Edible Lily Research Articles

Brown Rot Disease Caused by Trichoderma hamatum on the Edible Lily, Lilium leichtlinii var. maximowiczii

Lilium leichtlinii var. maximowiczii is commonly known as the edible lily or sweet lily. Bulbs of this edible lily are frequently used in traditional Chinese medicine, and they are revered for their nutritional content. As of 2018, brown rot disease on cultivated L. leichtlinii var. maximowiczii bulbs has become a disease of concern in Jilin Province, China, with a disease incidence of 29.43%. The bulbs infected with brown rot disease appear as large, regularly shaped, and yellow-brown or black-brown lesions. However, the causal agent is not yet known. Therefore, this study aims to confi rm both the causal pathogen by using Koch’s postulates and to further establish, to the species level, the identity of this organism via morphological and molecular methods. The pathogen was later identifi ed as Trichoderma hamatum. Healthy bulbs were inoculated with T. hamatum, which produced the initial disease symptoms with brown spots appearing at the inoculation sites; the same pathogen was then isolated again from diseased bulbs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the fi rst report of bulb rot disease of cultivated L. leichtlinii var. maximowiczii caused by T. hamatum in China. Our work may be benefi cial, especially for designing control measures for bulb rot disease in the commercial cultivation of L. leichtlinii var. maximowiczii.

Starch Degradation and Sucrose Accumulation of Lily Bulbs after Cold Storage.

Functional lilies are a group of edible lily cultivars with great potential for landscape application. Low-temperature storage can significantly improve their taste, but the knowledge of this process is largely unknown. In this study, we used the functional lilies ‘Fly Shaohua’ and ‘Fly Tiancheng’ as materials. Through physiological observation and transcriptome analysis during the bulbs’ cold storage, it was found that the starch degradation and sucrose accumulation in bulbs contributed to taste improvement. After 60 d of cold storage, the sucrose accumulation was highest and the starch content was lower in the bulbs, suggesting this time-point was optimal for consumption. Accompanying the fluctuation of sucrose content during cold storage, the enzyme activities of sucrose phosphate synthase and sucrose synthase for sucrose synthesis were increased. Transcriptome analysis showed that many differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were involved in the starch and sucrose metabolism pathway, which might promote the conversion of starch to sucrose in bulbs. In addition, the DEGs involved in dormancy and stress response were also determined during cold storage, which might explain the decreased sucrose accumulation with extended storage time over 60 d due to the energy consumption for dormancy release. Taken together, our results indicated sucrose accumulation was a main factor in the taste improvement of lily bulbs after cold storage, which is attributable to the different gene expression of starch and sucrose metabolism pathways in this process.

An optimized method to\xa0obtain high-quality RNA from different tissues in Lilium davidii var. unicolor

The high quality, yield and purity total RNA samples are essential for molecular experiments. However, harvesting high quality RNA in Lilium davidii var. unicolor is a great challenge due to its polysaccharides, polyphenols and other secondary metabolites. In this study, different RNA extraction methods, namely TRIzol method, the modified TRIzol method, Kit method and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method were employed to obtain total RNA from different tissues in L. davidii var. unicolor. A Nano drop spectrophotometer and 1% agarose gel electrophoresis were used to detect the RNA quality and integrity. Compared with TRIzol, Kit and CTAB methods, the modified TRIzol method obtained higher RNA concentrations from different tissues and the A260/A280 ratios of RNA samples were ranged from 1.97 to 2.27. Thus, the modified TRIzol method was shown to be the most effective RNA extraction protocol in acquiring RNA with high concentrations. Furthermore, the RNA samples isolated by the modified TRIzol and Kit methods were intact, whereas different degrees of degradation happened within RNA samples isolated by the TRIzol and CTAB methods. In addition, the modified TRIzol method could also isolate high-quality RNA from other edible lily bulbs. Taken together, the modified TRIzol method is an efficient method for total RNA isolation from L. davidii var. unicolor.

Changes of starch and sucrose content and related gene expression during the growth and development of Lanzhou lily bulb.

