季节、区域、树龄和采集部位等影响内生菌分离的因素进行研究.研究结果表明,在春夏之交宿主植物新陈代谢旺盛时采集的较大树龄材料,分离获得更多的内生菌种类和数量.采用5种不同的消毒剂,以不同的消毒浓度和消毒时间进行试验,探讨植物内生菌分离培养的最佳条件.试验表明,选用3.0%的H2O2溶液消毒30～120 s,0.5%的KMnO4溶液消毒30～120 s,75%的乙醇溶液消毒60～120 s,4%的漂白粉消毒30～120 s,对试材进行表面消毒,效果较好.从而为进一步开发利用药用植物内生菌提供了基础资料.     

纳米材料在植物细胞生物学研究中的应用

纳米材料已广泛应用于药物载体、生物传感器、成像技术以及基因治疗等研究,相对于动物细胞而言,纳米材料在植物细胞生物学中的应用相对滞后,目前主要集中在量子点探针标记技术和纳米基因载体介导外源基因遗传转化两方面。据此,笔者主要介绍了近年来的量子点合成及功能化等方面的进展,特别对于在植物细胞成像中应用进行了评述。另外还介绍了纳米基因载体的种类和特征,以及在植物完整细胞或原生质体中介导外源基因遗传转化等方面的研究进展。笔者认为已有的纳米材料存在粒径过大或自身的细胞毒性过大,限制了其在植物细胞生物学中的进一步应用,所以针对植物细胞自身特征,设计合成新型的纳米材料将是未来研究的焦点。     

抗松针褐斑病湿地松组培苗生根条件的优化

以抗松针褐斑病湿地松组培苗为研究材料,对影响组培苗不定根发生的条件进行优化。结果表明:在含4.0 mg/L IBA和0.07 mg/L NAA的WPM培养基中添加0.4 mg/L多效唑对湿地松组培苗不定根的形成和再生植株的成活率有促进作用;湿地松组培苗不定根原基形成后,出瓶移至装有蛭石的穴盘中,有利于不定根的表达,且根茎连接非常好,植株成活率高达85%;基因型对苗的成活率有决定性的影响,不同家系及同一家系不同无性系间移栽成活率差异较大。