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Lily scale-explants cultured in vitro regenerate adventitious bulblets at their base. Large scale-explants (6 × 18 mm; the basal side is 6 mm) yielded more (26%) bulblet growth than small ones (6 × 6 mm). The beneficial effect of the scale was also clear when bulblets excised from scale explants were transferred to fresh medium for additional growth. When a small piece of the original scale was left attached to these bulblets, growth increased by 33%. The growth of bulblets was highest in explants cut from the middle of a scale as opposed to the edge, and in explants cut from the basal half as opposed to the apical half. We examined the development of the scale-explants during the period of bulblet regeneration in vitro and the scale explants were physiologically very active as judged by the decrease in the amount of polysaccharides in the explant (ca.70%) and the increase in total amount of soluble sugars in the explant (ca. 40%). In the basal scale explants, the number of starch granules was far higher than in apical scale explants. During culture, the number of vascular bundles increased in basal and apical scale explants from 6 to 3.3 to 8 and 4 bundles, respectively.

Due to the cooperation of civilians and professionals in the Orosháza Museum, Hungary, the number of seal rings found in various archaeological sites and sent to the museum during the metal-detecting activity exceeds 1000 pieces. In this paper, we would like to present a fragmentary ring which was found near to today’s Végegyháza (Békés County), on the territory of the medieval Pereg. The settlement had been established near to the region’s river, called Száraz-ér, along the road leading to the Maros (now Arad). The ring belongs to a horizon of the 12th–13th centuries, and it can be dated to the era before the Tartar invasion, to the beginning of the 13th century. The significant part of the rings found in the neighborhood of Orosháza is linked to the areas of the Balkans, once the Byzantine Empire, so the local settlements’ and material culture’s history should be examined in accordance with these regions.

In this study, starch extracted from lily bulbs were modified using an ultra‐high pressure (UHP) treatment at six different pressure levels (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 MPa). The effects of UHP treatment on the physicochemical and morphological properties of lily starch were investigated. The morphological observation revealed that UHP treatment led to particle expansion and aggregation. Compared with the native and lily starch treated at 100–500 MPa, the lily starch treated at 600 MPa exhibited almost completely disrupted morphology and a larger particle size, indicating nearly complete gelatinization of the starch. The relative crystallinity of the UHP‐treated starch remarkably reduced. Gelatinization temperatures via differential scanning calorimetry decreased with increasing pressure. The rapid viscoanalyzer results revealed that the lily starch treated with UHP at 600 MPa showed low values of peak viscosity, trough viscosity, breakdown, final viscosity, and setback. These results indicated that UHP was an effective physical modification method for lily starch, UHP treatment (600 MPa, 30 min) caused nearly complete gelatinization of lily starch, and lily starch modified using UHP might expand the application of lily in the food field., In this study, starch extracted from lily bulbs were modified using an ultra‐high pressure (UHP) treatment at six different pressure levels (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600 MPa). The results indicated that UHP was an effective physical modification method for lily starch, UHP treatment (600 MPa, 30 min) caused complete gelatinisation of lily starch, and lily starch modified using UHP might expand the application of lily in the food field.

The Lily mottle virus (LMoV) impedes the growth and quality of lily crops in Lanzhou, China. Recently Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV) has been detected in LMoV-infected plants in this region, causing plant stunting as well as severe foliar symptoms, and likely posing a threat to lily production. Consequently, there is a need to develop simple, sensitive, and reliable detection methods for these two viruses to prevent them from spreading. Reverse transcription (RT) loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays have been developed to detect LMoV and ArMV using two primer pairs that match six conserved sequences of LMoV and ArMV coat proteins, respectively. RT-LAMP assay results were visually assessed in reaction tubes using green fluorescence and gel electrophoresis. Our assays successfully detected both LMoV and ArMV in lily plants without the occurrence of viral cross-reactivity from other lily viruses. Optimal conditions for LAMP reactions were 65°C and 60°C for 60 min for LMoV and ArMV, respectively. Detection sensitivity for both RT-LAMP assays was a hundredfold greater than that of our comparative RT-polymerase chain reaction assays. We have also found this relatively rapid, target specific and sensitive method can also be used for samples collected in the field and may be especially useful in regions with limited or no laboratory facilities.

Lily is a popular and economically ornamental crop around the world. However, its high production of pollen grains causes serious problems to consumers, including allergies and staining of clothes. During anther development, the tapetum is a crucial step for pollen formation and microspore release. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanism of tapetum degradation and microspore development in lily where free pollen contamination occurs. Here, we used the cut lily cultivar ‘Siberia’ to characterize the process of tapetum degradation through the use of cytology and transcriptomic methods. The cytological observation indicated that, as the lily buds developed from 4 cm (Lo 4 cm) to 8 cm (Lo 8 cm), the tapetum completed the degradation process and the microspores matured. Furthermore, by comparing the transcriptome profiling among three developmental stages (Lo 4 cm, Lo 6 cm and Lo 8 cm), we identified 27 differentially expressed genes. These 27 genes were classed into 4 groups by function, namely, cell division and expansion, cell-wall morphogenesis, transcription factors, LRR-RLK (leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases), plant hormone biosynthesis and transduction. Quantitative real-time PCR was performed as validation of the transcriptome data. These selected genes are candidate genes for the tapetum degradation and microspore development of lily and our work provides a theoretical basis for breeding new lily cultivars without pollen.

