Complete chloroplast genome sequences of two Amomum species (Zingiberaceae).

Amomum tsao-ko and Amomum paratsaoko are well known medicinal and edible plants with a strong fragrance and flavour in China. Here, we have sequenced the two complete chloroplast genomes of Amomum tsao-ko and Amomum paratsaoko, which are 163,612 bp and 163,487 bp in length, respectively, and exhibited LSC and SSC regions separated by a pair of inverted repeat regions. The cp genome of A. tsao-ko has 120 annotated genes, including 82 protein-coding genes, while A. paratsaoko has 121 annotated genes, including 83 protein-coding genes. Both cp genomes contained 30 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis using a total chloroplast genome DNA sequence of 28 species revealed a close relationship between A. tsao-ko and A. paratsaoko with 100% bootstrap value.

Differentiation in fructification percentage between two morphs of Amomum tsaoko (Zingiberaceae).

Amomum tsaoko is a flexistylous ginger. Flexistyly is a unique floral mechanism promoting outcrossing, which is known only in some species of Zingiberaceae till date. This is a pioneer report on flexistyly in A. tsaoko from the aspect of fructification percentage to clarify its influence on reproduction. We observed in 2007 and 2008 that the fructification percentage of the anaflexistyled and the cataflexistyled inflorescence were 14.89 ± 10.35% and 11.31 ± 7.91% respectively, with significant difference (d.f. = 141.920, t = 2.518, P = 0.013 < 0.05). The greatly significant difference between 2007 and 2008 were present in both the flower number (d.f. = 93, t = -2.819, P = 0.006 < 0.01) and the fructification percentage (d.f. = 93, t = -2.894, P = 0.005 < 0.01) of the cataflexistylous inflorescence. Although the two morphs were similar in morphological characteristics, there was some gender differentiation between them, showing a possibility that the anaflexistylous morph might function more as females and the cataflexistylous morph more as males. Reproduction of the cataflexistylous morph was significantly sensitive to change of environmental factors, in contrast to the anaflexistylous morph, thus the yield varied between the abundant year (2008) and the off year (2007).

[Study on content of volatile oil in Amomum tsao-ko seeds and its influencing factors].

OBJECTIVE: To lay the foundation for quality evaluation of medicinal materials of Amomum tsao-ko and its selection of fine varieties, the variation of percentage of volatile oil in the seeds among populations and individuals and its influencing factors were studied. METHODS: Extracted volatile oil from the seeds according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, studied quantitative characters of fruit, and analyzed the data according to SPSS 13.0. RESULTS: The percentage of volatile oil in seeds was greatly significantly different among the 7 populations (P = 0.000 < 0.001), and among different individuals (P = 0.000 < 0.001). A significantly positive correlation was detected between the percentage of volatile oil in seeds and length of fruit (P = 0.024 < 0.05), and significantly negative correlation occurred between the percentage and other quantitative characters or factors, viz. thousand seeds weight (P = 0.031 < 0.05), flower number per inflorescence (P = 0.028 < 0.05), weight of seeds masses per fruit (P = 0.038 < 0.05), altitude (P = 0.014 < 0.05), and latitude (P = 0.000 < 0.001). The regression equation (Y = 1.031 - 1.744 X2 - 1.119 X3 + 2.207 X1) was the optimal regression model of percentage of volatile oil in seeds (X1, X2 and X3 were respectively represented as the length and length-width ratio of fruit,and the weight of seeds masses). CONCLUSION: Environmental factors influence greatly significantly on the percentage of volatile oil in seeds. The production and accumulation of volatile oil would decrease with altitude and latitude increasing. The longer fruit has the higher percentage volatile oil.

[Study on comparison of quantitative multistate character of infructescence of Amomum tsao-ko from five populations].

OBJECTIVE: To study the difference of the quantitative multistate character of infructescence of Amomum tsao-ko from five populations, and the correlations between the quantitative multistate character and altitude, longitude and latitude. METHODS: By observing and analyzing the quantitative multistate character of infructescence of Amomum tsao-ko from five populations. RESULTS: There is highly significant difference among the number of flowerlets each inflorescence from five populations. The higher the altitude, the less the number of flowerlets each inflorescence; and the higher the longitude is, the more the number of flowerlets each inflorescence. The temperature and the humidity of the circumstance affects the number of flowerlets each inflorescence. Lower temperature, higher diurnal variation of temperature, and higher diurnal variation of relative humidity causes less number of flowerlets each inflorescence. There is significantly negative correlation between the number of flowerlets each inflorescence and the maturing rate of infructescence. The difference of the maturing rate of infructescence from five populations don't approach significant level. The difference of the maturing rate of infructescence approaches significant level by multiple comparisons between Magnan population and Baoshan population, Gongshan population and Xichou population. There is not significant correlation between the maturing rate of infructescence and the altitude, the longitude and the latitude. CONCLUSION: The factors of the circumstance affects the number of flowerlets each inflorescence. The climate by the change of the altitude affects the number of flowerlets each inflorescence highly significantly. Selecting the fine genetic resources of Amomum tsao-ko for high yielding, the number of flowerlets of inflorescence is not better character. Maybe the difference of the maturing rate of inflorescence is mainly caused by different genetic resources. Analyzing the difference of genetic regenetic resources of Amomum tsao-ko.

