Four new species of <i>Phyllosticta</i>, one new species of <i>Pseudocercospora</i>, and one new combination in <i>Passalora</i> from Japan

Four new species of Phyllosticta, one new species of Pseudocercospora, and one new combination in Passalora from Japan

The aim of the work is to identify the features of the temporal dynamics of the ecomorphic and biomorphic spectra at the former Botanic Garden of the Kryvyi Rih State Educational Institute. It was found that on 01.10. 2011 in the plantations of the former Botanical Garden 47 species of trees, shrubs and lianas had grown. In the composition of the dendroflora only five species of gymnosperms and 42 species of angiosperms had been revealed. Leading families were Rosaceae, Fabaceae and Salicaceae and Aceraceae. The dominant genera were Acer and Populus. For the last 40 years, 99 species, 46 genera and 10 families from the collection had been dropped out. At the same time, the Botanical Garden was the only habitat of unique species such as Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Celtis australis, Securinega suffruticosa, Cercis siliquastrum, Indigofera gerardiana, Kerria japonica, Koelreuteria paniculata, Xanthoceras sorbifolium, Schisandra chinensis. At present the scientific collections in our region are lacking in these species. Since that time, the dendroflora’s trofomorphic spectrum of the former Botanical Garden had undergone some changes. The first thing to note is an increase in the proportion of mehatrophes: from 15.5 % in 1966 – up to 25.5 % in 2006 (1.6 times). At the same time the total proportion of olihotrophes and olihomezotrophes had been reduced: from 26.4 % in 1966 to 14.9 % in 2006 (1.8 times). Despite the lack of a clear trend towards changing the proportion of mezotrophes, they are consistently the most common woody plants of the Botanic Gardens. Age-related changes of the dendroflora’s hygromorphic spectrum of the former Botanical Garden have such directions: the proportion of xerophytes decreased in 1.9 times and mezohygrophytes in 2.4 times. However, there has been an increase in the relative number of mezophytes (1.1 times), mezokserophytes (1.2 times) and hygromezophytes (1.6 times). Over the time the dendroflora’s heliomorhic spectrum had the following changes from the former Botanical Garden: despite the decrease in the proportion of heliophytes (from 58.8 % in 1966 to 53.2 % in 2006), they remained the largest group of the spectrum. At the same time it was revealed an increase of scioheliophytes in 1.4 times, and overall reduction of heliosciophytes and sciophytes in the number and proportion. In the plantations of the Botanic Gardens it has been established a tendency of the introduced species reduction and of the native species increase. However, this has not changed the overall pattern – the dominance of the introduced species, both trees and shrubs. On the whole the conditions of the region are the most adapted for megatrophes plants, mesophytes and heliophytes and trees. The basis of the collection consists of introduced species from the Atlantic-North American, East Asian and Tsimkumboreal floristic regions.

A rubber-degrading bacterium, the strain NS21, that was isolated from a soil sample in a botanical garden in Japan (Imai et al., 2011) was examined by phenotypic, phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic approaches to determine its taxonomic position. The strain NS21 was motile, possessing a single polar flagellum and a facultatively anaerobic straight rod. Analysis of the 16S rRNA and gyrB gene sequences of NS21 revealed a close relationship to the genus Rhizobacter. The predominant quinone type was Q-8. The G+C content of the NS21 genomic DNA was 70.8 mol%. The major fatty acids were C16:0, C17:0 cyclo, C18:1ω7c and C16:1ω7c and/or iso-C15:0 2-OH. C12:0 2-OH was present. The DNA-DNA hybridization experiments indicated that the DNA relatedness values of the strain NS21 to R. dauci H6(T) and R. fulvus Gsoil 322(T) were lower than 24%. The phenotypic characteristics showed obvious dissimilarities when compared to closely related species. On the basis of these taxonomic properties, a novel species is proposed as Rhizobacter gummiphilus sp. nov., with the strain NS21(T) (NBRC 109400(T), BCC 58006(T)) as the type strain. The emended description of the genus Rhizobacter was also presented.