During the growth cycle of lilies, assimilates undergo a process of accumulation, consumption and reaccumulation in bulbs and are transported and allocated between aboveground and underground organs and tissues. The sink–source relationship changes with the allocation of assimilates, affecting the vegetative growth and morphological establishment of lilies. In this study, the carbohydrate contents in different tissues of five critical stages during lily development were measured to observe the assimilates allocation. The results showed bulbs acted as the main source to provide energy before the budding stage (S3); after the flowering stage (S4), bulbs began to accumulate assimilates as a sink organ again. During the period when the plant height was 30cm with leaf-spread (S2), leaves mainly accumulated assimilates from bulbs through the symplastic pathway, while when leaves were fully expanded, it transformed to export carbohydrates. At the S4 stage, flowers became a new active sink with assimilates influx. To further understand the allocation of assimilates, 16 genes related to sugar transport and metabolism (ST genes) were identified and categorized into different subfamilies based on the phylogenetic analysis, and their protein physicochemical properties were also predicted. Tissue-specific analysis showed that most of the genes were highly expressed in stems and petals, and it was mainly the MST (monosaccharide transporter) genes that were obviously expressed in petals during the S4 stage, suggesting that they may be associated with the accumulation of carbohydrates in flowers and thus affect flower development process. LoSWEET14 (the Sugar will eventually be exported transporters) was significantly correlated with starch in scales and with soluble sugar in leaves. Sugar transporters LoHXT6 and LoSUT1 were significantly correlated with soluble sugar and sucrose in leaves, suggesting that these genes may play key roles in the accumulation and transportation of assimilates in lilies. In addition, we analyzed the expression patterns of ST genes under different abiotic stresses, and the results showed that all genes were significantly upregulated. This study lays a solid foundation for further research on molecular mechanism of sink–source change and response to abiotic stresses in lilies.

Despite Woody Allen being one of the most relevant international filmmakers, hisopera pri-ma, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? has been obviated by scientifical literature. However, What’s Up, Tiger Lily?(1965, Woody Allen, Senkichi Taniguchi, 1966) is a paradigmatical film that reveals how films have transcendence as narrative texts. The film, based on parodic narrative re-significates the Japanese movie Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi by modifying its syntax code (editing) and removing its sound code (dialogues and soundtrack). To achieve this purpose, Woody Allen uses several narrative strategies like metalanguage, The Alienation Effect by Bertolt Brecht, and the textual transcendence explored by Gérard Genette.This research concludes arguing that What’s Up, Tiger Lily? proves the capability of the filmic discourse to generate relevant textual interconnections. pesar de que Woody Allen es una de las figuras más relevantes del espectro cinematográficointernacional, su opera prima, Lily la tigresa, ha pasado inadvertida por la literatura científica. Sin embargo,esta película de 1965 es paradigmática por resignificar una cinta previa, la japonesa Kokusai himitsu keisat-su: Kagi no kagi, mediante la modificación parcial del código sintáctico y la eliminación completa del có-digo sonoro original. El propósito de esta investigación es analizarlas estrategias narrativas empleadas por Allen para crear la parodia y hacer ostensible su intervención como autor, entre las que destacan el recurso al metalenguaje, al distanciamiento brechtiano y los niveles de transtextualidad enunciados por Gérard Genette. Mediante el estudio de su estructura, de los diferentes niveles de significación, de traducción y de doblaje, se evidenciará que Lily la tigresa es un ejemplo paradigmático de la capacidad fílmica de generar vinculaciones textuales, haciendo patente la cualidad metalingüística del relato cinematográfico paródico.

BackgroundPetals are the colorful region of many ornamental plants. Quality traits of petal color directly affect the value of ornamental plants. Although the regulatory mechanism of flower color has been widely studied in many plants, that of lily flower color is still worth further exploration.ResultsIn this study, the pigmentation regulatory network in different regions of the petal of lily cultivar ‘Vivian’ was analyzed through tissue structure, metabolites biosynthesis, and gene expression. We found that cell morphology of the petal in un-pigmented region differed from that in pigmented region. The cell morphology tends to flatten in un-pigmented region where the color is lighter. Moreover, high level anthocyanin was found in the pigmented regions by metabonomic analysis, especially cyanidin derivatives. However, flavanones were accumulated, contrast with anthocyanin in the un-pigmented regions of lily petal. To understand the relationship of these different metabolites and lily flower color, RNA-Seq was used to analyze the differentially expressed genes-related metabolite biosynthesis. Among these genes, the expression levels of several genes-related cyanidin derivatives biosynthesis were significantly different between the pigmented and un-pigmented regions, such asLvMYB5, LvMYB7, LvF3’H, LvDFR, LvANSandLv3GT.ConclusionsThis data will help us to further understand the regulation network of lily petal pigmentation and create different unique color species.

