Based on field work and related publications, statistical analyses were conducted to study the distribution patterns of vascular plant species for “the list of the national key protected wild plants (First Edition)” and their correlation with the natural reserves in Southeast (SE) Yunnan and Northwest (NW) Yunnan. According to the preliminary statistics, SE Yunnan has 107 protected plants and NW Yunnan has 53, accounting to 7431% and 36.81% of the total Yunnan 144 species respectively. The vertical distributions of protected plants in SE Yunnan and NW Yunnan showed single peak curves. The maximum abundance of the protected plants occurs at the altitude of 1008m (RSE=09919) in SE Yunnan, while, 2360m (RNW=09656) in NW Yunnan. SE Yunnan has a significantly Pearson correlation (P<001) of first class (rI=0724) and second class (rⅡ=0643) protected plants. However, NW Yunnan has no significant (rI=0464；rⅡ=0410). SE Yunnan holds greater diversity of protected plants than NW Yunnan, and the natural reserves set in SE Yunnan are more effective to achieve the protection of protected plants.

The specific statuses of Anemone brevistyla, which was reduced into the synonymy of Abaicalensis in 2004, Aliangshanica and Alutienensis, which were both relegated to varietal rank under Atrullifolia in 2001, are restored. Besides, two varieties, Aliangshanica var. rectistyla and Arupestris var. latifolia, are described as new from Southwest China, and their diagnoses are given.

Didymochlaena Desv., a monotypic genus placed in Hypodematiaceae with a pantropical distribution, is reported new to China (Yunnan Province) in the present study. Descriptions of the specimens and brief discussions on the systematic placement of this genus are provided.

A species of the genus Clematis (Ranunculaceae), Cmaguanensis, is described as new from Yunnan Province, China, and the diagnostic differences between it and its putative close ally are given.

We developed and characterized a total of 10 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci from the genome of an ornamental shrub, Nandina domestica. The number of alleles per locus in 24 individuals from four populations varied from 2 to 6. The expected and observed heterozygosity ranged from 0153 to 0778 and from 0 to 1, respectively. These markers will provide tools for future studies on population genetic diversity of Ndomestica. Additionally, most of our new markers could yield the amplification products in four other Berberidaceae species.

 Kobresia pygmaea is an important constructive species of alpine meadow on the Tibetan Plateau; its growth and development is influenced by both drastic environments of seasonal or interannual replacement and diurnal cycle. For a long time, studies about Kpygmaea adaption to alpine environment were mainly focused on the longterm adaptation while the diurnal responses were rarely reported. In the present study, we performed comparative proteomics approach, together with antioxidant enzyme assays and western blot, to analyze the variation of proteins expression in Kpygmaea every four hours from 2 am. to 22 pm. in a day, which were collected from elevation of 4800m on the Nyainqentanglha Mountains. The results implicated that Kpygmaea was subjected to timeperiod abiotic environmental stresses, including high temperature, intense light and ultraviolet radiation in the day and low temperature in the night. To maintain normal life activities, Kpygmaea formed a complex set of strategies to deal with the potential damage. These strategies at least contained the plasticity and flexibility of antioxidant system, heat shock proteins accumulation, and abscisic acid metabolism. Meanwhile, a potential way named timespecial activities regulated by proteins was also used to improve efficiency of survival, which meant some important biological processes, such as energy metabolism and photosynthesis, mostly occurred at more suitable time to avoid disadvantageous periods. These results supplied more knowledge about alpine plants adaptation to extreme day and night on the Tibetan Plateau.

Gibberellins (GAs) are essential phytohormones that control many aspects of plant development, including seed germination, stem elongation, leaf growth, flowering induction, development of glandular hairs, and pollen maturation. However, there are different mechanisms underlying GAregulated flowering in perennial woody plants and annual herb plants. To facilitate study about the role of GAs in the biofuel plant Jatropha curcas, we identified all genes involved in GA metabolism and signaling pathways. These genes include members of six gene families, ie., GA2oxidase (GA3ox), GA3oxidase (GA3ox), GA20oxidase (GA20ox), GA receptor GIBBERELLIN INSENSITIVE DWARF1 (GID1), DELLA growth inhibitors (DELLAs), and Fbox proteins, and two single genes SPINDLY (SPY) and EARLY FLOWERING1 (EL1). Jatropha homologs of genes from Arabidopsis and rice (Oryza sativa) were identified by blasting the genome and transcriptome database of Jatropha. Total 17 genes involved in GA metabolism and signaling pathway were identified from Jatropha, and were phylogenetically analyzed with homologs from Arabidopsis, rice, grape (Vitis vinifera), and castor bean (Ricinus communis). Our results showed that compared to Arabidopsis and rice, protein sequences of genes involved in GA metabolism and signaling pathways in Jatropha showed a higher similarity to those from castor bean and grape.

Although leaf shape and size are highly variable across different temperatures, few studies have investigated the reasons for their variations from the hydraulic perspective. We hypothesized that temperature will induce the modification of leaf waterrelated anatomy and leaf hydraulic conductance, which may play an important role in affec
ting leaf shape and size. Narrow and small leaf might be an adaptation to low water transport capacity under low temperature, making the whole leaf obtain water more uniformly. To test the above hypothesis, we investigated leaf anatomy, leaf hydraulic conductance, leaf shape and size of tobacco under two growth temperatures (24℃/18℃ day/night; 32℃/26℃ day/night) and analyzed the associations between leaf hydraulic architecture and leaf lengthtowidth ratio. We found that the tobacco leaves at 24℃ were significantly narrower, and had smaller petiole vessel diameter, lower minor vein density and hydraulic conductance compared with those at 32℃. However, there was no significant difference in leaf size between two temperatures. Leaf hydraulic conductance was positively correlated with minor vein density, but negatively with leaf lengthtowidth ratio. Our results suggested that the modification of leaf anatomy and leaf hydraulic conductance might play an important role in affecting leaf shape under different temperatures.

