Population genetic study of Ziziphus jujuba Mill.: Insight in to wild and cultivated plants genetic structure

Dracocephalum thymiflorum L. is a medicinal plant that grows in limited areas in Iran and forms few local populations. We have no information on its genetic diversity and population genetic structure in the country. Therefore, the present population genetic study was performed to provide data on population genetic structure, potential gene pools and gene flow in Dracocephalum thymiflorum in Iran. The information obtained can be used in conservation of this medicinal plant species. We studied 55 randomly selected plants from 5 geographical populations by ISSR molecular markers. The studied populations contained high within-population genetic variability and also revealed strong genetic differentiation by AMOVA test (P = 0.01). Structure analysis and K-Means clustering revealed population genetic fragmentation that was mainly due to genetic difference between population 2 and the other studied populations. The population assignment test revealed the occurrence of limited gene flow among these populations. The information obtained can me used in programming the conservation of this important medicinal plant in Iran.

The aerial parts of wild Thymus mastichina (L.) L. ssp. mastichina were collected during the flowering (May) and vegetative phases (October) at Sesimbra (southwest Portugal). The aerial parts of cultivated plants of T. mastichina maintained in two different substrates, obtained from those plants growing wild at Sesimbra, were collected during the flowering phase (May) at Algarve (southern Portugal). The oils were isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. In the wild plants, it was found that harvesting time had a significant effect on the oil yield, but did not greatly affect the composition. The highest oil yield isolated from the wild plants was found to be at the time of full flowering (2.1%, v/w). The oils were comprised mainly of oxygenated monoterpenes, among which linalool (58.7–69.0%) was the most abundant. In the wild plants, α-pinene, (E)-β-ocimene, γ-cadinene and elemol were the compounds that showed the most important variations, according to the harvesting month. The effect of nutritive elements (NPK) on the yield and on the oil composition was investigated in cultivated plants in two different substrates: a non-fertilized substrate (without N:P:K supply) and a fertilized substrate (with N:P:K, 1:1:1 supply). This study was carried out only in May. In the cultivated plants the highest oil yield (2.7%, v/w) was registered in the plants maintained in the non-fertilized substrate. Although the qualitative composition of the wild and cultivated oil plants was similar, the results showed quantitative variability among the components. The fertilized substrate proved to be the best to obtain a higher concentration of linalool (69.0%), while the non-fertilized substrate provided the lowest percentage (58.7%). The non-fertilized substrate induced a higher accumulation of (E)-β-ocimene, γ-terpinene, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes than the fertilized substrate, while this latter supported higher p-cymene and linalool content formation. The wild plant oils were found to be richer in α-pinene, camphene, β-pinene, 1,8-cineole and camphor and poorer in p-cymene, γ-terpinene, and in sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated sesquiterpenes, than the cultivated plant oils. Nevertheless, such quantitative differences can be also explained by the different maturity stage of the wild and cultivated plants though both were in the same developmental stage.

Plant domestication can modify and weaken defensive chemical traits, reducing chemical defenses in plants and consequently their resistance against pests. We characterized and quantified the major defensive flavonols and isoflavonoids present in both wild and cultivated murtilla plants (Ugni molinae Turcz), established in a common garden. We examined their effects on the larvae of Chilesia rudis (Butler) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). Insect community and diversity indices were also evaluated. We hypothesized that domestication reduces flavonoid contents and modifies C. rudis preference, the insect community, and diversity. Methanolic extracts were obtained from leaves of U. molinae plants and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography. Results showed higher insect numbers (86.48%) and damage index (1.72 ± 0.16) in cultivated plants. Four new first records of insects were found associated with U. molinae. Diversity indices, such as Simpson, Shannon, and Margalef, were higher in cultivated plants than in wild plants. Furthermore, eight isoflavonoids were identified in U. molinae leaves for the first time. The five flavonols showed higher concentrations in wild U. molinae leaves (89.8 µg/g) than in cultivated plants (75.2 µg/g); however, no differences were found in isoflavonoids between wild and cultivated plants. The larvae of C. rudis consumed more leaf material of cultivated plants than wild plants in choice (3.8 vs. 0.8 mm2) and no-choice (7.5 vs. 3.0 mm2) assays. Our study demonstrates that domestication in U. molinae reduces the amount of flavonoids in leaves, increasing the preference of C. rudis and the insect community.

