The floral morphology of four Chinese Bambusa species (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) previously described only from vegetative material.

Due to their specialised flowering biology where frequent or even annual flowering is uncommon, reproductive materials of bamboos are not always available, so hampering taxonomic interpretation and research into other aspects. Bambusacontracta, B.corniculata, B.cornigera and B.subtruncata were established only based on vegetative materials and flowering or fruiting material has been hitherto unknown. The floral morphology of these four species is described for the first time and, correspondingly, epitypes are designated to support a more complete interpretation of the species.

The complete chloroplast genome of Aganope dinghuensis (Fabaceae).

Aganope is a genus in the family Fabaceae, with only 11 species. They are distributed throughout Asia and Africa. Aganope dinghuensis, a newly reported species, is native to China with a restricted distribution. We, therefore, report its complete chloroplast genome for better future conservation. The chloroplast genome of A. dinghuensis is 143,690 bp, with a GC content of 35.32%. In the genome, a pair of inverted repeat regions of 13,015 bp each, a large single-copy region of 98,824 bp, and a small single-copy region of 18,836 bp were identified. Genome annotation identified 115 genes, comprising 74 protein-coding genes, 8 ribosomal RNA genes, and 33 transfer RNA genes. Repeat analysis indicates that the chloroplast genome of A. dinghuensis contains 126 simple sequence repeats (SSR), of which the majority are A/T mononucleotides. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that A. dinghuensis is a sister to the clade that includes Indigofera tinctoria, Desmodium uncinatum, Sarcodum scandens, Wisteria brachybotrys, and Callerya nitida.

Khoonmengia honbaensis, a new genus and species of temperate bamboo (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) from central-southern Vietnam.

A new genus of Arundinarieae, Khoonmengia, is established to accommodate a unique new bamboo species, K. honbaensis, from central-southern Vietnam. The morphological features, habitats and distribution of Khoonmengia and related genera, i.e. Ampelocalamus and Hsuehochloa, are compared. The characters of its scrambling habit, internodes with brownish green dots, conspicuous nodes swollen at one side, elliptic buds wholly sunken into culm, extravaginal branching pattern, mid-culm branch complement with one central dominant branch elongating to reiterate the culm accompanied by several lateral slender branches, swollen culm sheath base with a distinctive zone of transverse wrinkles, synflorescence composed of only one spikelet, single or several to many synflorescences arranged into a raceme or panicle terminal on leafy branches, purple anthers and nut-like caryopsis with hardened pericarp and loosely adherent lemma and palea distinguish K. honbaensis from morphologically similar taxa. In order to investigate the phylogenetic position of this unknown bamboo, molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the nuclear gene GBSSI were also conducted, and the results proved that K. honbaensis is definitely a member of Arundinarieae with an isolated position, which also indicated that this species could not be assigned to any of the already described genera and supported the establishment of the new genus.

[Analysis of the correlations between growth hormone receptor gene polymorphism and body size indexes in cattle].

Polymorphism in exon 10 of growth hormone receptor (GHR) was detected in three cattle breeds (Nanyang cattle, limousin and galloway), They were at A/T at nt. 495, C/T at nt. 622, A/C at nt. 650, T/C at nt. 702 and A/G at nt. 730. Results indicated that there were six genotypes, namely AA, BB, CC, AB, AC and BC. The frequencies of different genotypes in different breeds and the relationship between the six genotypes and traits of these cattle were analyzed using a linear model. Statistical results showed that the GHR SSCP sites in Nanyang, Limousin and Galloway cattle were at Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium. The polymorphism information content (PIC) values indicated that the SSCPs were highly polymorphic (PIC < 0.50) in the Nanyang breed, and were moderately polymorphic in Limousin and Galloway breeds. The least squares means of body weight of 12-month-old cattle was lower for genotype CC than for genotypes AB and BC (P<0.05, P<0.01, respectively). The least squares means of body weight of 18-month-old cattle was lower for genotype CC than for BC (P < 0.05). The least squares means of heart girth in 18-month-old cattle was lower for genotype CC than for AB (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the genotype distribution among other genotypes.