Most commercial cultivars of lily are sensitive to abiotic stresses. However, tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium L.), one of the most widely distributed wild lilies in Asia, has strong abiotic stresses resistance. Thus, it is indispensable to identify stress-responsive candidate genes in tiger lily for the stress resistance improvement of plants. In this study, a MYB related homolog (LlMYB3) from tiger lily was functionally characterized as a positive regulator in plant stress tolerance. LlMYB3 is a nuclear protein with transcriptional activation activity at C-terminus. The expression of LlMYB3 gene was induced by multiple stress treatments. Several stress-related cis-acting regulatory elements (MYBRS, MYCRS, LTRE and DRE/CRT) were located within the promoter of LlMYB3; however, the promoter activity was not induced sufficiently by various stresses treatments. Overexpressing LlMYB3 in Arabidopsis thaliana L. transgenic plants showed ABA hypersensitivity and enhanced tolerance to cold, drought, and salt stresses. Furthermore, we found LlMYB3 highly co-expressed with LlCHS2 gene under cold treatment; yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assays demonstrated LlMYB3 was able to bind to the promoter of LlCHS2. These findings suggest that the stress-responsive LlMYB3 may be involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis pathway to regulate stress tolerance of tiger lily.

The Lily mottle virus (LMoV) impedes the growth and quality of lily crops in Lanzhou, China. Recently Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV) has been detected in LMoV-infected plants in this region, causing plant stunting as well as severe foliar symptoms, and likely posing a threat to lily production. Consequently, there is a need to develop simple, sensitive, and reliable detection methods for these two viruses to prevent them from spreading. Reverse transcription (RT) loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays have been developed to detect LMoV and ArMV using two primer pairs that match six conserved sequences of LMoV and ArMV coat proteins, respectively. RT-LAMP assay results were visually assessed in reaction tubes using green fluorescence and gel electrophoresis. Our assays successfully detected both LMoV and ArMV in lily plants without the occurrence of viral cross-reactivity from other lily viruses. Optimal conditions for LAMP reactions were 65°C and 60°C for 60 min for LMoV and ArMV, respectively. Detection sensitivity for both RT-LAMP assays was a hundredfold greater than that of our comparative RT-polymerase chain reaction assays. We have also found this relatively rapid, target specific and sensitive method can also be used for samples collected in the field and may be especially useful in regions with limited or no laboratory facilities.

Lilium is one of the most popular flower crops worldwide, and some species are also used as vegetables and medicines. The availability of and easy access to diverse Lilium genetic resources are essential for plant genetic improvements. Cryopreservation is currently considered as an ideal means for the long-term preservation of plant germplasm. Over the last two decades, great efforts have been exerted in studies of Lilium cryopreservation and progress has been made in the successful cryopreservation of pollen, seeds and shoot tips in Lilium. Genes that exist in Lilium, including those that regulate flower shape, color and size, and that are resistant to cold stress and diseases caused by fungi and viruses, provide a rich source of valuable genetic resources for breeding programs to create novel cultivars required by the global floriculture and ornamental markets. Successful cryopreservation of Lilium spp. is a way to preserve these valuable genes. The present study provides updated and comprehensive information about the development of techniques that have advanced Lilium cryopreservation. Further ideas are proposed to better direct future studies on Lilium cryobiotechnology.

The aerial parts of plants are covered by the cuticle, a skin containing among others waxes. The cuticle inhibits the outflow of compounds, in particular water, from the plant to the environment, and without a cuticle, plants dehydrate rapidly. In the cuticle, waxes are the chief actors in the blocking. In tissue culture, the humidity in the headspace is very high (close to 100 %) so evaporation is limited and the cuticle is less needed. The cuticle also inhibits the entry of compounds from the environment into plants. In tissue culture, the inflow of medium components occurs predominantly via wounds, primarily those made when explants are cut. The removal of the barrier is expected to enhance the uptake of medium components. This paper addresses the question as to whether the removal of the epidermal inflow barrier enhances growth in tissue culture of lily. Waxes were removed from scale explants by a short rinse (5 s) with chloroform. During this rinse, the stomata had to be closed since otherwise the tissue was severely damaged by the inflow of chloroform into the cavities below the stomata. The closure was achieved by an abscisic acid (ABA) pre-treatment. Removal of wax resulted in increased growth (50 %) relative to nonchloroform-treated explants. This procedure is, however, not suitable for practical application because the benefit was undone by an inhibitory effect of the ABA pre-treatment. The ABA pre-treatment also increased the percentage of contaminated cultures, probably because during surface-sterilization the disinfectant did not reach the contaminants inhabiting the cavities below the stomata when the stomata had been closed.

