A special issue to mark the 90th Anniversary of College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

The College of Life Sciences (CLS) remains one of the most prestigious-and the oldest-colleges in Zhejiang University. This special issue, which includes 16 reviews contributed by our alumni and faculties, is dedicated to mark the 90th Anniversary of CLS. The reviews provide a glimpse of current progresses in the areas of life sciences such as biochemical processes and their association with diseases (Ding et al., 2019; Hu et al., 2019; Jin et al., 2019; Nie and Yi, 2019), cancer biology (Feng, 2019; Huang et al., 2019; Leonard and Zhang, 2019; Zhu F et al., 2019), plant and environmental microbiology (Li et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019; Zhu XR et al., 2019), cell cycle (Gao and Liu, 2019; Zhang et al., 2019), RNA biology (Gudenas et al., 2019; Luo et al., 2019), and protein structural biology (Yang and Tang, 2019).

Pollen morphology of the platycodonoid group (Campanulaceae s. str.) and its systematic implications.

In this study, we examined the pollen morphology of the platycodonoid group in Campanulaceae s. str. using a scanning electronic microscope. We used pollen grains of 25 accessions representing 24 species of the Codonopsis complex (including Campanumoea, Cyclocodon, Leptocodon, and all three subgenera of Codonopsis), which is extremely controversial among authors for taxonomic treatment. Pollen morphology of all the other genera in the group observed by previous authors is taken into account in our discussion. A total of nine pollen types with two subtypes in the group were recognized and named for the first time. Molecular and morphological data imply that each pollen type corresponds to a natural group at generic level, and thus the mergence of Leptocodon with Codonopsis and the restoration of Cyclocodon as a separate genus are justifiable, and Codonopsis subg. Pseudocodonopsis, subg. Obconicicapsula, and two species of Codonopsis subg. Codonopsis (C. purpurea and C. chimiliensis) may be better classified as three independent genera separate from the core Codonopsis.

Research on the quality of original plants and material medicine of Cortex Paeoniae / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the contents of main chemical compounds, such as, paeonol, paeoniflorin and their similar compounds in structure in Paeonia ostii and P. suffruticosa, and to find their quality difference.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>HPLC was used. The contents of paeoniflorin and paeonol in 9 collected samples, 5 from P. ostii and 4 from P. suffruticosa, and 6 herb samples bought from different areas were analyzed. The rough contents of 3 paeonol similar compounds and 2 paeoniflorin similar compounds were investigated.</p><p><b>RESULT AND CONCLUSION</b>1. There is no obvious difference in the contents of paeonol and paeonoflorin and the constitution of other main compounds between P. ostii and P. suffruticosa. Since they belong to different botanic species, it is suggested that both P. ostii and P. suffruticosa should be recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia as the origin of Cortex Paeoniae. 2. The glucosides of paeonol might change to paeonol in the course of the collecting and processing of the herb. Therefore when the contents of paeonol is used as the standard to evaluate the quality of the material and patent medicine, the attention should be paid to the transformation mentioned above.</p>