The article describes the role and significance of the Podillia Botanical Garden as a park and monument of landscape architecture of the national significance. The main periods of the establishment of the Botanical Garden are outlined. The taxonomic structure of the cultivated dendroflora of the Botanical Garden is presented. The biomorphological and systematic structure of the cultivated dendroflora of the Botanical Garden is presented. According to 58% of the garden territory is occupied by the woody plants and shrubs, the rest 42% is the area of open spaces (lawns, project sites, water basins, roads). Analysis of the territory distribution is carried out. The largest number of genera has been revealed in the families of Rosaceae – 24 genera, Betulaceae – 9 genera, Fabaceae – 9 genera and Fagaceae – 7 genera. The total collection of the cultivated dendroflora in the Podillia Botanical Garden is represented by 97 species, 6 forms, which belong to 2 groups, namely Pinophyta and Magnoliophyta. This indicates a great value of these plants and the need for their preservation and restoration. The prospects of the use of introduced plants of the Botanical Garden for the arrangement of green spaces in the city of Vinnytsia is analyzed. Having analyzed the species composition of the introduced plantations of the Podillia Botanical Garden, it has been established that the most common introduced species of plants that can be used for the landscaping of squares, parks, lanes and solitaire plantings in the city of Vinniytisa are as follows: Acer platanoides, Ácer negúndo, rÁcer rúbrum, Robinia viscosa, Betula pendula, Tilia platyphyllos. As for the shrub species that can be used, they are as follows: Berberis thunbergii, Forsythia europaea, Buxus sempervirens, Kerria japonica.

Встановлено, що у ботанічному саду Чернівецького національного університету в умовах відкритого ґрунту зростає 211 видів дендросозофітів із 87 родів, 37 родин, 2 відділів. Серед них із відділу Pinophyta провідними за кількістю видів є роди Pinus L., Abies Mill., Picea Dietr., Juniperus L., а із Magnoliophyta – Rhododendron L., Magnolia L., Acer L., Quercus L., Malus Mill. У Червоному списку МСОП досліджувані види віднесено до 6 категорій раритетності; з них переважає група таксонів з низьким рівнем ризику зникнення (82,9 % видів). До групи під загрозою зникнення (категорії CR, EN, VU) входить 20 видів. До Європейського Червоного списку внесено 9 із досліджуваних видів. 7 видів внесено до Червоної книги України (2009), а Syringa josіkaea – також до Додатку І Бернської конвенції. Показано, що в умовах ботанічного саду Чернівецького національного університету 174 із досліджуваних дендросозофітів формують життєздатне насіння, а у 42 із них відзначено самосів. Виявлено, що 192 види повністю пристосувалися до умов культивування і мають найвищий ступінь акліматизації (І). Виділено види, які в Чернівецькій області стали інвазійними (Robinia pseudoacacia L., Acer negundo L., Quercus rubra L.), а також типові для Буковини види; всі вони мають категорію LC у Червоному списку МСОП. Успішна акліматизація та здатність до насіннєвого розмноження більшості видів свідчать про те, що колекційні фонди ботанічного саду Чернівецького національного університету є потенціалом для ефективного збереження дендросозофітів ex-situ.

Complete genome sequence of natural rubber-degrading, gram-negative bacterium, Rhizobacter gummiphilus strain NS21T

Reynoutria japonica was introduced in Romania as an ornamental plant in parks and botanic gardens or private gardens from where the plant has escaped being declared spontaneous, and later invasive. In the year 2000 was registered in more than 137 localities all around the country (1). The species has evolved along Vișeu River becoming a problem that affected everyone. Reynoutria japonica takes important surfaces along Vișeu River which initially have been cultivated by the ones inhabitants affecting biodiversity.

The first botanical gardens in Europe were established for the study of medicinal, poisonous, and herbal plants by students of medicine or pharmacy at universities. As the natural sciences became increasingly important in the 19th Century, botanical gardens additionally took on the role of public educational institutions. Since then, learning from living nature with the aim of developing technical applications, namely biomimetics, has played a special role in botanical gardens. Sir Joseph Paxton designed rainwater drainage channels in the roof of the Crystal Palace for the London World’s Fair in 1881, having been inspired by the South American giant water lily (Victoria amazonica). The development of the Lotus-Effect® at the Botanical Garden Bonn was inspired by the self-cleaning leaf surfaces of the sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). At the Botanic Garden Freiburg, a self-sealing foam coating for pneumatic systems was developed based on the self-sealing of the liana stems of the genus Aristolochia. Currently, botanical gardens are both research institutions and places of lifelong learning. Numerous botanical gardens provide biomimetics trails with information panels at each station for self-study and guided biomimetics tours with simple experiments to demonstrate the functional principles transferred from the biological model to the technical application. We present eight information panels suitable for setting up education about biomimetics and simple experiments to support guided garden tours about biomimetics.