Some monocotyledonous plants, including liliaceous, amaryllidaceous and iridaceous ones, produce flowers with petaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2 organs. For explaining the molecular mechanism of two-layered petaloid tepal development, the modified ABC model has been proposed, in which B class genes are expressed in whorl 1 organs as well as in whorls 2 and 3 organs. We have previously obtained results strongly support the modified ABC model by chimeric repressor gene-silencing technology (CRES-T)-mediated suppression of B function in the liliaceous plant Tricyrtis sp. In the present study, we introduced a CRES-T construct derived from the B class gene of Tricyrtis sp. (TrihDEFa-SRDX) into Lilium sp. in order to examine the effect of suppressing B function on the floral organ identity. Flowers of transgenic plants did not open fully and had pale pink-colored tepals with decreased numbers of papillae on the adaxial side in whorls 1 and 2 compared with those of non-transgenic plants. No apparent morphological alterations were observed in whorls 3 and 4 organs. Both the amount of total anthocyanins and the expression levels of endogenous flavonoid biosynthesis-related genes (LhMYB12, LhbHLH2, LhCHS, LhF3H, LhF3'H, LhDFR and LhANS) decreased in whorls 1 and 2 organs of transgenic plants compared with non-transgenic plants. In addition, the expression levels of endogenous B class genes (LFDEF, LFGLOA and LFGLOB) decreased in transgenic plants and the level was negatively correlated with the degree of morphological alteration. Thus suppression of B function may reduce the identity of petaloid tepals in whorls 1 and 2 of transgenic Lilium sp.

The effects of sucrose pulsing, cold storage methods (dry and wet) and cold storage duration (one and two weeks) on the post-storage attributes of cut lilies in Dalat were studied. After harvest, the lilies were treated with sucrose pulsing solutions consisting of three concentrations of sucrose (0, 50, and 100g/L) in combination with 0.2mM silver thiosulphate (STS) and water as control for 24h at room temperature, then placed in wet and dry cold storage at 2.5°C for one and two weeks. After each period of cold storage, the cut lilies were placed in water to evaluate the vase life, the time of bud opening, the bud opening rate, and water uptake. The results showed that when cut lilies were treated with 50g/L sucrose in combination with STS 0.2mM and one-week cold storage, the vase life increased to 16.8 days with better color, the time of bud opening slowed down to 5.8 days, buds fully opened (100%), and the water uptake remained constant at 91.5ml.

Lilium pumilum is a species that stands out in floriculture for presenting orange inflorescences that attract the consumer. This study thus aimed at characterizing the carbohydrate metabolism of floral structures of L. pumilum in different development stages. For this purpose, carbohydrate levels (total soluble sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, and starch), at different floral stages (E0 - bud with no color; E1 - bud at early coloring; E2 - orange bud; E3 - open flower; E4 - senescent flower) were quantified after extraction with ethanol. Lilium pumilum flowers showed high energy potential during floral opening and senescence; total soluble sugars were the main carbohydrates present in the species, reducing with the floral development, and the same occurred with the non-reducing sugar and starch contents. The reducing-sugar content increased with the floral stages. Therefore, this species presents great mobilization of compounds, which are utilized in the production of energy that is employed in floral opening. RESUMO: Lilium pumilum é uma espécie que se destaca na floricultura, por apresentar inflorescências alaranjadas que atraem o consumidor. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo caracterizar o metabolismo de carboidrato de estruturas florais de L. pumilum em diferentes estádios de desenvolvimento. Para isso, os níveis de carboidratos (açúcares solúveis totais, açúcares redutores, açúcares não redutores e amido), em diferentes estádios florais (E0 - botão sem coloração; E1 - botão em início de coloração; E2 - botão alaranjado; E3 - flor aberta; E4 - flor senescente), foram quantificados a partir da extração com etanol. As flores de L. pumilum apresentaram um alto potencial energético durante a abertura floral e senescência, sendo os açúcares solúveis totais os principais carboidratos presentes na espécie, mas com redução de acordo com o desenvolvimento floral, o mesmo ocorrendo com os teores de açúcar não redutor e amido. O conteúdo de açúcar redutor foi crescente entre os estádios florais. Portanto, a espécie apresenta grande mobilização de compostos, os quais são utilizados na produção de energia, que é empregada na abertura floral.

Lilies are considered nephrotoxic only to domestic cats, which belong to the family Felidae of the suborder Feliformia. However, a 7-month-old female meerkat, belonging to the family Herpestidae of the suborder Feliformia, presented with oliguria, seizure, tachypnea, self-biting, and nystagmus after it ingested lilies. The meerkat died approximately 40 hr after lily ingestion. Gross and histopathologic lesions consistent with acute renal failure were conspicuous in the animal. The renal lesions were acute tubular necrosis, corresponding to the typical pathological changes of lily toxicosis in cats. In addition, massive hepatocyte necrosis and pulmonary congestion/edema were observed. These findings suggest that lily toxicosis in meerkats is characterized by pulmonary and hepatic failure, in addition to the renal failure observed in domestic cats.