As a famous tonic medicine, Cistanche tubulosa has been honored as "ginseng of the deserts" for centuries. Aiming to address the resource shortage as well as the wild resource protection towards this herbal medicine, wide cultivation has been achieved in the southern Xinjiang. Herein, in-depth chemome comparison was conducted between cultivated and wild plants using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy that is capable of comprehensively providing qualitative and quantitative information of given complicated matrices. Multivariate statistical analysis was employed to process the dataset as well as to consolidate that the cultivated plants are comparable to those wild ones in term of chemome. ¹H-NMR spectra of both wild and cultivated plants were acquired in parallel after extraction. Following direct overlaying, great similarity occurred between these two groups. A total of 28 compounds were tentatively identified by referring to authentic compounds together with those available databases, such as HMDB and BMRB. Following principal component analysis, none significant difference was observed between wild and cultivated groups. Above all, from the viewpoint of chemical profile, the cultivated plants were almost equal to the wild plants; therefore, the cultivated plants are able to take the load of wild plants in clinical usage. Moreover, ¹H-NMR spectroscopy is a promising tool for chemical profiling traditional Chinese medicines because of the potential towards simultaneously exhibiting both quantitative and qualitative information for complicated matrices.

Embelin, one of significant bio-active benzoquinone compound, acts as active principle in fruits of Embelia species and has significant role as a potent source for several formulations. Aim of current research study was to estimate the variation in embelin content different non fruit parts of Embelia tsjeriam-cottam (leaf, stem bark and roots) from both wild and cultivated sources. This was achieved by using spectroscopic method and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis method, after purification through column chromatography (CC) and preparative thin layer chromatography technique (PTLC). In case of spectrophotometric analysis, wild Embelia tsjeriam-cottam plants showed embelin content in between 1.14-1.96% dry wt. and the cultivated plants 0.92-1.70% dry wt. Similarly in case of HPLC analysis, wild E. tsjeriam-cottam plants possessed embelin content in a range of 0.033-0.098% dry wt. and cultivated plants yielded embelin in between 0.021-0.071% dry wt. In both cases, amongst all the selected non fruit plant parts, the chloroform extracted root samples possessed highest and the methanol extracted leaf samples yielded lowest embelin content. When comparison was done between the wild and cultivated plant parts in terms of embelin content, wild plants were ascertained to be highly potent than the cultivated plants and root samples possessed highest embelin content followed by stem bark and leaf parts.

The root is the most critical plant organ for water and nutrient acquisition. Although the root is vital for water and nutrient uptake, the diverse root characters of soybean still need to be identified owing to the difficulty of root sampling. In this study, we used 150 wild and 50 cultivated soybean varieties to collect root image samples. We analyzed root morphological traits using acquired-image. Except for the main total length (MTL), the root morphological traits for most cultivated and wild plants were significantly different. According to correlation analysis, the wild and cultivated plants showed a significant correlation among total root length (TRL), projected area (PA), forks, total lateral length (TLL), link average diameter, and MTL. In particular, TRL was highly correlated with PA in both cultivated (0.92) and wild (0.82) plants compared with between MTL (0.43 for cultivated and 0.27 for wild) and TLL (0.82 for cultivated and 0.52 for wild). According to principal component analysis results, both plants could be separated; however, there was some overlap of the traits among the wild and cultivated individuals from some regions. Nevertheless, variation among the cultivated plants was higher than that found in the wild plants. Furthermore, three groups, including MTL, TLL, and the remaining traits, could explain all the variances.