BACKGROUND: Nature has been a soul source of therapeutic pharmaceutics for a long time and a notable number of advanced pharmaceutics have been invented from this source. Numerous drug leads were identified with the contribution of combinatorial and other allied field experts in the traditional medicine field. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterizes complementary medication as the “wide range of heath practice approaches for prevention, diagnosis and treatment”. However, there is an urgent necessity to validate the obtained information by employing various advanced techniques and tools before it has applied for drug discovery or as effective therapeutics in the clinic along with existing therapies. AIM: Hence, vigorous investigations on herbal plants are required to assess their pharmacological properties and efficacy. India is one of the richest emporia of herbal plants and termed as ‘Botanical Garden’ of the world because of its long history in the traditional knowledge on herbal plants and significant contribution and application in the modern medical practice. Ethno pharmacological evidence measured as an effective tool in the novel discovery of novel drug leads from herbal plants and is a pre-requisite for the practice of plant derived active secondary metabolites. The members of the Acanthaceae family have therapeutic importance owing to the existence of many active secondary bioactive principles or novel phytoconstituents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study embarked into Andrographis alata (AA), one of the less explored but well prescribed traditional plants and validated its medicinal properties using various techniques. RESULTS: Since, other species of Andrographis, possessed ample alkaloids and diterpenoids which exhibited varied therapeutic properties which include pharmacological and antimicrobial activities, this AA less investigated multiple aspects including its phyto-screening. CONCLUSION: The phytochemicals obtained from AA with its multifaceted activities may serve the ideal therapeutic as well as an analogue for many combinatorial drugs. This study also justified the traditional values in the complementary system and therapeutic values. However, further investigations on its various bioactive principles and their mechanism of action are highly warranted.

In September 2014, a sample of Japanese rose, Kerria japonica, exhibiting severe defoliation and stem lesions was submitted to RHS Gardening Advice from a garden in West Yorkshire, England (Fig. 1). Further samples were subsequently received from 12 locations across England (Fig. 2). Leaves of infected samples exhibited numerous small red-brown spots (1-5 mm diameter) with dark purple borders (Fig. 1). Spots were visible on both leaf surfaces and sometimes numbered in the hundreds on a single leaf. In humid conditions clusters of white spores were visible in the centre of the spots. As the infection progressed the spots coalesced and the leaves turned yellow through to brown and fell from the stems. Stem lesions appeared as purple-brown, slightly-sunken elliptical cankers which remained visible on the stems throughout the year. Cankers which girdled the stem resulted in extensive stem die-back. Upon microscopic examination it was determined that the symptoms were caused by the fungus Blumeriella kerriae (Stewart, 5). Blumeriella kerriae is widespread on K. japonica in America causing twig and leaf blight, but has not previously been recorded on any host plant in the UK. Acervuli were scattered across each spot/lesion. Conidia were filiform, curved, hyaline, 45-94 times 1.4-5.6 μm (mean 69 times 3.5 μm) (n = 60) (Fig. 3). Observations differed to Stewart's original description which described 1-septate conidia; observed conidia were mainly 2-3 septate, with occasional 1-septate conidia. A single spore isolate on potato dextrose agar was obtained and deposited in the RHS Wisley culture collection (JS20160615). The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA was amplified (White et al., 6) and sequenced (GenBank Accession No. KY929501). There were no previous DNA sequences for B. kerriae available in GenBank. Fungal ITS sequences for species within the family Dermateaceae, including Blumeriella jappii (Pederson et al., 2010), were obtained to place KY929501 within a phylogenetic tree. Sequences were aligned with the MUSCLE v3.8.31 algorithm (Edgar, 1). The beginning and end of the alignment, where base callings were ambiguous, were excluded from the analysis. Phylogenetic trees were constructed through Bayesian inference analysis performed in MrBayes v3.2.6 (Ronquist et al., 4) with the GTR + I + G model identified by MrModeltest v2.3 (Nylander, 2). The analyses were run for 1,000,000 generations, sampling every 1000 generations. Trees from the first 25% of the sampled generations were discarded. Phylogenetic analysis placed B. kerriae (KY929501) in a cluster with the closely related cherry leaf pathogen B. jappii (Fig. 4). To confirm pathogenicity, a conidial suspension (~105 conidia/ml, sterile distilled water, 0.2% Tween-20) was prepared by harvesting fresh conidia from stem lesions. All observed spores were consistent with B. kerriae. The spore suspension was sprayed onto newly emerged leaves of K. japonica plants. Inoculated plants were held in a humidity chamber for 48 h and thereafter placed in a glasshouse. After 13 days, typical leaf spot symptoms developed on the leaves of inoculated plants. Blumeriella kerria conidia were produced from acervuli in the leaf spots, fulfilling Koch's postulates. A control plant treated with sterilised water and Tween-20 remained symptomless. Kerria japonica is a valuable garden and hedging plant with high tolerance for poor environmental conditions. Until now it has had no serious pest or disease problems in the UK. The spread of Blumeriella kerriae in the UK will change how K. japonica is used in UK horticulture and may result in gradual loss of the plant from retail. Thanks to Mrs Jenny Denton and Dr Geoff Denton for initial sample handling, and Ms. Jane Renshaw and Dr Fay Newbery for aid in preparation of fungal cultures.