A genetic linkage map of lily was constructed using RILs (recombinant inbred lines) population of 180 individuals. This mapping population was developed by crossing Raizan No.1 (Formolongo) and Gelria (Longiflomm) cultivars through single-seed descent (SSD). SRAPs were generated by using restriction enzymes EcoRI in combination with either MseI. The resulting products were separated by electrophoresis on 6% denaturing polyacrylamide gel and visualized by silver staining. The segregation of each marker and linkage analysis was done using the program Mapmaker3.0. With 50 primer pairs, a total of 189 parental polymorphic bands were detected and 78 were used for mapping. The total map length was 2,135.5 cM consisted of 16 linkage groups. The number of markers in the linkage groups varied from 1 to 12. The length of linkage groups was range from 11.2 cM to 425.9 cM and mean marker interval distance range from 9.4 cM to 345.4 cM individually. The mean marker interval distance between markers was 27.4 cM. The map developed in the present study was the first sequence-related amplified polymorphism markers map of lily constructed with recombinant inbred lines, it could be used for genetic mapping and molecular marker assisted breeding and quantitative trait locus mapping of Lilium.

Hypothalamus-pituitary growth axis (HP growth axis) regulates animal growth and development in pre-natal and post natal life governed by many factors. However, until recently, the evolutionary history of this axis among lineages is not understood. Aim of the present study was to understand the major events in evolution and evolutionary history and trend of HP growth axis. The diversity among Homo sapience, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus, Gallus gallus, Danio rerio and Xenopus laevis was determined for genes involved in HP growth axis in current study. Sequences of HP growth axis genes were retrieved from NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). Nucleotide diversity using Kimura?s two-parameter method; codon-based test of positive selection using the Nei-Gojobori; equality of evolutionary rate with Tajima's relative rate test and phylogenetic history using the RelTime method were estimated in MEGA6. Estimates of the coefficients of evolutionary differentiation based on nucleotides and amino acids substitution patterns of HP growth axis genes showed contrasting evolutionary patterns among the lineages. The results demonstrated that although these genes might have crucial functional roles in each of the species, however, their sequence divergence did not necessarily reflect similar molecular evolution among the species. Codon-based test of positive selection revealed that Human vs Mouse, Chicken vs Rat, Human vs Rat and Mouse vs Rat had similar and higher non synonymous substitutions (P > 0.05). Higher rate of non-synonymous substitutions at similar orthologs level among species indicated a similar positive selection pressure in these species. Results for relative rate test assessed with the chi-squared test showed difference on unique mutations among lineages at synonymous and non synonymous sites except Chicken vs Mouse, Human vs Mouse, Chicken vs Rat, Human vs Rat and Mouse vs Rat. This indicated that the mutagenic process that generates substitutional mutation is taking place at approximately the same rate at synonymous and non-synonymous sites these lineages. Moreover, despite of common ancestry, our results indicate a different divergent time among genes of these species. This is the first demonstration that variable rates of molecular evolution may be present within HP growth axis genes among different species. This difference could be of interest for comparative genomics analysis and physiological genes functions identification among tho comparative genomics, evolution rate, HP growth axis, positive selection se species whose HP growth axis is not explored.

Lilies (Lilium spp.) are one of the most important floricultural crops. As most lily cultivars have originated from interspecific hybridization, they usually have complex genome composition and occasionally fail to develop normal gametes. Further improvement of lily cultivars by sexual crossing requires evaluation of gamete development and subsequent male and female fertility. Although male fertility is easily evaluated through microscopic observation after staining or by pollen culture for germination, evaluation of female fertility is difficult, because gametes develop inside an ovule within an ovary. Lilium species have the Fritillaria type of embryo sac, which, at maturity, consists of a haploid egg apparatus, including one haploid egg cell and two haploid synergids, two polar nuclei (one haploid nucleus and one triploid nucleus) and three triploid antipodal cells. Compared to the Polygonum type of embryo sac, composition of the embryo in the Fritillaria type of embryo sac is complex. We developed an efficient microscopic observation technique for ovules using the clearing procedure, which allowed us to categorize abnormal patterns of female gametes and to elucidate the frequency of abnormal female gamete development. The relationship among normal embryo sac, pollen stainability and seed formation in lily cultivars is discussed.