Pycnocycla bashagardiana is a rare endemic and endangered species that has been used in folkloric medicine in Southern Iran. This study aimed to evaluate the essential oil constituents and antimicrobial activity of wild and cultivated p. bashagardiana. The aerial parts of wild and cultivated plants were collected from two provinces of Iran. The essential oil was isolated by hydrodistillation and analyzed by a combination of capillary GC and GC-MS. The main components in wild plants were myristicin (39.12%), (E)-β-ocimene (21.97%), sabinene (15.0%) and cis-iso-miristicin (2.67%) and in cultivated plants, (E)-β-ocimene (55.40%), myristicin (18.27%), (Z)-β-ocimene (12.47%) and cis-iso-miristicin (2.94%) were the main constituents in essential oil. The in vitro antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of P. bashagardiana were studied against Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans for the first time. The results showed that the oil exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against all the tested pathogens.

Chemical profiling the sage essential oils (SEOs) from wild and cultivated (shaded or non-shaded) plants has been investigated. The yield of SEOs from wild plants (3.51 mL/100 g) was higher than that from cultivated plants(shaded plants: 3.20 mL/100 g and non-shaded plants: 2.56 mL/100 g).The main components of SEO from wild plants were cis-thujone (43.2%), camphor (17.6%), 1,8-cineole (13.8%), veridiflorol (3.8%) and borneol (3.4%).The chemical composition of SEO from cultivated plants included camphor > cis-thujone > 1,8-cineole. Net shading lowered the content of toxic cis-thujone in sage (23.5%) and is therefore recommended in order to achieve better quality of SEO compared to non-shaded plants (cis-thujone 28.3%).The thujone content of SEO from wild plants is much higher (43.2%), and this drastically reduces the quality of EO. Cultivated sage was found to have stronger antioxidant activity (shaded plants 6.16 mg/mL or non-shaded 7.49 ± 0.13 mg/mL) compared to wild sage plants (9.65 mg/mL). The isolated SEOs are good sources of natural antioxidants with potential applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

ABSTRACTPlant domestication can modify flavonoid concentration, generating a decrease in plants subjected to cultivation, but when cultivated plants are transferred to their original wild area, flavonoids can be recovered. In this framework, a native shrub from Chile, Ugni molinae, has been domesticated due to their high phenolic composition. We hypothesised that plant domestication results in a decrease of flavonoid in cultivated plants, and that when they are exposed to a reciprocal transplant experiment, the flavonoid content can be recovered. Hence, a reciprocal transplant experiment for analysing the flavonoids of cultivated plants transferred to their original wild environments was carried out. Methanolic leaf extracts from two cultivated ecotypes and their respectively wild ancestors were collected for flavonoid analysis. Four flavonols and two isoflavonoids were identified and quantified by liquid chromatography. Results showed differences in flavonoids concentrations between wild (290 µg/g) and cultivated (160 µg/g) plants. Furthermore, when wild plants were transferred to cultivated areas, a reduction in flavonoids of 80 µg/g was observed. Moreover, rutin was the most abundant compound (36.09%) detected by chromatography in Mehuín wild plants. Our results showed that cultivated plants transferred to their respective wild environment presented a capacity of recover myricetin, daidzin and genistin content.

Concentrations of tropospheric ozone have more than doubled in the Northern Hemisphere since pre-industrial times. Plant responses to single abiotic or biotic stresses, such as ozone exposure and herbivore-feeding, have received substantial attention, especially for cultivated plants. Modern cultivated plants have been subjected to selective breeding that has altered plant chemical defences. To understand how ozone might affect plant responses to herbivore-feeding in wild and cultivated plants, we studied the volatile emissions of brassicaceous plants after exposure to ambient (~ 15 ppb) or elevated ozone (80 ppb), with and without Plutella xylostella larvae-feeding. Results indicated that most of the wild and cultivated plants increased volatile emissions in response to herbivore-feeding. Ozone alone had a weaker and less consistent effect on volatile emissions, but appeared to have a greater effect on wild plants than cultivated plants. This study highlights that closely related species of the Brassicaceae have variable responses to ozone and herbivore-feeding stresses and indicates that the effect of ozone may be stronger in wild than cultivated plants. Further studies should investigate the mechanisms by which elevated ozone modulates plant volatile emissions in conjunction with biotic stressors.