In this paper, the dry weight, plumpness, morphological characteristics and germination of Tetracentron sinense seeds collected from different altitude and DBH (diameter at breast height) in Meigu Dafengding Nature Reserve were investigated, and the effects of altitude and DBH on the biological characteristic of Tsinense seeds were discussed. With the increase of altitude, the dry weight and plumpness of Tsinense seeds increased first and then decreased, but the germination and morphological characteristics decreased gradually. All biological characteristics showed a highly significant correlation with altitude except for dry weight. With the increase of DBH, all biological characteristics of Tsinense seeds first gradually increased and then decreased. The width and thickness of seeds were highly correlated with DBH, but others were not significant. The results showed that: (1) The altitude was one of the most dominating ecological factors leading to geographical variation of biological characteristics of Tsinense seeds; (2) The DBH has little impact on the biological characteristic of Tsinense seeds; (3) The reproductive period of Tsinense could be divided into four periods, and the period with the DBH of 30-40cm maybe in reproductive peak.

The alien plants of 357 species (and infraspecific taxa) in 232 genera of 75 families in Shanghai were reported with their basic information and rating of their invasion. 64 alien invasive plants, 293 alien occasional species and 9 new naturalized plants in Shanghai were identified and recorded for the first time. The alien plants shows characteristics as diverse species, rich diversity, high density, and high proportion of domestic species invasion. The control management and measurement for alien invasive plants in Shanghai were also proposed accordingly.

To better understand the effects of shrub gaps on the herbaceous species community in Huoshan Mountain, species importance value and diversity index were employed to analyze the change of the herbaceous plant species composition and diversity across a gradient of gap sizes. The results showed that the proportion of shrub gaps whose area size less than 10m2 were the highest under the natural state, accounting for 512%. The importance value of herbaceous plant was larger in shrub gaps than in nongaps and it was the highest in shrub gaps from 10 to 20m2. The dominant herbaceous species could be classified into three groups: positive response, negative response, and nonsensitive. The species richness, diversity index and evenness index in shrub gaps were higher than those in nongaps, while dominance index in shrub gaps was lower than that in nongaps. In addition, they showed humpshaped curves with increasing gap size, and the maximums appeared in shrub gaps from 10 to 20m2. Therefore, the appropriate size of shrub gap is an important way to maintain the species diversity of herbaceous plant in the forest ecosystems.

Hodgsonia macrocarpa, commonly known as lardfruit, is a perennial woody vine belongs to family Cucurbitaceae. Since the food value of its kernel was reported in the early 20th century, increasing studies have been focused on the introduction and cultivation of the wild populations and chemical analysis of the edible kernel oils. While its ethnobotanical details about local nomenclaetures, gathering techniques, form of consumption and folk resouce management are left unclear. In this study we collected these ethnobotanical data from 8 ethnic groups by conducting field survey in 23 ethnic villages in Xishuangbana. Methods including key informants interview and group discussion were used for recording the traditional medicinal and culinary knowledge of lardfruit. The results show an unexpected diversity of their folk names, which indicate the long history of folk uses. The baked edible kernel is favored by all the 8 ethnic groups. The root, stem, leaf, fruit and seed are widely used as herbal medicine for the treatment of intestinal diseases and skin ailments. The diverse folk names and multiple medicinal uses practice among different ethnic groups indicate that they exploited this plant resource in various perspectives for culture, economic and social reasons.

Ficus carica, one of the earliest cultivated fruit trees, was introduced into China more than 2000 years ago and is cultivated until present time. Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the earliest and largest area with Fcarica plantations, Atux being the main production area. To protect and further propagate traditional use of Fcarica by minorities, and to identify the cultivated varieties in Atux, we collected fruits and leaves of Fcarica, interviewed Uygur ethnic people and recorded traditional utilization. Our analyses were based on ethnobotany and phytotaxonomy methods. Results showed that there are five cultivated varieties in Atux town, described here as early maturing type, yellowish type, small ball type, ovalyellowish type and late maturing type. Fcarica and other plants are used by Uygur ethnic people in Atux to effectively and safely treat some diseases. Moreover, Fcarica in used as an ornamental tree in landscaping. Studies on traditional utilization of Fcarica in Atux area will deepen our knowlegde about plant resources use and development and will also stimulate research on traditional plant use among Uygur ethnic people.

 In recent decades, the applied research of astaxanthin has made significant progress since it is highly valued and promising in its application. Using the databases of Derwent Innovations Index (DII) as the sources, we retrieved and analyzed the patents on the astaxanthin. The analytical tools of Thomson Data Analyzer (TDA), and Thomson Innovation platform were used for data mining. We analyzed the trends of patents applications, life spans, and distribution of patents, core patents and the patents family about astaxanthin by bibliometric approach. This paper reveals the trends of astaxanthin research in the world and helps the researchers and corporations in China to understand the opportunities and challenges to develop the new astaxanthin technology. The results showed that the research of astaxanthin mainly focused on the fields that astaxanthin was applied as a feed additives for fish and a natural nutrient for diseases prevention and control. Japan, the United States, and China ranked as the top three countries that claimed the priority of the patent applications of astaxanthin. The numbers of patent applications of astaxanthin from Japan prevailed over any other countries. From the distribution of the patents, DuPont and Tosoh Corporation are mainly interested in the synthesis of the target compounds by fermentation and enzyme and the composition of microorganisms or enzymes, while other top Japanese companies mainly focused on products with the medical, dental or toilet use, the food preparation or processing of food and nonalcoholic beverages and the specific treatment of active compounds or pharmaceutical formulations.