Rhizopus soft rot of lily (Lilium longiflorum) caused by Rhizopus oryzae was observed in the experimental field in Taean Lily Experiment Station in Korea, 2012. The typical symptoms were water-soaked lesions on bottom stem and leaf rot. The lesion rapidly expanded and the plant was softened totally. The fungus grew vigorously at an optimum temperature (25oC) and brownish colony and black sporangia were formed on potato dextrose agar medium. Sporangiophores formed on end of sporangia were sub-globose, brownish and 6-10 μm in size. Sporangia were globose, blackish and 87-116 μm in size. Sporangiospores were irregularly oval and sub-globose, brownish 4-8 μm in size. On the basis of mycological characteristics, analyzing sequences of internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA, and pathogenicity test on host plants, the causal fungus was identified as R. oryzae. This is the first report of Rhizopus soft rot on lily caused by R. oryzae in Korea.

LSAT is a web-based microsatellite SSR marker designer tool specific for the Liliaceae family. It is developed using HTML, CSS, PHP, Perl and Java scripts. It works without extra add-ons on standard browsers. LSAT provides SSR primer designing service using the web interface. It helps in SSR mining and primer design. LSAT is user friendly with customizable search parameters producing visual output having download options. The current version of LSAT is backed by two data sets, namely, lily EST (Expressed Sequence Tag) from NCBI and lily nr (non redundant) with 4,099 and 216,768 unigenes, respectively. LSAT will be updated regularly upon availability of additional data (either EST and/or transcriptome) on Liliaceae. Availability: LSAT is available for free at http://210.110.86.160/Lsat/Lsat.html

The lily (Lilium spp.) anther contains a lot of pollen. It is not known if lily pollen contains allergens, and therefore screening pollen allergy-related proteins and genes is necessary. The pollen development period of lily &lsquo, Siberia&rsquo, was determined by microscope observation. Early mononuclear microspores and mature pollens were used as sequencing materials. The analysis of the pollen transcriptome identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs), e.g., Profilin, Phl p 7 (Polcalcin), Ole e 1, and Phl p 11, which are associated with pollen allergens. The proteome analysis positively verified a significant increase in pollen allergenic protein content. The expression levels of LoProfiilin and LoPolcalcin, annotated as allergen proteins, gradually increased in mature pollen. LoProfiilin and LoPolcalcin were cloned and their open reading frame lengths were 396 bp and 246 bp, which encoded 131 and 81 amino acids, respectively. Amino acid sequence and structure alignment indicated that the protein sequences of LoProfilin and LoPolcalcin were highly conserved. Subcellular localization analysis showed that LoProfilin protein was localized in the cell cytoplasm and nucleus. LoProfilin and LoPolcalcin were highly expressed in mature pollen at the transcriptional and protein levels. A tertiary structure prediction analysis identified LoProfilin and LoPolcalcin as potential allergens in lily pollen.

Our previous studies have indicated that a partial NAC domain protein gene is strongly up-regulated by cold stress (4 &deg, C) in tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium). In this study, we cloned the full-length of this NAC gene, LlNAC2, to further investigate the function of LlNAC2 in response to various abiotic stresses and the possible involvement in stress tolerance of the tiger lily plant. LlNAC2 was noticeably induced by cold, drought, salt stresses, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. Promoter analysis showed that various stress-related cis-acting regulatory elements were located in the promoter of LlNAC2, and the promoter was sufficient to enhance activity of GUS protein under cold, salt stresses and ABA treatment. DREB1 (dehydration-responsive binding protein1) from tiger lily (LlDREB1) was proved to be able to bind to the promoter of LlNAC2 by yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) assay. LlNAC2 was shown to physically interact with LlDREB1 and zinc finger-homeodomain ZFHD4 from the tiger lily (LlZFHD4) by bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay. Overexpressing LlNAC2 in Arabidopsis thaliana showed ABA hypersensitivity and enhanced tolerance to cold, drought, and salt stresses. These findings indicated LlNAC2 is involved in both DREB/CBF-COR and ABA signaling pathways to regulate stress tolerance of the tiger lily.

This study collected 183 Hemerocallis varieties to conduct numerical classification of flower color and provide valuable baseline data and foundational theory for normalization and precision of Hemerocallis. The color CIELab phenotypes were collected via colorimeter (CR-10 Plus), which separately measured three sepal and petal parts (throat, eye and limb). The colors of experimental samples were artificially named by the Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart (RHSCC). All the data were analyzed using R software. The results showed that the throat was predominantly green-yellow, light yellow and yellow; green-yellow accounted for the largest proportion of sepals (67.76%) and petals (69.40%). The eye was more abundant, and there were significant differences between sepals and petals. The limb was clustered into five color groups (orange, yellow, pink, red and purple); the yellow group had the most varieties for both sepals and petals, containing 57.38% and 55.74%, respectively. Both sepals and petals had significant differences (p

We report a study examining the role of ‘cognitive miserliness’ as a determinant of poor performance on the standard three-item Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). The cognitive miserliness hypothesis proposes that people often respond incorrectly on CRT items because of an unwillingness to go beyond default, heuristic processing and invest time and effort in analytic, reflective processing. Our analysis (N = 391) focused on people’s response times to CRT items to determine whether predicted associations are evident between miserly thinking and the generation of incorrect, intuitive answers. Evidence indicated only a weak correlation between CRT response times and accuracy. Item-level analyses also failed to demonstrate predicted response-time differences between correct analytic and incorrect intuitive answers for two of the three CRT items. We question whether participants who give incorrect intuitive answers on the CRT can legitimately be termed cognitive misers and whether the three CRT items measure the same general construct.