As the main forms of carbohydrates, starch and sucrose play a vital role in the balance and coordination of various carbohydrates. Lanzhou lily is the most popular edible lily in China, mainly distributed in the central region of Gansu. To clarify the relationship between carbohydrate metabolism and bulb development of Lanzhou lily, so as to provide a basis for the promotion of the growth and development in Lanzhou lily and its important economic value, we studied lily bulbs in the squaring stage, flowering stage, half withering stage and withering stage. The plant height, fresh weight of mother and daughter bulbs continued to increase during the whole growth period and fresh weight of stem and leaf began to decrease in the half withering stage. The content of starch, sucrose and total soluble sugar in the lily mother bulb accumulated mostly in the flowering, withering and half withering stages, respectively. Starch, sucrose and total soluble sugar accumulated in the daughter bulb with the highest concentration during the withering stage. In the transcription level, sucrose synthase (SuSy1) and sucrose invertase (INV2) expressed the highest in squaring stage, and the expression was significantly higher in the mother bulb than in the daughter bulb. In flowering stage, the expression levels of soluble starch synthase (SSS1), starch-branching enzyme (SBE) and adenosine diphosphate-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGP1) genes were higher in the mother bulb than in the daughter bulb. Altogether, our results indicate that starch and sucrose are important for the bulb growth and development of Lanzhou lily.

Analysis of edible characteristics, antioxidant capacities, and phenolic pigment monomers in Lilium bulbs native to China

Lilium is cherished for its health-promoting properties in China. The bulbs of Lilium are rich in phenolic compounds, which are associated with antioxidant capacity. However, no systematic evaluation on phenolic compositions and antioxidant capacities for the edible Lilium native to China has been conducted. Herein, bulbs of 56 wild populations and three cultivars were collected. Their edible characteristics, antioxidant capacities, and pigments have been investigated and analyzed. The results showed that phenolic compounds contributed to the major colors (red, yellow and white) in Lilium bulbs. The seven phenolic pigment monomers responsible for the color of bulbs—cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside, isoquercitrin, regaloside B, regaloside C, regaloside H, regaloside A and regaloside D—were identified by the combination of HPLC-MS and NMR analysis. The population Lilium regale E. H. Wilson (Maoxian County, Sichuan Province) had the highest antioxidant capacity. According to the quantification results, Lilium bulbs with darker and redder colors possessed larger biomass, better nutrient compositions, significantly higher bioactive constituents, and higher antioxidant capacities than the three currently consumed cultivars of edible lily bulbs. Overall, these findings suggest that the mountainous area of southwest China could be the fourth source of edible lilies with the bulb-colored Lilium species.

Exogenous salicylic acid improves chilling tolerance of edible lily bulbs in cold-storage

Exogenous salicylic acid improves chilling tolerance of edible lily bulbs in cold-storage

Analysis of the cross-compatibility of Lilium brownii var. viridulum and L. davidii var. unicolor

Great achievements have been reached in ornamental lily breeding, however, there is little work on edible lily breeding. In order to breed edible lilies as good as ornamental ones, in the present study, two edible lilies, Lilium brownii var. viridulum and L. davidii var. unicolor, were mainly investigated for their microsporogenesis, hybridization, genomic differences, and hybrid identity and fertility using conventional and modern cytogenetic techniques. The results showed that both L. brownii var. viridulum and L. davidii var. unicolor had normal meiosis and fertility; their hybrids could be obtained through cut style pollination and embryo rescue only when L. brownii var. viridulum was used as female and L. davidii var. unicolor as male; the hybrids were male sterile and the two genomes of their hybrids could be distinguished with genomic in situ hybridization. The results are similar to what observed in ornamental LA, OA, OT, and LO lily hybrids. It is concluded that L. brownii var. viridulum and L. davidii var. unicolor are distantly related and the hybrids are promise to breed allotriploid edible lilies in the next few years.

Re-identification of pathogen of bulb black rot of lilies based on DNA barcoding and infection studies

We used DNA barcoding analysis to re-examine a sclerotial pathogen of bulb black rot of edible lily (Lilium leichtlinii var. tigrinum), previously identified as Sclerotium cepivorum var. tulipae. The barcoding sequence of the pathogens showed high similarity with that of Sclerotium denigrans, and detailed morphological and pathogenic examination confirmed it as S. denigrans, a new record from Japan.