Clinopodium vulgare L. is a valuable medicinal plant used for its anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and wound-healing properties. The present study describes an efficient protocol for the micropropagation of C. vulgare and compares, for the first time, the chemical content and composition and antitumor and antioxidant activities of extracts from in vitro cultivated and wild-growing plants. The best nutrient medium was found to be Murashige and Skoog (MS) supplemented with 1 mg/L BAP and 0.1 IBA mg/L, yielding on average 6.9 shoots per nodal segment. Flower aqueous extracts from in vitro plants had higher total polyphenol content (29,927.6 ± 592.1 mg/100 g vs. 27,292.8 ± 85.3 mg/100 g) and ORAC antioxidant activity (7281.3 ± 82.9 µmol TE/g vs. 7246.3 ± 62.4 µmol TE/g) compared to the flowers of wild plants. HPLC detected qualitative and quantitative differences in phenolic constituents between the in vitro cultivated and wild-growing plants’ extracts. Rosmarinic acid was the major phenolic constituent, being accumulated mainly in leaves, while neochlorogenic acid was a major compound in the flowers of cultivated plants. Catechin was found only in cultivated plants, but not in wild plants or cultivated plants’ stems. Aqueous extracts of both cultivated and wild plants showed significant in vitro antitumor activity against human HeLa (cervical adenocarcinoma), HT-29 (colorectal adenocarcinoma) and MCF-7 (breast cancer) cell lines. The best cytotoxic activity against most of the cancer cell lines, combined with the least detrimental effects on a non-tumor human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT), was shown by the leaf (250 µg/mL) and flower (500 µg/mL) extracts of cultivated plants, making cultivated plants a valuable source of bioactive compounds and a suitable candidate for anticancer therapy.

Domestication often alters plant traits, leading to cascading effects on ecological interactions, particularly in tri-trophic relationships among plants, herbivores, and their natural enemies. While recent studies have investigated the influence of domestication on plant-derived food sources, its effect on guttation-a nutrient-rich exudate produced by many plants-remains unexplored. In this study, we examined the effects of guttation droplets from wild and cultivated highbush blueberries on the fitness (longevity and fecundity) and feeding preferences of three insect species from different trophic guilds: an herbivore (Drosophila suzukii), a parasitoid (Trichopria drosophilae), and a predator (Chrysoperla carnea). Additionally, we analyzed and compared the size and nutritional composition-specifically, total sugar and protein content-of guttation droplets between wild and cultivated blueberry plants. Our results indicated that guttation from wild plants enhanced the longevity of all three insect species, often surpassing that of cultivated plants and diets containing only sugar or sugar plus protein. In choice assays, all three insect species consistently preferred guttation from wild plants over that from cultivated ones. Although the guttation droplets from cultivated plants were larger, those from wild plants contained higher concentrations of sugars (six times more) and proteins (five times more), which likely contributed to the insects' enhanced fitness and preference for wild plant guttation. These findings indicate that domestication has reduced the ecological functionality of guttation in blueberries by potentially influencing tri-trophic interactions. Understanding how domestication affects plant-derived food sources like guttation could have important implications for the conservation of natural enemies in agricultural landscapes.