Gene flow between species may last a long time in plants. Reticulation inevitably causes difficulties in phylogenetic reconstruction. In this study, we looked into the genetic divergence and phylogeny of 20 Lilium species based on multilocus analyses of 8 genes of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), the internally transcribed nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrITS) spacer and 20 loci extracted from the expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries of L. longiflorum Thunb. and L. formosanum Wallace. The phylogeny based on the combined data of the maternally inherited cpDNA and nrITS was largely consistent with the taxonomy of Lilium sections. This phylogeny was deemed the hypothetical species tree and uncovered three groups, i.e., Cluster A consisting of 4 taxa from the sections Pseudolirium and Liriotypus, Cluster B consisting of the 4 taxa from the sections Leucolirion, Archelirion and Daurolirion, and Cluster C comprising 10 taxa mostly from the sections Martagon and Sinomartagon. In contrast, systematic inconsistency occurred across the EST loci, with up to 19 genes (95%) displaying tree topologies deviating from the hypothetical species tree. The phylogenetic incongruence was likely attributable to the frequent genetic exchanges between species/sections, as indicated by the high levels of genetic recombination and the IMa analyses with the EST loci. Nevertheless, multilocus analysis could provide complementary information among the loci on the species split and the extent of gene flow between the species. In conclusion, this study not only detected frequent gene flow among Lilium sections that resulted in phylogenetic incongruence but also reconstructed a hypothetical species tree that gave insights into the nature of the complex relationships among Lilium species.

The discovery of the MADS-box genes and the study of model plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana and Antirrhinum majus have greatly improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving the diversity in floral development. The class B genes, which belong to the MADS-box gene family, are important regulators of the development of petals and stamens in flowering plants. Many nongrass monocot flowers have two whorls of petaloid organs, which are called tepals. To explain this floral morphology, the modified ABC model was proposed. This model was exemplified by the tulip, in which expansion and restriction of class B gene expression is linked to the transition of floral morphologies in whorl 1. The expression patterns of class B genes from many monocot species nicely fit this model; however, those from some species, such as asparagus, do not. In this review, we summarize the relationship between class B gene expression and floral morphology in nongrass monocots, such as Liliales (Liliaceae) and Asparagales species, and discuss the applicability of the modified ABC model to monocot flowers.

As a popular ornamental flower, potted lily is an important object of lily breeding. Paclobutrazol, a chemical growth retardation compound, is often used to dwarf plant in producing potted lilies. However, in recent years, the plants with inherited dwarf traits by using genetic engineer breeding technology are being developed. The studies on molecular basis of lily dwarfism will offer some target genes which have profound dwarf effect for genetic engineer breeding. Here, we confirmed that paclobutrazol inhibited plant height and leaf size in Lilium Longiflorum-Asiatic hybrid, and then RNA-Seq technique was employed to analyze gene transcripts of Lilium Longiflorum-Asiatic hybrid leaves by paclobutrazol treatment in order to get a deeper insight into dwarfism mechanism of lily. Approximately 38.6 Gb data was obtained and assemble into 53,681 unigenes. Annotation, pathways, functional classification and phylogenetic classification of these data were analyzed based on Nr, Nt, Swiss-Prot, KEGG, COG, and GO databases. 2704 differentially expressed genes were screened by comparing paclobutrazol-treated samples with untreated samples and quantitative real-time PCR was performed to validate expression profiles. By analyzing dynamic changes of differentially expressed genes, nine metabolic pathways and signal transduction pathways were significantly enriched and many potentially interesting genes were identified that encoded putative regulators or key components of cell division, cell expansion, GA metabolism and signaling transduction and these genes were highlighted to reveal their importance in regulation of plant size. These results will provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanism on lily dwarfism and some potential genes related to lily organ size, which will lay the foundation for molecular breeding of potted lilies. These transcriptome data will also serve as valuable public genomic resources for other genetic research in lily.

