Research progress in microevolutionary process of excellent traits and quality of Dao-di herbs / 中国中药杂志

Dao-di herbs are the treasure of Chinese materia medica and one of the characteristic research objects of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). Probing into the microevolution of Dao-di herbs can help to reveal their biological essence and quality formation mechanisms. The progress in molecular biology and omics provides the possibility to elucidate the phylogenetic and quality forming characteristics of Dao-di herbs at the molecular level. In particular, genomics serves as a powerful tool to decipher the genetic origins of Dao-di herbs, and molecular markers have been widely used in the research on the genetic diversity and population structure of Dao-di herbs. Focusing on the excellent traits and quality of Dao-di herbs, this paper reviews the studies about the microevolution process of quality formation mechanisms of Dao-di herbs with the application of molecular markers and omics, aiming to underpin the protection and utilization of TCM resources.

Species identification of Ligustrum lucidum / 中国中药杂志

Ligustrum lucidum is a woody perennial plant of genus Ligustrum in family Oleaceae. Its dried fruit has high medicinal value. In this study, the authors evaluated the variability and species identification efficiency of three specific DAN barcodes(rbcL-accD, ycf1a, ycf1b) and four general DAN barcodes(matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, ITS2) for a rapid and accurate molecular identification of Ligustrum species. The results revealed that matK, rbcL, trnH-psbA, ITS2 and ycf1a were inefficient for identifying the Ligustrum species, and a large number of insertions and deletions were observed in rbcL-accD sequence, which was thus unsuitable for development as specific barcode. The ycf1b-2 barcode had DNA barcoding gap and high success rate of PCR amplification and DNA sequencing, which was the most suitable DNA barcode for L. lucidum identification and achieved an accurate result. In addition, to optimize the DNA extraction experiment, the authors extracted and analyzed the DNA of the exocarp, mesocarp, endocarp and seed of L. lucidum fruit. It was found that seed was the most effective part for DNA extraction, where DNAs of high concentration and quality were obtained, meeting the needs of species identification. In this study, the experimental method for DNA extraction of L. lucidum was optimized, and the seed was determined as the optimal part for DNA extraction and ycf1b-2 was the specific DNA barcode for L. lucidum identification. This study laid a foundation for the market regulation of L. lucidum.

Complete chloroplast genome of Ligustrum lucidum and highly variable marker identification for Ligustrum / 中国中药杂志

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus, the sun-dried mature fruit of Ligustrum lucidum, is cool, plain, sweet, and bitter, which can be used as both food and medicine, with the effects of improving vision, blacking hair, and tonifying liver and kidney. It takes effect slowly. However, little is known about the genetic information of the medicinal plant and it is still a challenge to distinguish Ligustrum species. In this study, the complete chloroplast genome of L. lucidum was obtained by genome skimming and then compared with that of five other Ligustrum species, which had been reported. This study aims to evaluate the interspecific variation of chloroplast genome within the genus and develop molecular markers for species identification of the genus. The result showed that the chloroplast genome of L. lucidum was 162 162 bp with a circular quadripartite structure of two single-copy regions separated by a pair of inverted repeats. The Ligustrum chloroplast genomes were conserved with small interspecific difference. Comparative analysis of six Ligustrum chloroplast genomes revealed three variable regions(rbcL-accD, ycf1a, and ycf1b), and ycf1a and ycf1b can be used as the species-specific DNA barcode for Ligustrum. Phylogeny analysis provided the best resolution of Ligustrum and supported that L. lucidum was sister to L. gracile. This study clarified the genetic diversity of L. lucidum from provenance, which can serve as a reference for further analysis of pharmacological differences and breeding of excellent varieties with stable drug effects.

Evaluation of genetic diversity of ginseng fruit color germplasm resources: based on SSR analysis / 中国中药杂志

Illumina Xten was employed for shallow sequencing of Panax ginseng(ginseng) samples, MISA for screening of SSR loci, and Primer 3 for primer design. Polymorphic primers were screened from 180 primers. From the successfully amplified polymorphic primers, 15 primers which featured clear peak shape, good polymorphism, and ease of statistics were selected and used to evaluate the genetic diversity and germplasm resources of 36 ginseng accessions with different fruit colors from Jilin province. The results showed that red-fruit ginseng population had high genetic diversity with the average number of alleles(N_a) of 1.031 and haploid genetic diversity(h) of 0.172. The neighbor-joining cluster analysis demonstrated that the germplasms of red-fruit and yellow-fruit ginseng populations were obviously intermixed, and pick-fruit ginseng germplasms clustered into a single clade. The results of STRUCTURE analysis showed high proportion of single genotype in pick-fruit ginseng germplasm and abundant genotypes in red-fruit and yellow-fruit ginseng germplasms with obvious germplasm mixing. AMOVA revealed that genetic variation occurred mainly within populations(62.00%, P<0.001), and rarely among populations(39%, P<0.001), but homogenization was obvious among different populations. In summary, pink-fruit ginseng population may contain rare genotypes, which is the basis for breeding of high-quality high-yield, and multi-resistance varieties, genetic improvement of varieties, and sustainable development and utilization of ginseng germplasm resources.

Biological effects of exosome derived from Cal27 on normal human gingival fibroblasts / 华西口腔医学杂志

OBJECTIVES@#The proliferation, migration capacity, and expression of activation-related proteins of NHGFs+Cal27-exo were determined by coculturing Cal27 exosome (Cal27-exo) with normal human gingival fibroblasts (NHGFs) to explore the effects of Cal27-exo on the activation and biological behavior of NHGFs.@*METHODS@#Cal27-exo was extracted using supercentrifugation, and exosomes were identified using Western blot, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and particle size detection. Cal27-exo was cocultured with NHGFs to detect the uptake of Cal27-exo by NHGFs, and the proliferation and migration capacity of NHGFs+Cal27-exo were detected using CCK8 and wound healing tests, respectively. The expression levels of NHGF activation-related proteins, i.e., matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), fibroblast-activating protein (FAP), alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA), and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), were detected using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).@*RESULTS@#Cal27-exo was extracted u-sing supercentrifugation, and Western blot showed the positive expression levels of Alix and CD63. TEM showed that Cal27-exo had a circular double-layer vesicle. The particle size was between 30 and 150 nm. Cal27-exo labeled with PKH67 entered NHGFs after the coculture method. The wound healing test showed that the migration capacity of NHGFs+Cal27-exo was stronger after the scratch compared with that of NHGFs. CCK8 results showed that the proliferation activity of NHGFs+Cal27-exo was enhanced. qRT-PCR results showed that the MMP-9 levels of NHGFs+Cal27-exo were upregulated, whereas the TGF-β and αSMA mRNA levels of NHGFs+Cal27-exo were downregulated (@*CONCLUSIONS@#The proliferation and migration ability of NHGFs+Cal27-exo are enhanced, and the mRNA expression of related proteins is changed. Cal27-exo can activate NHGFs, which suggests that Cal27-exo has potential significance in tumor invasion and metastasis.