Centaurea raphanina subsp. mixta (DC.) Runemark is a wild edible species endemic to Greece. This study evaluated the chemical composition and bioactive properties of wild and cultivated C. raphanina subsp. mixta plants. Wild plants had higher nutritional value than cultivated ones, whereas cultivated plants contained more tocopherols. Glucose and sucrose were higher in cultivated plants and trehalose in wild ones. Oxalic and total organic acids were detected in higher amounts in cultivated samples. The main fatty acids were α-linolenic, linoleic and palmitic acid, while wild plants were richer in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Two pinocembrin derivatives were the main phenolic compounds being detected in higher amounts in wild plants. Regarding the antioxidant activity, wild and cultivated plants were more effective in the oxidative haemolysis (OxHLIA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) assays, respectively. Moreover, both extracts showed moderate cytotoxicity in non-tumor cell lines (PLP2), while cultivated plants were more effective against cervical carcinoma (HeLa), breast carcinoma (MCF-7) and non-small lung cancer (NCI-H460) cell lines. Finally, wild plants showed higher antimicrobial activity than cultivated plants against specific pathogens. In conclusion, the cultivation of C.raphanina subsp. mixta showed promising results in terms of tocopherols content and antiproliferative effects, however further research is needed to decrease oxalic acid content.

Rust (Melampsora apocyni) on Apocynum venetum is the major constraint to the commercial development of this medicinal herb. To determine the factors influencing rust intensity (maximum disease index [DImax]), rust was investigated from 2011 to 2015 in both cultivated and wild A. venetum plants. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) was used to analyze the paths and extent of the factors related to pathogen, environment, and host that affect rust intensity. DImax exhibited considerable variations across years and study sites, with variations linked to various factors fostering disease development. PLS-PM explained 80.0 and 70.1% of variations in DImax in cultivated and wild plants, respectively. Precipitation was the key factor determining DImax in both cultivated and wild plants (path coefficient [PC] = 0.313 and 0.544, respectively). In addition, the topsoil water content in cultivated plants and the total vegetation coverage in wild plants were also critical determinants of DImax via their effects on the microclimatic factor (contribution coefficients [CC] = 0.681 and 0.989, respectively; PC = 0.831 and 0.231, respectively). In both cultivated and wild plants, host factors were mainly dominated by A. venetum density (CC = 0.989 and 0.894, respectively), and their effect on DImax via the microclimatic factor (PC = 0.841 and 0.862, respectively) exceeded that via the inoculum factor (PC = 0.705 and 0.130, respectively). However, the indirect effects led to DImax variation, while the dilution effect on host (CC = 0.154) from weed in wild plants led to the indirect effect size in wild plants of 0.200, which was lower than -0.699 in cultivated plants.

In order to set up an accurate quality criteria for the Boraginaceae that have been traditionally used for medical purposes and food colorant, and to assess its viability as functional food ingredient, antioxidant tests were conducted on the wild and cultivated plants. Variety of indicators including total contents of phenol, DPPH, SOD-liked effect, hydroxy radical-scavenging effect, lecithin oxidation inhibitory effect, etc were analyzed. Wild and cultivated gromwell's total contents of phenol in their methanol extracts were 0.14% and 0.13%, while they were most active in ethyl acetate extracts and n-hexane extracts, respectively. IC50 values of methanol extract of the wild and cultivated plants were 794.41 μg/mL and 971.86 μg/mL, indicating that the wild plant is more responsive (p<0.05) to low concentration. Also the wild and cultivated plants were most active in ethyl acetate fraction and n-hexane extracts when their IC50 values were measured by each solvent extracts. SOD-liked effects of both plants were concentration dependent while methanol extracts were more active (p<0.05) in 500 μg/mL than other solvent extracts. Hydroxy radical-scavenging effect of both plants showed less than 50% activity in concentration of 1,000 μg/mL except in chloroform fraction and n-hexane fraction. Lecithin oxidation inhibitory effects of the wild and cultivated plants were active in methanol and solvent extracts of 200∼1000 μg/mL. Especially it showed 90% of high inhibitory effect in 1,000 μg/mL of chloroform fraction. Hence, both wild and cultivated Boraginaceae were analyzed to be viable as functional food ingredient.