Background Oriental hybrid lily ‘Sorbonne’, a very important cut flower for lily, is enjoyed great popularity in the world, but it must experience a period of low winter temperature to initiate or accelerate the flowering process. To gain a better understanding of the temperature signaling pathway and the molecular metabolic reactions involved in the vernalization response, a genome-wide transcriptional analysis using RNA-Seq was performed. Results 188,447,956 sequencing reads was assembled into 66,327 unigenes and showed similarity to known proteins in the Swiss-Prot protein database, and 2,893, 30,406 and 60,737 unigenes aligned to existing sequences in the KEGG, COG, and GO databases. Based on qRT-PCR results, we studied the expression of three signal regulation pathways genes–the plant hormones signal transduction (LoAP2, LoIAA1, LoARF10), the DNA methylation (LoCMT, LoFLD), and vernalizatin pathway (LoFLC, LoVRN1, LoVRN2, LoFT, LoSOC1, LoLFY, LoSVP) in the immature flower buds of Oriental hybrid lily. In addition, we identified two vernalizaiton–related genes (LoSVP and LoVRN1) from the cDNA library, which appear to be promising candidates for playing key roles in the development and response of flowering in Oriental lily plants, and LoSVP had a function in delaying flowering but LoVRN1could promote flowering early. Conclusions We collected a sample for transcriptome sequencing and comparison when the bulb’s apical meristem was in the time of floral transition when the apical meristem had not converted into the morphological differentiation process, which helped to obtain more genes playing key roles in the floral induction pathways. The upstream and downstream relationship between different genes were forecasted by the analysis of genes’ expression levels in a wide range of time. Future research that is targeted towards how genes interact on each other, which will promote establishing and perfecting the molecular mechanisms of floral induction pathway by vernalization.

Because lily (Lilium longiflorum Thunb.) is an important cut-flower crop, molecular characterisation of genes that are involved in flower morphology could help breeders to develop novel floral architectures in this species. The early ABC model for flower development emerged more than 10 years ago from studies with Arabidopsis thaliana, Antirrhinum majus and petunia. Since then, floral identity genes have been studied in many other species as well and the studies evolved to the so-called ABCDE model. However, the lily ABCDE genes have only been studied in the last four years. Here, we review the current status of the molecular model of flower development in model species and lily, and present two homeotic floral mutants that we have found in Lilium spp., one of which is a newly identified phenotype, festiva, never reported earlier, not even in the model species Arabidopsis. This phenotype shows homeotic conversion of stamens into petals while keeping the carpel identity unchanged. Further characterisation of more homeotic floral genes in lily and studies of the genetic configuration of lily mutants such as festiva may help to develop new tools for molecular breeding of this species.

During the past 100 years in densely populated south-eastern Brazil, wetlands have been severely transformed due to urbanization, agriculture and mining. The recently discovered São Paulo Marsh Antwren (Formicivora paludicola) is endemic to these wetlands, and is listed as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN. The species is only found in an area of 1.42 km2, it has a sparse and fragmented distribution, low dispersal capacity, and has probably lost around 300 km2 of habitat in the past 100 years. Furthermore, very little is known about F. paludicola natural history, and so it is difficult to construct a robust conservation plan. Using Kernel home range estimations and the Adjusted-SD/Torus Shift test (a novel tool for animal-habitat association studies), we showed that the species avoids patches of the alien invasive ginger lily (Hedychium coronarium). Given the high density of their population (3.6 mature individuals/ha), F. paludicola could thrive in relatively small areas of suitable wetlands protected from human occupation and water contamination, however special attention should be paid to biological invasions, which may represent a serious threat to the remaining populations. Protecting a few small wetlands used by F. paludicola would be an important step towards general conservation and restoration of Atlantic Forest wetlands and its endemic endangered species.

Collections of lily genotypes are usually maintained by yearly planting, harvesting and storage of the bulbs. To facilitate this maintenance, a storage method has been developed for a collection of lily genotypes, including Asiatic hybrids, Oriental hybrids, Lilium longiflorum and L. henryi. Scale bulblets were stored either dry, sealed air-tight in polyethylene bags, or in moist vermiculite in open polyethylene bags for a period of 2 yr. The decrease in mass, sprouting proportion and ion leakage or sprouting proportion alone were determined for treatments carried out at -2°C, 0°C and 17°C. Sealing scale bulblets in polyethylene bags at -2°C resulted in the smallest decrease in mass, the least ion leakage and the highest sprouting proportion after 2 yr of storage.

Most of the bulbous crops, viz., Crocus, Narcissus, Tulipa, Alstroemeria and Lilium that are commercially important, share certain common characteristics. The present day cultivars are all derived from hybrids between distantly related species, and in almost all cases spontaneous polyploidization has played a prominent role and there is a tendency to replace diploids by polyploid cultivars. Molecular cytogenetic techniques such as genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), along with other techniques, have greatly facilitated our understanding of the modes of origins of polyploids. Because the bulbous crops generally have large chromosomes, the parental genomes, individual chromosomes, as well as intergenomic recombinant chromosomes, can be accurately identified in the interspecific hybrids and their backcross progenies. This enables an assessment of the potential genetic variation that might occur in the progenies as well as the extent of introgression. Although the superiority of polyploids as compared to their diploid parents is beyond doubt, the actual explanation for their superiority is still elusive. Of the several explanations, chromosome dosage, optimal amounts of 4C DNA values of the complements, heterozygosity and favourable gene interactions transmitted by the 2n gametes to polyploid progenies are some of the factors that might be considered at present. Undoubtedly, more studies on the bulbous ornamental crops using molecular techniques might be rewarding.