Lilium is a world famous fragrant bulb flower with high ornamental and economic values, and significant differences in fragrance are found among different Lilium genotypes. In order to explore the mechanism underlying the different fragrances, the floral scents of Lilium 'Sibeia', with a strong fragrance, and Lilium 'Novano', with a very faint fragrance, were collected in vivo using a dynamic h...

Petal wilting and/or abscission terminates the life of the flower. However, how wilting and abscission are coordinated is not fully understood. There is wide variation in the extent to which petals wilt before abscission, even between cultivars of the same species. For example, tepals of Lilium longiflorum wilt substantially, while those of the closely related Lilium longiflorum×Asiatic hybrid ...

Lilium candidum L. (Liliaceae), the so called “white Madonna lily”, is well known in folk medicine for the treatment of burns, ulcers, inflammations and for healing wounds. Lilium candidum L. extract contains various biologically active compounds. As the antimutagenic activity of natural compounds often correlates with antioxidant effects and contents of phytochemical substances from the flavon...

Chloroplast (cp) genomes of Lilium amabile, L. callosum, L. lancifolium, and L. philadelphicum were fully sequenced. Using these four novel cp genome sequences and five other previously sequenced cp genomes, features of the cp genomes were characterized in detail among species in the genus Lilium and other related genera in the order Liliales. The lengths and nucleotide composition showed littl...

Examination of the bulbs of Lilium pumilum (Liliaceae) led to the isolation of four novel steroidal glycosides (1-4) with a 2,3,4-trisubstituted β-d-glucopyranosyl unit. In 1 and 3, the α-L-arabinopyranosyl moiety is linked to C-3 of the inner trisubstituted β-D-glucopyranosyl group and is present as an usual ⁴C₁ conformation. In contrast, in 2 and 4, the α-L-arabinopyranosyl moiety, which is a...

We present phylogenetic analyses of 37 taxa of Fritillaria (Liliaceae), 15 species of Lilium, and several outgroup taxa from Liliaceae s.s. to investigate the generic delimitation of Fritillaria in relation to Lilium as well as infrageneric relationships within Fritillaria. We used DNA sequences from the maturase-coding plastid matK gene and the trnK intron, the intron of the ribosomal protein-...

Reciprocal pollination was made between Lilium nobilissimum and L. regale. Pollen tubes reached the base of style within 144 h after pollination, but no mature seeds were obtained in either cross combination. Explants, or ovules-with-placental-tissue excised from each carpel 30 and 40 days after pollination (DAP), were cultured on a medium composed of major salts of B-5 macronutrient (Gamborg, ...

One of the most effective ways to propagate Lilium is by using tissue culture techniques, preferably through bulblet production. In addition to the surviving percentage of Lilium bulbs after transplantation, the small size of in vitro bulblets compared to commercial bulbs and bulblets‟ dormancy are the most important constraints to commercializing Lilium micropropagation. Different concentratio...

Villin/gelsolin/fragmin superfamily proteins have been shown to function in tip-growing plant cells. However, genes encoding gelsolin/fragmin do not exist in the Arabidopsis thaliana and rice (Oryza sativa) databases, and it is possible that these proteins are encoded by villin mRNA splicing variants. We cloned a 1006-bp full-length cDNA from Lilium longiflorum that encodes a 263-amino acid pre...

Genome size (GS) diversity is of fundamental biological importance. The occurrence of giant genomes in angiosperms is restricted to just a few lineages in the analyzed genome size of plant species so far. It is still an open question whether GS diversity is shaped by neutral or natural selection. The genus Lilium, with giant genomes, is phylogenetically and horticulturally important and is dist...