Flower Buds Confirmed in the Early Cretaceous of China
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Huang W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11200749 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:BackgroundAlthough various angiosperms (including their flowers) have been reported from the Yixian Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of China, which is famous worldwide for its fossils of early angiosperms, no flower bud has hitherto been seen in the Early Cretaceous. Such a lack of examples hinders our understanding of the evolution of flowers.MethodsThe specimen studied in the present paper was collected from an outcrop of the Yixian Formation (the Barremian-Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of Dawangzhangzi in Lingyuan, Liaoning, China. The specimen was photographed using a Nikon D200 digital camera, its details were observed and photographed using a Nikon SMZ1500 stereomicroscope, and some of its details were observed using a Leo 1530 VP SEM.ResultsWe report a fossilized flower bud, Archaebuda lingyuanensis gen. et sp. nov, from the Yixian Formation of China. The debut of Archaebuda in the Yixian Formation provides first-hand material for debate on the early evolution of angiosperm flowers and underscores the great diversity of angiosperms in the Yixian Formation.
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Project description:Gliding is an energetically efficient mode of locomotion that has evolved independently, and in different ways, in several tetrapod groups. Here, we report on an acrodontan lizard from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of China showing an array of morphological traits associated with gliding. It represents the only known occurrence of this specialization in a fossil lizard and provides evidence of an Early Cretaceous ecological diversification into an aerial niche by crown-group squamates. The lizard has a dorsal-rib-supported patagium, a structure independently evolved in the Late Triassic basal lepidosauromorph kuehneosaurs and the extant agamid lizard Draco, revealing a surprising case of convergent evolution among lepidosauromorphans. A patagial character combination of much longer bilaterally than anteroposteriorly, significantly thicker along the leading edge than along the trailing edge, tapered laterally to form a wing tip, and secondarily supported by an array of linear collagen fibers is not common in gliders and enriches our knowledge of gliding adaptations among tetrapods.
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Project description:Flower bud dormancy in temperate fruit tree species, such as almond [Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb], is a survival mechanism that ensures that flowering will occur under suitable weather conditions for successful flower development, pollination and fruit set. Dormancy is divided into three sequential phases: paradormancy, endodormancy and ecodormancy. During the winter, buds need cultivar-specific chilling requirements (CRs) to overcome endodormancy and heat requirements to activate the machinery to flower in the ecodormancy phase. One of the main factors that enables the transition from endodormancy to ecodormancy is transcriptome reprogramming. In this work, we therefore monitored three almond cultivars with different CRs and flowering times by RNA sequencing during the endodormancy release of flower buds and validated the data by quantitative real-time PCR in two consecutive seasons. We were thus able to identify early and late flowering time candidate genes in endodormant and ecodormant almond flower buds associated with metabolic switches, transmembrane transport, cell wall remodeling, phytohormone signaling and pollen development. These candidate genes were indeed involved in the overcoming of the endodormancy in almond. This information may be used for the development of dormancy molecular markers, increasing the efficiency of temperate fruit tree breeding programs in a climate-change context.
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Project description:The data presented in this article are associated with the research article entitled " Novel flavonoids from Lonicera japonica flower buds and validation of their anti-hepatoma and hepatoprotective activity in vitro studies " (Ge et al., 2018) [1]. The aim of this data was to provide the NMR spectrum of novel flavonoids from Lonicera japonica flower buds. Samples were isolated from EtOAc fraction of Lonicera japonica flower buds extracts, then dissolved in DMSO-d6 before NMR testing.
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Project description:The Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna in Northwest China preserves a large number of specimens of the sexually dimorphic pteranodontoid pterosaur Hamipterus tianshanensis, including 3D eggs and embryos. During the last decade, several more fossils have been collected in this area, including three somphospondylan sauropod specimens. The first is Silutitan sinensis gen. et sp. nov., which consists of an articulated middle to posterior cervical vertebrae series. The second, Hamititan xinjiangensis gen. et sp. nov., consists of an incomplete articulated caudal sequence that could be assigned to lithostrotian titanosaurs based on the strongly procoelous caudal vertebrae with lateral concave surface, as well as marked ventrolateral ridges. The third specimen consists of four sacral vertebral elements, apparently unfused, with exposed camellate internal bone and regarded as somphospondylan. Cladistic analyses based on different datasets recovered Silutitan sinensis as an euhelopodid closely related to Euhelopus and Hamititan xinjiangensis as a titanosaur. Besides the pterosaur Hamipterus and one theropod tooth, these dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods, further supporting a widespread diversification of somphospondylans during the Early Cretaceous of Asia.
