It is long believed that some spices may help protect against certain chronic conditions. Spices are usually parts of plants that have been powdered into small pieces. Have you ever wondered what the curry powder in your dish is made of? The aim of this work was to develop an appropriate DNA-based method for assessment of spice identity. Selecting the best marker for species recognition in the ...

Lauraceae are an important component of tropical and subtropical forests and have major ecological and economic significance. Owing to lack of clear-cut morphological differences between genera and species, this family is an ideal case for testing the efficacy of DNA barcoding in the identification and discrimination of species and genera. In this study, we evaluated five widely recommended pla...

Maianthemum (Ruscaceae) comprises 28-38 species and includes the two traditionally recognized genera: Maianthemum sensu stricto and Smilacina. Thirty-seven samples representing 22 species of Maianthemum and six closely related outgroup taxa were sequenced for eight chloroplast and nuclear markers (trnL-F, rps16, rpl16, psbA-trnH, rbcL, ndhF, trnK, and ITS) with a total length of nearly 10,000 b...

The paper provides a short description of the originally developed algorithm for searching of the conservative protein-RNA binding sites. The algorithm is applied to analyze chloroplast genes. The candidate protein-RNA binding sites were detected upstream of atpF, petB, clpP, psaA, psbA, and psbB genes in many chloroplasts of algae and plants. We suggest that some of these sites are involved in...

We investigated the regulation of the psbA and pvdA pyoverdine biosynthesis genes, which encode the L-ornithine N(5)-oxygenase homologues in Pseudomonas strain B10 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, respectively. We demonstrate that pyoverdine(B10), as the end product of its biosynthetic pathway, is a key participant of the control circuit regulating its own production in Pseudomonas strain B10. ...

Background: Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a common but very expensive herbal medicine. As an important traditional medicine, it has an outstanding effect in treating irregular and painful menstruation. Recently, the over-demand tendency of saffron results in an unusual phenomenon in the medicinal markets. Adulterants and saffron-like substitutes are intentionally mixed into medicinal markets a...