Bacterial communities as indicators of soil health under a continuous cropping system

AbstractWith growing global interest in the improvement of soil quality and the adoption of sustainable land management systems, there is an urgent need to find early indicators to monitor and manage sustainable soil health. Meta‐analyses provide useful information on microbial communities and community‐level molecular characteristics, which can be exploited as ‘biomarker’ indicators of ecosystem processes for soil health evaluation. Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) is the only type of sweet edible lily in China, as well as an endemic species with a narrow distribution. Due to its uses as food and in gardening, this lily has an economic value in the Country, particularly in Gansu Province located in the Loess Plateau. This lily is usually cultivated in long‐term continuous monoculture (replanting), resulting in the so‐called consecutive replanting problem (CRP), which is associated with severe soil degradation and significant yield and quality losses. This study was conducted to investigate the bacterial community structure and specific bacterial members related to the lily's CRPs and soil health degradation indicators via next‐generation sequence (NGS) analysis. The bacterial diversity of rhizosphere soil was analyzed by high‐throughput DNA sequencing (Miseq) of samples collected in fields at 0, 3, 6, and 9 replanting years (L0, L3, L6, and L9, respectively). Results showed that long‐term replanting significantly increased soil bacterial abundance and insignificantly changed soil bacterial diversity. However, replanting altered the soil microbial communities where 3–6 years of replanting was a transmission period for change, resulting in a new community structure after 9 years of replanting. Some specific bacterial members were found to be correlated with lily's plant growth, both positively and negatively. Long‐term replanting accumulation of the harbored highly abundant pathogenic bacterial genus Streptomyces and the species Bacillus simplex and depletion of the plant‐beneficial bacteria genera Sphingomonas and Hyphomicrobium are the causes of the lily's CRP under a 0–9 year replanting system. In addition, changes in the soil physiochemical properties contributed to the new structure of bacterial communities, and the phylum Proteobacteria and the genus Sphingomonas could be regarded as potential indicators of sustainable soil management.

Soil Fungal Diversity Loss and Appearance of Specific Fungal Pathogenic Communities Associated With the Consecutive Replant Problem (CRP) in Lily.

Edible lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) has economic value in China, particularly in Gansu Province, due to its uses as food and in gardening. Edible lily is usually cultivated in a long-term continuous monoculture resulting in the so-called consecutive replant problem (CRP), which is associated with severe soil degradation and significant yield and quality losses. This study was conducted to investigate the fungal community structure and specific fungal members related to lily’s CRPs using metabarcoding analysis. Fungal diversity of rhizosphere soil was analyzed by high-throughput DNA sequencing (Miseq) of samples collected in fields at 0, 3, 6, and 9 replant years (L0, L3, L6, and L9, respectively). The results show that long-term replanting significantly decreased both soil fungal diversity and abundance at the OTUs levels. Furthermore, replanting altered the soil microbial communities, where 4 to 5 years of replanting is a key transition period for substantial change of fungal community structure, resulting in new fungal community structures in L6 and L9 compared to in L0 and L3. The fungal diversity loss and fungal community structure simplification contributes to the negative effect of replanting in lily, and after 6 years of replanting, accumulation of highly abundant pathogenic fungal genera and depletion of the putative plant-beneficial fungal genera exacerbate the lily CRP. In addition, changes in the soil physiochemical properties strongly contributes to the new structure of fungal communities, and the genera Cryptococcus and Guehomyces could be regarded as potential indicators to monitor and manage sustainable soil health in the lily cropping system.

Comparative analysis and comprehensive evaluation for growth and photosynthetic characteristics of different lily species and varieties

The biological characteristics,agronomic traits,yield traits,stress resistance,quality and photosynthetic characteristics among six lily varieties were compared in order to screen out the excellent lily varieties suitable for spread planting in Hunan province. Lilium longiflorum had the longest growth period,246 days,among these six lily varieties,while others were about 170 days. The leaves of L.longiflorum,self-selected variety,L. lancifolium and L. dauricum had higher chlorophyll content. No obvious difference was found in net photosynthetic rate,stomatal conductance,transpiration rate and intercellular CO2 concentration among all varieties. The self-selected variety had the highest theoretical and actual yield,2 543. 03,1 608. 65 kg per Mu(1 Mu≈666. 7 m2),respectively,but contents of polysaccharides and flavones in bulbs were lower. All of these six lily varieties can sowing,seedling emergence,growth,flowering,mature harvest in Hunan province. L. dauricum and L. lancifolium would be provided for edible lily. L. brownie and the self-selected variety are highly susceptible varieties. L. dauricum and L. lancifolium are suitable to plant widely in disease-prone regions,due to their strong resistance. L. brownie and L. lancifolium are preferred varieties for medicinal and food using for their good quality and higher contents of polysaccharides and flavones. L. davidii had lower theoretical and actual yield,so planting extension of it should be taken into account.

