4-Acetyl-1H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde.

The title compound, C(7)H(7)NO(2), was synthesized via a one-pot Vilsmeier-Haack and subsequent Friedel-Crafts reaction. The pyrazole ring makes dihedral angles of 4.50 (9) and 2.06 (8)°, respectively, with the aldehyde and acetyl groups. In the crystal, classical N-H⋯O hydrogen bonds and weak C-H⋯O inter-actions assemble the mol-ecules into a chain along the b axis.

Ethyl 2,4-dimethyl-pyrido[1,2-a]benz-imidazole-3-carboxyl-ate.

The title compound, C(16)H(16)N(2)O(2), was synthesized using a novel tandem annulation reaction between 1-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)ethanone and ethyl (E)-4-bromo-but-2-enoate under mild conditions. The dihedral angles formed by the mean plane of the five-membered imidazole ring with the dihydro-pyridin and benzene rings are 1.54 (9) and 1.85 (9)°, respectively.

Comparative transcriptomics reveals the selection patterns of domesticated ramie.

Although domestication has dramatically altered the phenotype, physiology, and life history of ramie (Boehmeria nivea) plants, few studies have investigated the effects of domestication on the structure and expression pattern of genes in this fiber crop. To investigate the selective pattern and genetic relationships among a cultivated variety of ramie (BNZ: B. nivea, ZZ1) and four wild species, BNT (B. nivea var. tenacissima), BNN (B. nivea var. nipononivea), BNW (B. nivea var. nivea), and BAN (B. nivea var. viridula), in the section Tilocnide, we performed an RNA sequencing analysis of these ramie species. The de novo assembly of the "all-ramie" transcriptome yielded 119,114 unigenes with an average length of 633 bp, and a total of 7,084 orthologous gene pairs were identified. The phylogenetic tree showed that the cultivar BNZ clustered with BAN in one group, BNW was closely related to BNT, and BNN formed a separate group. Introgression analysis indicated that gene flow occurred from BNZ to BNN and BAN, and between BAN and BNN. Among these orthologs, 2,425 and 269 genes underwent significant purifying and positive selection, respectively. For these positively selected genes, oxidation-reduction process (GO:0055114) and stress response pathways (GO:0006950) were enriched, indicating that modulation of the cellular redox status was important during both ramie fiber evolution and improvement. Two genes related to the suppression of flowering and one gene annotated as a flowering-promoting factor were subjected to positive selection, probably caused by human manipulation. Additionally, five genes were homologs of those involved in abiotic stress tolerance and disease resistance, with higher expression levels in the cultivar BNZ than in the wild species. Collectively, the results of this study indicated that domestication has resulted in the upregulation of many genes involved in the abiotic and biotic stress responses, fiber yield, and plant growth of ramie.

Draft genome sequence of ramie, Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich.

Ramie, Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich, family Urticaceae, is a plant native to eastern Asia, and one of the world's oldest fibre crops. It is also used as animal feed and for the phytoremediation of heavy metal-contaminated farmlands. Thus, the genome sequence of ramie was determined to explore the molecular basis of its fibre quality, protein content and phytoremediation. For further understanding ramie genome, different paired-end and mate-pair libraries were combined to generate 134.31 Gb of raw DNA sequences using the Illumina whole-genome shotgun sequencing approach. The highly heterozygous B. nivea genome was assembled using the Platanus Genome Assembler, which is an effective tool for the assembly of highly heterozygous genome sequences. The final length of the draft genome of this species was approximately 341.9 Mb (contig N50 = 22.62 kb, scaffold N50 = 1,126.36 kb). Based on ramie genome annotations, 30,237 protein-coding genes were predicted, and the repetitive element content was 46.3%. The completeness of the final assembly was evaluated by benchmarking universal single-copy orthologous genes (BUSCO); 90.5% of the 1,440 expected embryophytic genes were identified as complete, and 4.9% were identified as fragmented. Phylogenetic analysis based on single-copy gene families and one-to-one orthologous genes placed ramie with mulberry and cannabis, within the clade of urticalean rosids. Genome information of ramie will be a valuable resource for the conservation of endangered Boehmeria species and for future studies on the biogeography and characteristic evolution of members of Urticaceae.