ABSTRACT
italic>Bupleurum L. (Apiaceae) is an economically important genus, in which many species are of medicinal value. In this study, the complete plastid genomes (plastomes) of B. chinense DC. and B. boissieuanum H. Wolff were sequenced and their characteristics were investigated. Comparative and phylogenetic analyses were conducted with other published Bupleurum plastomes. The complete plastomes of B. chinense and B. boissieuanum were 155 458 and 155 800 bp in length, and both exhibited the typical quadripartite circular structure consisting of a large single copy region (LSC, 85 343 and 85 804 bp), a small single copy region (SSC, 17 495 and 17 410 bp), and a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa/b, 26 310 and 26 293 bp), respectively. A total of 129 genes, including 84 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and eight ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes were identified from each of the two plastomes. Repeat sequences detected were similar in types and distribution patterns, but the numbers were slightly different. Comparative analyses revealed that the Bupleurum plastomes were highly conserved in length, structure, the guanine and cytosine (GC) content, and gene content and order, both intraspecifically and interspecifically, and no obvious expansion or contraction of the inverted repeat regions occurred. Sequence variation was lower within the same species than among different species, noncoding sequences (including intergenic regions and introns) showed a higher divergence than the protein-coding sequences, and sequences in the LSC and SSC regions were more divergent than those in the IR regions. In addition, 11 sequences with higher nucleotide diversity among species were detected in the LSC and SSC regions. All studied Bupleurum species were inferred forming a monophyletic group with a 100% bootstrap value. Bupleurum chinense and B. boissieuanum were phylogenetically closest to B. commelynoideum and B. falcatum, separately, with all three B. chinense accessions clustered into a distinct clade. These results provide genetic information for further species identification, phylogenetic resolution, and will assist in exploration and utilization of medicinal Bupleurum species.
ABSTRACT
Most of the grasses of the genus Cenchrus (20–25 species) and Pennisetum (80–140 species) are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world and reproduce both by sexual and apomictic modes. However, the relationships among the Cenchrus–Pennisetum species are not very clear yet. Molecular markers like expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeats (EST-SSRs) have been reported to be a better choice for resolving the phylogenetic relationships and to estimate the genetic diversity. The present study describes the identification of EST-SSR markers based on the transcriptome data of Cenchrus ciliaris inflorescence and illustrates the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among these species. Of the 378 primer pairs used across 33 accessions of 21 Cenchrus, Pennisetum, and related grass (Bothriochloa, Dichanthium and Panicum) species, 116 EST-SSR markers were found to be polymorphic with an average polymorphism information content (PIC) of 0.49. Fifty-one EST-SSR loci and 520 alleles showed that where the PIC value is >0.5 there the GAG repeat motif was highly polymorphic. Two EST-SSR markers, CcSSR_80 and CcSSR_102, are polymorphic among the Cenchrus species, while they are absent in Pennisetum and the allied species. Five SSR markers (CcSSR_75, CcSSR_85, CcSSR_87, CcSSR_88 and CcSSR_114) showed 100% cross-transferability among the 21 Cenchrus–Pennisetum species. Species-specific alleles could also be detected for seven species of Cenchrus, Pennisetum and Panicum across 10 SSR markers. Assay of polymorphism across these agamic complexes showed that the three SSR markers (CcSSR_26, CcSSR_97 and CcSSR_109) were associated with Cenchrus–Pennisetum complex, and one (CcSSR_47) with Bothriochloa–Dichanthium complex. Markers with high discriminating power, namely CcSSR_4, CcSSR_38, CcSSR_48, CcSSR_66, CcSSR_67 and CcSSR_70, can be used to estimate the allelic sequence divergence across the sexual and apomictic lineages. Genetic diversity analysis using neighbour-joining (NJ) and principal co-ordinate analysis (PCoA) based approaches showed six and five clusters for the 33 accessions, respectively, having congruence in the pattern of clustering. These accessions were grouped according to their mode of reproduction. Cenchrus and Pennisetum species were grouped separately within the same clade, implying monophyletic group within a ‘bristle clade’. Thus, this study showed high discrimination power of microsatellite (EST-SSR) markers to resolve the phylogenetic relationships.
ABSTRACT
Human taeniases had been not uncommon in the Republic of Korea (=Korea) until the 1980s. The prevalence decreased and a national survey in 2004 revealed no Taenia egg positive cases. However, a subsequent national survey in 2012 showed 0.04% (10 cases) prevalence of Taenia spp. eggs suggesting its resurgence in Korea. We recently encountered 4 cases of Taenia saginata infection who had symptoms of taeniasis that included discharge of proglottids. We obtained several proglottids from each case. Because the morphological features of T. saginata are almost indistinguishable from those of Taenia asiatica, molecular analyses using the PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) were performed to identify the species. The PCR-RFLP patterns of all of the 4 specimens were consistent with T. saginata, and the cox1 gene sequence showed 99.8-100% identity with that of T. saginata reported previously from Korea, Japan, China, and Cambodia. All of the 4 patients had the history of travel abroad but its relation with contracting taeniasis was unclear. Our findings may suggest resurgence of T. saginata infection among people in Korea.