Conducted are researches of dynamics of glutathione reduced form maintenance in the leaves of arboreal plants which grow in the zones of different level of contamination by industrial emissions of“Red Lead Factory” LTD and ArselorMittal Kryvyi Rig. For comparison, similar investigations were conducted in the intact Botanic Garden in s.c.t. Sofievka. Findings testify to absence of negative influence of industrial emissions and, thus, the arboretum of botanical garden also can be examined as conditional control. It was stated that it is set a few strategies of active oxygen forms and their metabolites deactivation, appearing in cells under action of environment negative factors. To our opinion, fluctuation of glutathione reduced form maintenance can examine as an index of plants stability, on which investigational species can be distributed on steady and moderato steady.

Japanese Knotweeds were introduced by man during the 19th century in Europe, where they hybridized and formed a species complex now considered as “invasive”. On the basis of many herbarium specimens, the literature and archive documents, we describe the history of their discovery and introduction in France. The circumstances of their hybridization are given, as well as the reasons for the spread of the complex composed of both taxa and their polyploid hybrids. We show that after its discovery by Von Siebold, Reynoutria japonica was introduced as a single male-sterile clone in Lorraine during the early 1850s, whereas R. sachalinensis was discovered by both the French and Russians and subject to successive introductions. Our study reveals that at the end of the 19th century, these Asiatic Knotweeds became very popular among horticulturists and botanical gardens. Their cultivation in sympatry has led to the production of their hybrid R. x bohemica, as well as interspecific hybridizations and introgressions with parental species, leading to considerable genetic diversity, escape and naturalisation.

Severe leaf spot on Polygonum cuspidatum was found in the planting base of P. cuspidatum in Fangxian county, Shiyan of Hubei province. To clarify the types of pathogens and their pathogenesis, the present study isolated and purified the pathogen of leaf spot disease of P. cuspidatum according to Koch's postulates, determined the pathogenicity of the pathogen, and investigated its biological characteristics. Meanwhile, the inhibitory effects of 11 types of fungicides on the bacteria were determined according to the mycelium growth rate, and suitable prevention and control drugs were selected. The results showed that the pathogen isolated from the diseased leaves of P. cuspidatum was Phoma rhei by morphological and molecular identification. The colony morphology and microscopic characteristics were the same as those of Ph. rhei. The homology of rDNA-ITS and TEF gene sequences with Ph. rhei reached 99.96% and 99.43%, respectively. The optimal growth temperature of Ph. rhei was 25 ℃, and the optimal pH was 7-10. Furthermore, Ph. rhei grew faster under dark or light conditions. In fungicides, 0.3% eugenol, 250 g·L~(-1) propiconazole, and 33.5% quinoline copper had significant inhibitory effects on the pathogen with EC_(50) values of 57.54, 59.58, 88.69 μg·mL~(-1), respectively. Eugenol is a botanical fungicide, which can be used as a green and environmentally friendly fungicide in the prevention and control of P. cuspidatum. This study reported for the first time that the pathogen of P. cuspidatum leaf spot was Ph. rhei. investigated the biological characteristics of the pathogen, and screened the indoor chemicals, which provided a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of P. cuspidatum leaf spot in production.

Recently, plant remediation techniques - phytoremediation - have been developed. Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), is an invasive species with negative impacts on the environment and the economy. In order to assess the tolerance of highly invasive weeds to heavy metals, an experiment was conducted in which this plant was grown in control soil and in soils contaminated with different concentrations of Pb, Cd. The content of heavy metals in the soil did not eliminate the ability of Reynoutria japonica roots to regenerate. In soil contaminated with any concentration of Pb, the shoots of this plant grew at a similar rate as the control plants, and had the same morphological characteristics. Higher concentrations of cadmium and lead Cd (100, 200 mgkg-1), Pb (2000 mgkg-1) have extended rhizome regeneration compared to control plants. In soils contaminated with lower concentrations of Cd or Pb shoots grew at a similar rate as control plants. Chemical analysis of heavy metal content showed that this weed accumulated large amounts of metals when grown in soil contaminated with heavy metals A relatively high intake of Cd, aboveground plants. At a cadmium concentration of 100 mg kg-1, more than 537 times the amount of cadmium accumulated in the aboveground part of the plant, as opposed to that in control. The ability of Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), to regenerate from parts of the rhizome, to grow and develop under stressful conditions in the presence of heavy metals indicates a high tolerance to heavy metals. Key words: Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), phytoremediation, heavy metal accumulation

The Characteristics of the Plants Display and its Classification of the Space Formation of the Botanical Gardens in Japan