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Project description:Ornithuromorpha is the most inclusive clade containing extant birds but not the Mesozoic Enantiornithes. The early evolutionary history of this avian clade has been advanced with recent discoveries from Cretaceous deposits, indicating that Ornithuromorpha and Enantiornithes are the two major avian groups in Mesozoic. Here we report on a new ornithuromorph bird, Archaeornithura meemannae gen. et sp. nov., from the second oldest avian-bearing deposits (130.7 Ma) in the world. The new taxon is referable to the Hongshanornithidae and constitutes the oldest record of the Ornithuromorpha. However, A. meemannae shows few primitive features relative to younger hongshanornithids and is deeply nested within the Hongshanornithidae, suggesting that this clade is already well established. The new discovery extends the record of Ornithuromorpha by five to six million years, which in turn pushes back the divergence times of early avian lingeages into the Early Cretaceous.
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Project description:Chestnut (Castanea mollisima) is an important woody food crop, but its yield has been low in cultivation, mainly due to the problems of fewer female flowers and more male flowers. Therefore, regulating the transition of chestnut flowers and effectively balancing the proportion of male and female to improve the yield are key factor to be solved in production. In this study, the chestnut floral buds in pre- and post-winter were used as materials. The data of metabolites, hormones, and gene expression during flower bud differentiation of chestnut were analyzed by transcriptomics and metabolomics to preliminarily reveal the possible reason of male and female flower bud transformation in pre- and post-winter. The analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) showed that there were 6323 DEGs in the Complete mixed flower bud (CMF) group in pre- and post-winter, of which 3448 genes were up-regulated and 2875 genes were down-regulated. There were 8037 DEGs in the Incomplete mixed flower bud (IMF) in pre- and post-winter, of which 4546 genes were up-regulated and 3491 genes were down-regulated. A total of 726 genes from the two flower buds were enriched into 251 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways in post winter, of which plant hormone signal transduction accounted for 4.13%. The analysis results of differential metabolites showed that the differential metabolites of the two flower buds were mainly concentrated in the secondary metabolic synthesis pathway. The difference of hormone content showed that the content of Gibberellin 9 (GA9) and GA19 in CMF was higher than that in IMF in pre-winter, but the opposite in post-winter. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) content was only very high in CMF in pre-winter, while Jasmonoyl-(l)-Isoleucine (JA-ILE) showed high content in CMF in post-winter. In post-winter, higher concentration of JA-ILE was positively correlated with the expression of Flowering Locus T (CmFT), and CmFT gene was significantly positively correlated with the expression levels of MYC2-1, MYC2-2 and LFY 3 (LEAFY 3). The higher concentration of JA-ILE was negatively correlated with the transcription level of JAZ1-3. In vitro experiments further verified that Jasmonate-Zim 1-3 (JAZ 1-3) combined with MYC2-1 inhibited the transcription of CmFT gene, while MYC2-1 alone promoted the expression of FT. The results suggested that a higher concentration of GA is conducive to breaking the dormancy of flower buds and promoting the development of male flower buds, while a lower concentration of GA and a higher concentration of JA-ILE are conducive to the differentiation and formation of female flower buds in post-winter, in which JAZ1-3 and MYC2-1 play a key role in the differentiation of female flower buds of chestnut.
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Project description:Four new monoterpenoid glycosides 1-4, named magnoliaterpenoid A-D, were isolated from a 50% aqueous acetone extract of flower buds of Magnolia biondii, along with one known compound, (1'R,3'S,5'R,8'S,2Z,4E)-dihydrophaseic acid 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside (5). Their structures and relative configuration were identified by extensive spectroscopic analysis (IR, UV, MS, 1D and 2D NMR). The aglycones of these four new compounds possess seven-membered rings systems, which are very rare. A plausible biosynthetic route for the four new compounds was proposed via the biogenetic isoprene rule. Compounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 showed no antimicrobial activity at the concentration range of 1.95-250 µg/mL.
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Project description:Three new glucosylated caffeoylquinic acid isomers (1-3), along with six known compounds, have been isolated from an aqueous extract of the flower buds of Lonicera japonica. Structures of the new compounds were determined by spectroscopic and chemical methods as (-)-4-O-(4-O-β-d-glucopyranosylcaffeoyl)quinic acid (1), (-)-3-O-(4-O-β-d-glucopyranosylcaffeoyl)quinic acid (2), and (-)-5-O-(4-O-β-d-glucopyranosylcaffeoyl)quinic acid (3), respectively. In the preliminary in vitro assays, two known compounds methyl caffeate and 2'-O-methyladenosine showed inhibitory activity against Coxsackie virus B3 with IC50 values of 3.70 μmol/L and 6.41 μmol/L and SI values of 7.8 and 12.1, respectively.
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