Charophytes (Charales) are benthic algae with a complex morphology. They are vulnerable to ecosystem changes, such as eutrophication, and are red-listed in many countries. Accurate identification of Chara species is critical for understanding their diversity and for documenting changes in species distribution. Species delineation is, however, complicated, because of high phenotypic plasticity. ...

The constant accumulation of sequence data poses new computational and methodological challenges for phylogenetic inference, since multiple sequence alignments grow both in the horizontal (number of base pairs, phylogenomic alignments) as well as vertical (number of taxa) dimension. Put aside the ongoing controversial discussion about appropriate models, partitioning schemes, and assembly metho...

Capsosiphon fulvescens is a filamentous green algae in the class Ulvophyceae. It has been consumed as food with unique flavor and soft texture to treat stomach disorders and hangovers, and its economic value justifies studying its nutritional and potential therapeutic effects. In contrast to these applications, only a few taxonomic studies have been conducted on C. fulvescens. In particular, cl...

Within the maize leaf primordium, coordinated cell division and differentiation patterns result in the development of two morphologically and biochemically distinct photosynthetic cell types, the bundle sheath and the mesophyll. The bundle sheath defective2-mutable1 (bsd2-m1) mutation specifically disrupts C4 differentiation in bundle sheath cells in that the levels of bundle sheath cell-specif...

Heterocysts of free-living cyanobacteria lack ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase activity. Nevertheless, using in situ hybridizations, we demonstrate that transcripts for the rbcL and rbcS genes are present in both heterocysts and vegetative cells of Anabaena spp. in association with, or isolated from, the Azolla-Anabaena symbiosis. In contrast, rbcLS transcripts were detected only in vegeta...

BACKGROUND DNA barcoding is a technique used to identify species based on species-specific differences in short regions of their DNA. It is widely used in species discrimination of medicinal plants and traditional medicines. MATERIALS AND METHODS In the present study, four potential DNA barcodes, namely rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA and ITS (nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer) were adopted...

Scutellaria baicalensis GEORGI (Lamiaceae) is the botanical origin of the well-known traditional Chinese medicine "Huang Qin" (Radix Scutellariae). Due to overexploitation that had induced a decline in natural sources, the dried roots of its congeners, S. amoena, S. rehderiana, and S. viscidula, have been used to adulterate it in recent years. This practice may cause a series of inconsistent th...

Hopea chinensis (synonym: H. hongayensis) (Dipterocarpaceae) is a threatened species found so far in only two locations: Quang Ninh (Vietnam) and Guangxi (China). The species shares many morphological characteristics with H. mollissima and the two species are often confused. To overcome this problem of identification and to investigate the genetic relationships of Hopea species with other Dipte...

Two sets of genes for the large and small subunits of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO) were detected in the photosynthetic purple sulfur bacterium Chromatium vinosum by hybridization analysis with RuBisCO gene probes, cloned by using the lambda Fix vector, and designated rbcL-rbcS and rbcA-rbcB. rbcL and rbcA encode the large subunits, and rbcS and rbcB encode the small...