PREMISE OF THE STUDY The opuntias (nopales, prickly pears) are not only culturally, ecologically, economically, and medicinally important, but are renowned for their taxonomic difficulty due to interspecific hybridization, polyploidy, and morphological variability. Evolutionary relationships in these stem succulents have been insufficiently studied; thus, delimitation of Opuntia s.s. and major ...

The first comprehensive molecular phylogenetic reconstruction of the Cichorieae subtribe Lactucinae is provided. Sequences for two datasets, one of the nuclear rDNA ITS region, the other of five concatenated non-coding chloroplast DNA markers including the petD region and the psbA-trnH, 5'trnL((UAA))-trnF, rpl32-trnL((UAG)) and trnQ((UUG))-5'rps16 spacers, were, with few exceptions, newly gener...

The current distribution of most species results from ecological niche, past distribution, and migrations during glacial–interglacial periods in situ evolution. Here, we disentangle the colonization history Saxifraga longifolia Lapeyr., a limestone plant abundant Pyrenees rare other Iberian mountains African Atlas. Our working hypothesis is that shrinkage more extensive previous cold periods. W...

The importance of intronic sequences for expression of the mouse ribosomal protein gene rpL32 was evaluated by transfection experiments with a series of mutant constructs in which one or more of the three rpL32 introns was totally or partially deleted. When transiently transfected into monkey kidney (COS) cells or stably transfected into mouse L cells, a mutant that lacked all three introns was...

The utility of DNA barcoding for identifying representative specimens of the circumpolar tree genus Fraxinus (56 species) was investigated. We examined the genetic variability of several loci suggested in chloroplast DNA barcode protocols such as matK, rpoB, rpoC1 and trnH-psbA in a large worldwide sample of Fraxinus species. The chloroplast intergenic spacer rpl32-trnL was further assessed in ...

continuous labelling of callus with h-thymidine results in intermittent peaks of h-dna per chloroplast, showing synchrony of division. the increase in h-dna could be due to several replication rounds, and the drop to successive plastid divisions without intervening dna synthesis. the level of dna-binding proteins in the chloroplast parallels the peaks of plastidal dna synthesis; such proteins c...

We examined the phylogenetic history of Linaria with special emphasis on the Mediterranean sect. Supinae (44 species). We revealed extensive highly supported incongruence among two nuclear (ITS, AGT1) and two plastid regions (rpl32-trnL(UAG), trnS-trnG). Coalescent simulations, a hybrid detection test and species tree inference in *BEAST revealed that incomplete lineage sorting and hybridizatio...

Tripterygium wilfordii (Celastraceae) is a traditional Chinese medicine; and the dried root and rhizome constitute the main officinal parts. Tripterygium wilfordii has been identified as a potential candidate for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, nephritis, asthma, leprosy, and cancer. The phylogenetic relationships within the Tripterygium genus are ambiguous;...

Quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) has emerged as a reliable and reproducible technique for studying gene expression analysis. For accurate results, the normalization of data with reference genes is particularly essential. Once the transcriptome sequencing of Frankliniella occidentalis was completed, numerous unigenes were identified and annotated. Unfortunately, there are no studies on the s...

Japanese apricot (Prunus mume Sieb. et Zucc.) is among the most valued fruits and flowering plants in eastern Asia. However, few comparative studies have been conducted with respect to its agro-morphological pomological traits, chloroplast (cp) genome sequences plastid diversity. Therefore, a study was, investigate divergence geographic distribution of ten accessions from three Chinese province...