Differences in infectivity and pathogenicity of two Plantago asiatica mosaic virus isolates in lilies

Plantago asiatica mosaic virus (PlAMV) is a member of the genus Potexvirus in the family Alphaflexiviridae and has been isolated from a variety of host plants. In particular, PlAMV isolates from ornamental lilies (Lilium spp.) cause necrotic symptoms in these plants, which significantly reduces their commercial value. However, it has not been clear whether PlAMV isolates from other host plants differ in their infectivity and/or pathogenicity to ornamental lilies, and whether growth conditions affect infectivity and pathogenicity. In this study, we inoculated an edible lily species (Lilium leichtlinii) and seven varieties of ornamental lilies with two PlAMV isolates, an isolate from ornamental lily (PlAMV-OL) and an isolate from edible lily (PlAMV-Li1). We found that PlAMV-OL showed higher infection rates and exhibited necrotic symptoms more frequently in lilies than PlAMV-Li1. Moreover, we observed higher infection rates of PlAMV-OL in open field than in greenhouse, and higher rates of necrotic symptoms in autumn test than in spring test, suggesting that growth conditions and season affect infectivity and pathogenicity of PlAMV in lilies. Our study would provide important information for estimating the risk of necrotic disease caused by PlAMV, as well as for cultivation management preventing the occurrence of the disease.

Growth of edible lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) and bulb yield responses to potassium fertiliser and plastic film mulching

SummaryEdible lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) has economic value due to its food, health products, and gardening uses in China. A continuous 3-year experiment was conducted to determine the effect of potassium (K) supply on plant growth and bulb yield in L. davidii var. unicolor under water-permeable plastic film mulching. Approx. 32,400 seed bulbs (average fresh weight = 21.0 g) were arranged in a completely random design with two patterns of planting (nonmulching or mulching) and three levels of K fertiliser (K0, 0 kg K2O ha-1; K72, 72 kg K2O ha-1; or K144, 144 kg K2O ha-1). It was found that mulching increased seedling heights, basal shoot diameters, leaf numbers, leaf areas, and dry biomass production. L. davidii var. unicolor seedlings also exhibited a strong, but inconsistent response to K supply. An intermediate K supply (K72) increased seedling heights, basal shoot diameters, leaf numbers, leaf areas, and dry biomass production. In contrast, a high K supply (K144) decreased or had little effect on these growth characteristics. Potassium levels, mulching, and their interaction, significantly (P 0.01) decreased the mean length of the longest root. Similarly, marketable bulb yields and bulblet yields were significantly influenced by K level, mulching, and their interaction (P 0.01). Furthermore, the greatest increase in marketable bulb yield occurred between treatments K0 and K72 with or without mulching.

PRODUCTION AND CULTIVATION OF LILIES IN CHINA

In this paper, the status of lily industry, such as cut-flower production, bulb production, edible lily production status, in mainland China is summarized. The lily flower yield in 2012 amounted to more than 600 million stems. This is the estimation from some companies of bulb trade in China, and we don’t have the accurate data from the government. It was estimated that the import quantity of lily bulb of main-land China in 2012, including from the Netherlands and the south hemisphere, was more than 200 million. In mainland China, at present time, lily flower production is mainly distributed at six provinces, Yunnan, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Fujian, and this situation has been sustained a couple of years. Among the six provinces, Yunnan is number one, and Liaoning is number two. Because of the distinctive environmental conditions, including the climate, soil and water, between north and south China, the equipments and some detailed tech-niques for cut lily production are quite different. Therefore, it has been formed two technology systems, the north China system and South China system. The total area of lily bulb production in China is still not so clear. It is estimated that lily bulb produced domestically is about 60 million in 2012 in mainland China. Many Chinese lily growers just re-use the bulbs for one or two years, some-times even three or four years in some region. There are mainly two methods of treat-ment for reusing lily bulbs after flowering. Edible lilies are a small branch of lily industry in China, but not very popular on the world. There are mainly three lily species, or varieties used for food with their bulbs in China. They are Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor), which was mainly grown in the region around Lanzhou, Gansu province, Longya lily (L. brownie), which was mainly grown at Hunan and Jiangxi province, and Yixing lily (L. lancifolium), which was mainly grown in Jiangsu province.