[Anatomy and adaptation to environment study of endangered alpine medical plant Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora].

OBJECTIVE: To study the anatomical structure of endangered alpine medical plant Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora and the high altitude adaptability. METHODS: The leaf epidermis character as well as section structure of leaf, aerial stem and rhizome were observed by light microscopical technique. RESULTS: The leaf surface of Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora was covered with two kinds of glandular hair, and the stommata was anomocytic type. Moreover, the leaf was isolateral and differed from most of alpine plant. The aerial stem had well-developed mechanical tissue. The rhizome was distributed by well-developed cork layers and collenchyma. Large numbers of aerenchymas distributed widely in leaf, aerial stem and rhizome. CONCLUSION: There existed characteristic traits in Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora that adapted the alpine environment, however, there still had some particular character different from other alpine plant. Thus, the adaptive style of alpine plant to high altitude environment was diversity.

[Study on quantitative multistate character of fruit and seed of Amomum tsaoko].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the regulation of the growth of fruit of Amomum tsaoko and the factors influencing the weight of fruit. METHODS: To compare and analyze the quantitative multistate character of fruit and seed of Amomum tsaoko. RESULTS: The quantitative multistate character of fruit and seed of Amomum tsaoko in populations and between populations were abundant. There was positive relativity between the rate of fertilization of ovule and the rate of fructify and this indicated the different heredity character among plants. The weight of fruit was mainly decided by the weight of seed regiment, The more the seed quantity, the larger the weight of seed regiment, and the larger the weight of fruit, then the higher the yield. The variety of the weight of fruit and the quantity of seed presented peak form along with the proper order of fruit growth in inflorescence but had no relativity. CONCLUSION: The abundant quantitative multistate character of fruit and seed of Amomum tsaoko provide the abundant materials for selecting good varieties. For high yield we should not only choose plants with high rate of fructify and high rate of fertilization of ovule the, but also pay attention to the influence of pollination to yield.

[Growth comparison among Psammosilene tunicoides populations in tissue culture].

The comparison between the growth of eight populations from Psammosilene tunicoides at Yunnan Province was made by the tissue culture. The initial results showed out two populations from Yunshanping (Lijiang) and Xiaomoyu (Kunming) was dominant than orthers. It would be regard as one of fine germplasm resources for the culture of Psammosilence tunicoides.

Temperature dependence of nickel stabilization in inorganic oxide matrices.

Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and other means are used to investigate the effect of thermal treatment temperature, 105-1100 degrees C, on the immobilization of nickel (Ni) by the inorganic oxides of latosol. Ni is more firmly immobilized by the latosol with increasing temperature. Spectral analyses indicate that a shoulder toward the edge-jump appears in the spectra of X-ray absorption near-edge structure for the samples heated at 900 and 1100 degrees C. Moreover, the intensity of the main peak at the edge increases with higher temperature; this information indicates the distortion of the divalent nickel [Ni(II)] environment in the samples heated at 900 and 1100 degrees C. Nevertheless, the distortion is absent from the samples heated at 105 and 500 degrees C. The fact of the distortion of the Ni(II) environment suggests the occurrence of a chemical reaction between the Ni compound and the inorganic matrices of the latosol soil during the heating process at 900 and 1100 degrees C. In addition, the extended X-ray absorption fine structure results correspond well to the X-ray absorption near-edge structure results; the former are supportive of the occurrence of a distorted Ni(II) environment in the samples heated at 900 and 1100 degrees C. The wet-chemistry results show that the samples heated at 900-1100 degrees C leach less Ni than the 105-500 degrees C samples do. The change of the Ni environment is related to the observation that less Ni is leached from the samples heated at 900-1100 degrees C. Furthermore, the pore closing phenomenon is observed only in the 1100 degrees C sample; this phenomenon corresponds with the fact that the 1100 degrees C sample leaches less Ni than the 900 degrees C sample does.

Molecular study of thermal immobilization of chromium(VI) with clay.

Clay that contains kaolinite has been used extensively as a raw material for manufacturing of bricks and china at 900-1100 degrees C. This study used clay to stabilize the contaminant chromium(VI) [Cr(VI)] through a heating process at 500-1100 degrees C. X-ray absorption spectroscopic results indicated that the 500-900 degrees C heating process transformed hazardous Cr(VI) to nontoxic Cr(III); Cr2O3 was the species detected as most abundant. The 1100 degrees C heating process caused the formation of Cr2SiO5, which was not detected in the samples heated at 500-900 degrees C. Fourier transformed extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra were fitted by use of WinXAS software. Phase shifts and backscatter(ing) amplitudes for specific atom pairs, based on the crystallographic data for CrO3 and Cr2O3, were theoretically calculated with the FEFF software. The processed XAS data show that the first shell coordination numbers were similar to each other as the temperature was increased from 500 to 900 degrees C and 1100 degrees C, implying that their Cr(III) crystallite size was relatively similar. The interatomic distance between the target center element and the first shell for the 500-1100 degrees C samples was 1.98 A. The Debye-Waller factor for the 1100 degrees C sample was increased compared with the 500 and 900 degrees C samples and probably indicates the formation of Cr2SiO5.