Checklist of national key protected wild plants on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.

Background: Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a global biodiversity hotspot due to the unique geographical environment. However, there are few reports on the list of national key protected plants and the distribution pattern of their diversity in this area. Based on the flora and online database, this paper summarised the species diversity and distribution patterns of national key protected wild plants on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. New information: The results showed that there were 350 species of national key protected wild plants on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, belonging to 72 families and 130 genera. Amongst them, 22 species were under class I protection, 328 species were under class II protection and 168 species were endemic to China. Its endangered status involves EW 1 species, CR 17 species, EN 90 species, VU 90 species, NT 30 species, LC 60 species and DD 62 species. Species diversity declined gradually from the southeast to the northwest with hotspots located within Sanjiang Valley subregion (ⅢE14a). The list of national key protected wild plants and their diversity and distribution patterns in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau can provide basic data for the conservation of regional biodiversity and the formulation of conservation strategies.

Comparative plastomes of species from Phrymaceae and Mazaceae: insights into adaptive evolution, codon usage bias, and phylogenetic relationships.

The phylogeny of the species from Phrymaceae and Mazaceae has undergone many adjustments and changes in recent years. Moreover, there is little plastome information on the Phrymaceae. In this study, we compared the plastomes of six species from the Phrymaceae and 10 species from the Mazaceae. The gene order, contents, and orientation of the 16 plastomes were found to be highly similar. A total of 13 highly variable regions were identified among the 16 species. An accelerated rate of substitution was found in the protein-coding genes, particularly cemA and matK. The combination of effective number of codons, parity rule 2, and neutrality plots revealed that the codon usage bias is affected by mutation and selection. The phylogenetic analysis strongly supported {Mazaceae [(Phrymaceae + Wightiaceae) + (Paulowniaceae + Orobanchaceae)]} relationships in the Lamiales. Our findings can provide useful information to analyze the phylogeny and molecular evolution within the Phrymaceae and Mazaceae.