Edible Lily Bulb Modulates Colonic Barrier Functions, Microflora and Fermentation in Rats Fed a High-Fat Diet

Lily bulb is traditionally consumed in Asia as both a root vegetable and a herbal medicine. The objective of this study was to determine if dietary edible lily bulbs modulated the colonic luminal environment in rats fed a high-fat (HF) diet.

Time of pruning influences the growth and bulb yield of edible lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) plants

SummaryEdible lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) is a high-value plant due to its uses in food and health products in China. A 3-year trial was conducted on bud or flower pruning to study the effect of different pruning times on vegetative growth and bulb yield in L. davidii var. unicolor to help growers to determine the optimum pruning treatment and time. Four different pruning treatments, and a non-pruned control (CK), were compared. Treatment P1, involved pruning when the stalk height was approx. 20 cm. P2, involved pruning when the plants began to bud. P3, involved pruning when the most buds were 3 cm in length. P4, involved pruning when plants were flowering. The results indicated that pruning treatment affected both vegetative growth and bulb yield. Total plant biomass, the leaf area index (LAI), the leaf area ratio (LAR), the specific leaf area (SLA), and root:shoot dry matter (DM) ratio (R:S) values were highest in treatment P2. Marketable bulb yield (2.60 kg m–2 field) was also highest under treatment P2. This indicated that the optimum pruning time not only accelerated plant growth and DM accumulation, but also altered the transport of photo-assimilate, and thus greatly increased bulb yield.

Overexpression of l-galactono-1, 4-lactone dehydrogenase (GLDH) in Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) via particle bombardment-mediated transformation

In China, the native Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii var. unicolor) is used as an edible lily and is an important source of ascorbic acid. However, an efficient transformation system has not been developed for this important crop. Here, we describe the first successful genetic transformation mediated by particle bombardment in this lily variety. We used pCAMBIA-GLDH, which contains the l-galactono-1, 4-lactone dehydrogenase gene from apple, a hygromycin phosphotransferase gene as a selectable marker, and an intron-containing β-glucuronidase gene as a reporter. In all, 35 transgenic lines were selected via GUS assays and PCR; from these, eight were confirmed by Southern analyses. Transgenic plants were transferred to soil and grown under greenhouse conditions. The levels of reduced ascorbate and total ascorbate (reduced ascorbate + oxidized ascorbate) in transgenic plants were found to be two to seven times those in non-transgenic controls.

Mapping the sequence domain for systemic infection in edible lily on the viral genome of Cucumber mosaic virus

Cucumber mosaic virus lily isolate HL (HL-CMV), originally isolated from an edible lily in Hokkaido, Japan, can only infect a small number of host plants. Many CMV isolates, including Y-CMV, are unable to infect lily plants systemically. Full-length cDNA clones of the genomic RNAs 1–3 of HL-CMV were synthesized. To identify the RNA sequence(s) required for systemic infection in lily, we created pseudorecombinant and chimeric viruses between HL-CMV and Y-CMV by using in vitro synthesized infectious transcripts. The results of the inoculation experiments indicated that the determinants were mapped to the 5′-untranslated region and the region between the FbaI and SpeI sites (positions 1546–2604) in RNA1 of HL-CMV. Possible roles of these domains are discussed.

Organochlorine compounds from a terrestrial higher plant: structures and origin of chlorinated orcinol derivatives from diseased bulbs of Lilium maximowiczii.

Seven chlorine-containing orcinol derivatives (2-8) and orcinol (9) have been isolated from diseased bulbs of the edible lily Lilium maximowiczii, and their structures have been elucidated. Six of the chlorinated orcinol derivatives (2, 4-8) showed antifungal activity. Because organochlorine compounds are rare in terrestrial higher plants, their biosynthetic origin was examined. These compounds were shown to be induced in intact bulb scales by UV irradiation or by inoculation with the pathogenic fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lilii. Biosynthetic studies suggested that these "natural organochlorine pesticides" are produced by enzymatic chlorination of orcinol (9) with chloroperoxidase and hydrogen peroxide, which are both induced in the plant tissue under stress conditions.

Pedigree of Edible Lily Cultivars Assumed by Chloroplast DNA Polymorphism

Pedigree of Edible Lily Cultivars Assumed by Chloroplast DNA Polymorphism