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Amorphophallus belongs to the family Araceae and contains a high-molecular-weight polysaccharide that was originally extracted from corms called Konjac glucomannan. During the past 10 years, a vast body of research of Amorphophallus konjac has been published. Based on the Web of Science literature database, this work used Co-Occurrence, VOSviewer, and SciMAT bibliometrics analysis software tools to conduct literature analyses and big data mining of Amorphophallus Konjac research from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2021. Therefore, the present research sorted the development process of this field and analyzed the popular changes in research topics by combing through the visualization of the analysis results to systematically review and forecast the research of Amorphophallus Konjac-related fields. This work discusses current research trends and hotspots and explores and analyzes the content that needs improvement to provide a reference for follow-up research.
The stigmatic morphology of Chinese chestnut was studied with scanning electron microscopy. The stigma is typically needle-shaped with a small aperture ≈50 μm in diameter on the top. During late April and early May in Yunnan Province, China, stigma secretion begins and within 1 week, secretion increases quickly and completely covers the stigma aperture. In “high fruit load” trees, the stigma aperture appears larger than in “low fruit load” trees, which in turn have a larger aperture than “empty cupule” trees. Likewise, stigma secretion in female flowers on “high fruit load” trees was higher than “low fruit load” or “empty cupule” trees.
Iris (Iris sp.) is a popular and widely planted herbaceous perennial. However, most iris species go dormant without any aesthetic quality for 5–6 months in the transition zone between the temperate and subtropical climates. To investigate the effects of species/cultivars, leaf shape, and air temperature conditions on the ability to stay green, 12 popular species and cultivars in the transition zone were evaluated. Iris tested included the following species: roof iris (I. tectorum), japanese iris (I. japonica), long leafed flag (I. halophila), yellow flag (I. pseudacorus), blood iris (I. sanguinea), japanese water iris (I. ensata), and small-flower iris (I. speculatrix) and the following cultivars: ‘Chinensis’ milky iris (I. lactea var. chinensis), ‘Bryce Leigh’ louisiana iris (I. hexagonae), ‘Black Swan’ german iris (I. germanica), ‘Careless Sally’ siberian iris (I. sibirica), and ‘Loyalty’ japanese water iris (I. ensata). We conducted a 2-year field study on mature iris populations and evaluated the percentage of green leaves during winter retention and spring recovery using a digital image analysis (DIA). Green period during this study was calculated using predicted sigmoid curves based on the percentage of green leaves. The present study revealed that iris species/cultivars and air temperatures had considerable influence on the duration of the green period. Both evergreen and deciduous iris phenotypes exist with three different leaf shapes, among which the average green period of fan-shaped leaf iris species and cultivars was the longest. Because there was no significant (P = 0.205) relationship between green period during this period and leaf lethal temperature (LT50), new cultivars with long green periods may be achieved without a simultaneous loss of cold tolerance in iris.
Ethylene is important during the berry development and in the last stages of rachis development or rachis senescence. Since grapes develop in a cluster that comprises both the fruit berry and the nonfruit rachis, we measured the release of ethylene from both tissues. Detached berries from Vitis vinifera ‘Ruby Seedless’ and ‘Thompson Seedless’ showed that ethylene release peaks at the beginning of berry development and at veraison. Ethylene production in the rachis was higher than that in the berry and had an obvious peak before harvest in ‘Thompson Seedless’. In both cultivars, ethephon treatment induced ethylene production in the rachis but not in the berry. Expression of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) synthase (ACS) and ACC oxidase (ACO) genes showed diverse temporal and spatial patterns in ‘Thompson Seedless’ and ‘Ruby Seedless’. For most gene family members, the low ACS expression levels were observed in berry and rachis. Expression levels of most of the ACS and ACO genes did not correlate with ethylene released in the same organ. The transcriptional level of VvACS1 did correlate with ethylene evolution in rachis of ‘Thompson Seedless’ during berry development and storage, which suggested that VvACS1 may have important roles in rachis senescence. In berries of ‘Thompson Seedless’ and ‘Ruby Seedless’, the transcriptional levels of VvACO1, VvACS2, and VvACS6 coincided with ethylene production, indicating possible roles in berry development. Expression of VvACS2–VvACO9 and VvACO1–VvACO3 was not consistent with ethylene production during storage or in response to ethephon treatment, which suggests that the expression of ACS and ACO was affected by other stress factors after harvest.
Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox) is one of the most popular winter-blooming species. Effective vegetative propagation is necessary for commercial usage and protection of wintersweet. In the current study, the four factors, namely hormone type (A), hormone concentration (B), soaking duration (C), and medium (D), were assessed using an L16 (44) orthogonal test design. The hormone types include ABT (A1), α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) (A2), indole butyric acid (IBA) (A3), and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (A4); the hormone concentrations include 100 mg·L−1 (B1), 500 mg·L−1 (B2), 1000 mg·L−1 (B3), and 1500 mg·L−1 (B4); the soaking durations include 5 seconds (C1), 5 minutes (C2), 30 minutes (C3), and 3 hours (C4); and the mediums include perlite: peat in the ratios 1:0 (D1), 2:1 (D2), 1:1 (D3), and 1:2 (D4). The results showed that hormone and proper medium could significantly improve the cutting survival, rooting, and sprouting, whereas poor factor combinations, especially high hormone concentrations combined with long soaking durations may be threatened to the cuttings and rooting. In actual experiments, we successfully obtained an excellent rooting percentage (62.22%) of wintersweet from treatment No. 5 (A2B1C2D3), which is perlite and peat (1:1) as the medium and soaking the cuttings in 100 mg·L−1 NAA for 5 minutes as the hormone treatment. This combination can already meet the requirements for commercial production. A range analysis showed that the medium and hormone concentration were the most important factors affecting the cutting of wintersweet. An analysis of variance also showed that the medium and hormone concentration can significantly or extremely significantly affect most cutting indicators. Moreover, our results revealed that an orthogonal design method is an effective tool for establishing an improved technique for cutting propagation.
Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo is a famous traditional Chinese medicinal plant. It produces various phytochemicals, particularly polysaccharides, which have nutraceutical and pharmaceutical values. To increase its biomass production and polysaccharide content, our breeding program has generated a series of polyploid cultivars through colchicine treatment of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs). The present study compared two tetraploid cultivars, 201-1-T1 and 201-1-T2, with their diploid parental cultivar, 201-1, in an established in vitro culture system. Tetraploid ‘201-1-T1’ and ‘201-1-T2’ had shorter leaves and shorter and thicker stems and roots, and they produced higher biomass compared with the diploid cultivar. The length and width of stomata significantly increased, but stomatal density decreased in tetraploid cultivars. The PLB induction rates from the stem node explants of the tetraploid cultivars were significantly higher than those of diploid. However, the PLB proliferation of tetraploids was lower than that of the diploid. The mean number of plantlets regenerated from tetraploid PLBs was also lower than that of the diploid after 4 months of culture. Polysaccharide contents in stems, leaves, and roots of 6-month-old tetraploid plantlets were significantly higher than those of diploids. The polysaccharide content in the stem of ‘201-1-T1’ was 12.70%, which was a 2-fold increase compared with the diploid cultivar. Our results showed that chromosome doubling could be a viable way of improving D. officinale in biomass and polysaccharide production.
To investigate the influence of ultraviolet-C (UVC) radiation pretreatment on the sugar metabolism of yellow peaches (cv. Beinong2 × 60–24–7) during storage, the concentrations of soluble sugar (sucrose, fructose, glucose, and sorbitol), and related gene expression were determined. During UVC pretreatment, peaches were subjected to a dose of 4 kJ·m−2 when they were placed at 15 cm under a UVC lamp tube for 10 minutes at 25 °C. Then, they remained at 15 ± 2 °C for 10 days. Peaches stored at 15 ± 2 °C immediately after picking were used as the control group (CG). UVC pretreatment reduced the ethylene production rate and resulted in a significant increase in the accumulation of sucrose during days 2 to 8 of the storage period, followed by a lower concentration of fructose and glucose and the upregulation of PpaSS1. The expression levels of PpaSPS2, PpaSS1, and PpaST3 were significantly correlated with fructose concentration, and those of PpaSPS2 and PpaST2 were significantly correlated with glucose concentration. The enzyme activity of sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) was positively correlated with PpaSPS2, PpaSS2, and PpaST2. The enzyme activities of sucrose synthase (SS), acid invertase (AI), and neutral invertase (NI) were positively correlated with PpaSS1, PpaST1, and Ppani, respectively. Expressions of PpSPS1 and PpSPS2 in UVC-pretreated peaches were upregulated on storage days 8 and 2, and there was a UVC-induced peak in SPS activity on storage days 4 and 8, which resulted in the rapid accumulation of sucrose. UVC pretreatment could upregulate the gene expression of PpaSS1 on day 2, which could improve and maintain the quality of peaches for consumption.
Ten polymorphic microsatellite loci were isolated and characterized from an enriched genomic library of Paphiopedilum concolor (Batem.) Pfitzer. The number of alleles per microsatellite locus ranged from three to 11 with an average of 6.4 in a sample of 30 individuals from three populations. The observed and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.200 to 0.800 and from 0.544 to 0.827, respectively. These microsatellites can be used as tools to investigate the genetic structure of P. concolor populations and relationship patterns with closely related taxa.