Xu-Mei Wang

• Xi'an Jiaotong University

Gentiana macrophylla Pall., a valuable Chinese traditional medicinal herb, exhibits notable anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. The WRKY transcription factor plays a pivotal role in regulating development and stress responses. Although the WRKY family extensively characterized in diverse plant species, a comprehensive analysis of this gene fam...

Main conclusion The study revealed genetic diversity and moderate differentiation among the R. palmatum complex within the top-geoherb area. RNA-seq-derived SNP datasets hold the potential to trace geographic origins of the core germplasm. Abstract The Rheum palmatum complex, the source plant of rhubarb, has been widely used for centuries due to i...

Content of bioactive constituents is one of the most important characteristics in Rheum palmatum complex. Increasing ingredient content through genetic breeding is an effective strategy to solve the contradiction between large market demand and resource depletion, but currently hampered by limited understanding of metabolite biosynthesis in rhubarb...

Background Rhubarb is one of common traditional Chinese medicine with a diverse array of therapeutic efficacies. Despite its widespread use, molecular research into rhubarb remains limited, constraining our comprehension of the geoherbalism. Results We assembled the genome of Rheum palmatum L., one of the source plants of rhubarb, to elucidate its...

Geoherb usually represents high-quality medicinal herbs with better clinical therapeutic effects, and elucidating the geoherbalism is essential for the quality improvement of traditional Chinese Medicine. However, few researches were conducted to clarify the geoherbalism based on a large scale of transcriptomics. In the present study, we compared t...

The role of ecological niches in lineage diversification has been the subject of long-standing interest of ecologists and evolutionary biologists. Specific responses to climate change can arise below the species level, resulting in differentiated adaptation or movement patterns within a given species. Thus, the urgent need to model potential respon...

Rheum officinale Baill. is an important traditional Chinese medicinal herb, its dried roots and rhizomes being widely utilized to cure diverse diseases. However, previous studies mainly focused on the active compounds and their pharmacological effects, and the molecular mechanism underlying the biosynthesis of these ingredients in R. officinale is...

Flower color variation is ubiquitous in many plant species, and several studies have been conducted to elucidate the underlying molecular mechanism. There are two flower color variants (yellowish-white and fuchsia) in the Rheum palmatum complex, however, few studies have investigated this phenomenon. Here, we used transcriptome sequencing of the tw...

Background Ensuring the authenticity of raw materials is a key step prior to producing Chinese patent medicines. Pinelliaternata (Thunb.) Breit. is the botanical origin of Pinelliae Rhizoma (Banxia), a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat cough, insomnia, nausea, inflammation, epilepsy, and so on. Unfortunately, authentic Pinelliae Rhizoma is...

Rheum tanguticum (Maxim. ex Regel) Maxim. ex Balf. is a herbaceous perennial plant indigenous to China, and its root and rhizomes were usually used as an important traditional Chinese medicine. However, the genomic resources are still scarce for R. tanguticum and even for Rheum genus. Transcriptome datasets from different tissues of R. tanguticum w...

Key message: Complete plastomes of Rheum species facilitated to clarify the phylogeny of Polygonaceae, and comparative chloroplast genomics contributed to develop genetic markers for the authentication of Rheum species. Rheum (Polygonaceae) is widely distributed throughout the temperate and subtropical areas of Asian interior. Rheum species are us...

Euphrasia (Orobanchaceae) is a genus which is widely distributed in temperate regions of the southern and northern hemisphere. The taxonomy of Euphrasia is still controversial due to the similarity of morphological characters and a lack of genomic resources. Here, we present the first complete chloroplast (cp) genome of this taxonomically challengi...

Fagopyrum dibotrys, belongs to Polygonaceae family, is one of national key conserved wild plants of China with important medicinal and economic values. Here, the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of F. dibotrys is reported. The cp genome size is 159,919 bp with a typical quadripartite structure and consisting of a pair of inverted repeat re...

Gentiana section Cruciata is widely distributed across Eurasia at high altitudes, and some species in this section are used as traditional Chinese medicine. Accurate identification of these species is important for their utilization and conservation. Due to similar morphological and chemical characteristics, correct discrimination of these species...

Medicinal herbs of high quality and with significant clinical effects have been designated as top-geoherbs in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). However, the validity of this concept using genetic markers has not been widely tested. In this study, we investigated the genetic variation within the Rheum palmatum complex (rhubarb), an important herba...

DNA barcoding is emerging as a useful tool not only for species identification but for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. Although plant DNA barcodes do not always provide species-level resolution, the generation of large DNA barcode datasets can provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the generation of species diversity. Here,...

Background and aims DNA barcoding is emerging as a useful tool not only for species identification but for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. Although plant DNA barcodes do not always provide species-level resolution, the generation of large DNA barcode datasets can provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the generation of spec...

Aims Rheum palmatum complex comprises all taxa within section Palmata in the genus Rheum, including R. officinale, R. palmatum, R. tanguticum, R. tanguticum var. liupanshanense and R. laciniatum. The identification of the taxa in section Palmata is based primarily on the degree of leaf blade dissection and the shape of the lobes; however, difficult...

Aims Fargesia decurvata is closely allied with F. dracocephala and differs in 5 major characters (i.e. the culm sheath blade base shape, the width of the culm sheath blade base, the auricle shape, and the lower surface of leaf blade) in Fargesia. It is difficult to distinguish these two species because of existing of transitional statements of char...

Rheum officinale Baill., an important but endangered medicinal herb, is endemic to China. Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were employed to investigate the genetic diversity and differentiation of 12 populations of R. officinale. Thirteen selected primers yielded 189 bright and discernible bands, with an average of 14.54 per primer. The...

Preliminary field observations in 2001 and 2002 suggested that Kingdonia uniflora (Circaeasteraceae, Ranunculales) exhibits heterodichogamy, an unusual kind of reproductive heteromorphy, hitherto unreported in Ranunculales and known from only one other genus in basal eudicots. During several subsequent years flowers were observed in the field. Flow...

Rhubarb is prescribed as the roots and rhizomes of Rheum officinale Baill., Rheum palmatum L., and Rheum tanguticum Maxim. ex Balf. in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. These three species are difficult to discriminate due to the morphological and anatomical similarity of the aerial parts and herbal medicines. In the present paper, inter-simple sequence repea...

The distribution pattern of Rheum palmatum, Rheum officinale and Rheum tanguticum, as three Chinese official genuine and endemic species of rhubarb and the monophyletic group in the genus Rheum, was analyzed based on the field survey and the herbarium specimens in the present paper. R. palmatum occupies the widest geographic range, that is Qinling,...

To estimate genetic diversity and to authenticate the three endangered and official genuine species, Rheum officinale, Rheum palmatum and Rheum tanguticum, of herbal medicine of rhubarb, the optimization of DNA isolation methods including modified CTAB and isolation kit, PCR system of inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) and primers screening were...