Publications by authors named "Li-bing Zhang"

The Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot is renowned for its rich biodiversity, including that of vascular plants. However, the fern diversity and its endemism in this hotspot have not been well understood and so far, the diversity of very few groups of ferns in this region has been explored using combined molecular and morphological approaches. Here, we updated the plastid phylogeny of the Java fern genus with 226 (115% increase of the latest sampling) samples across the distribution range, specifically those of three phylogenetically significant species, , .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Previous studies have shown that at least six genera of the Cheilanthoideae, a subfamily of the fern family Pteridaceae, may not be monophyletic. In these non-monophyletic genera, the Old-World genus Paragymnopteris including approximately five species have long been controversial. In this study, with an extensive taxon sampling of Paragymnopteris, we assembled 19 complete plastomes of all recognized Paragymnopteris species, plastomes of Pellaea (3 species) and Argyrochosma (1 species), as well as transcriptomes from Paragymnopteris (6 species) and Argyrochosma (1 species).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A new fern species, (Ophioglossaceae), from Sichuan, Xizang, and Yunnan, Southwest China (eastern Himalaya), is described and illustrated. This species is similar to in the Americas in having a cylindrical rhizome and complex-reticulate venation. In addition, both species grow in open habitat on basic soil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: There are differing opinions and findings about the accuracy of self-reported data. This study sought to assess the accuracy of self-reported height, weight, and waist circumference (WC) data among adult residents in poor, rural areas of China.

Methods: Multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling was used to sample rural adult residents in Jinzhai County.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The unresolved phylogenetic framework within the Selaginellaceae subfamily Gymnogynoideae (ca. 130 species) has hindered our comprehension of the diversification and evolution of Selaginellaceae, one of the most important lineages in land plant evolution. Here, based on plastid and nuclear data extracted from genomic sequencing of more than 90% species of all genera except two in Gymnogynoideae, a phylogenomic study focusing on the contentious relationships among the genera in Gymnogynoideae was conducted.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

is the largest and most taxonomically complex genus in lycophytes. The fact that over 750 species are currently treated in a single genus makes Selaginellales/Selaginellaceae unique in pteridophytes. Here we assembled a dataset of six existing and newly sampled plastid and nuclear loci with a total of 684 accessions (74% increase of the earlier largest sampling) representing .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Gastrointestinal perforation in extremely low birth weight infants, characterized by its rapid onset, multiple complications, and critical condition, poses a significant risk of infant mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of pneumoperitoneum in extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) and explore the risk factors associated with gastrointestinal perforation in very low birth weight preterm infants. Additionally, we shared our surgical experiences in managing gastrointestinal perforation among extremely low birth weight infants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intercontinental disjunct distributions can arise either from vicariance, from long-distance dispersal, or through extinction of an ancestral population with a broader distribution. Tectariaceae s.l.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pantropical fern genus Didymochlaena (Didymochlaenaceae) has long been considered to contain one species only. Recent studies have resolved this genus/family as either sister to the rest of eupolypods I or as the second branching lineage of eupolypods I, and have shown that this genus is not monospecific, but the exact species diversity is unknown. In this study, a new phylogeny is reconstructed based on an expanded taxon sampling and six molecular markers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The papilionoid legume genus Sophora (Fabaceae) exhibits a worldwide distribution, but a phylogenetic framework to understand the evolution of this group is lacking to date. Previous studies have demonstrated that Sophora is not monophyletic and might include Ammodendron, Ammothamnus, and Echinosophora, but the relationships among these four genera (defined as Sophora s.l.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study focuses on the fern genus Bolbitis, confirming its monophyly and identifying four major clades, particularly highlighting a significant Asian clade and its complex relationships with other geographic clades.
  • - Utilizing DNA sequences from a large sample of Bolbitis species, the research reveals that some previous classifications, particularly Hennipman's series, may be incorrect due to paraphyly or polyphyly in certain groups.
  • - The evolution of specific morphological traits is analyzed, indicating that certain venation patterns within Bolbitis evolved from one form to another, and suggesting a recent dispersal event from Asia that led to the distribution of related ferns in Africa and America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a superior life support technology, commonly employed in critical patients with severe respiratory or hemodynamic failure to provide effective respiratory and circulatory support, which is especially recommended for the treatment of critical neonates. However, the vascular management of neonates with veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is still under controversy. Reconstruction or ligation for the right common carotid artery (RCCA) after ECMO is inconclusive.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adder's tongue ferns or Ophioglossaceae are best known among evolutionary biologists and botanists for their highest chromosome count of any known organisms, the presence of sporophores, and simple morphology. Previous studies recovered and strongly supported the monophyly of the family and the two multi-generic subfamilies, Botrychioideae and Ophioglossoideae, but the relationships among these and two other subfamilies (Helminthostachyoideae and Mankyuoideae) are not well resolved preventing us from understanding the character evolution. The monophyly of and the relationships in the species-rich genus, Ophioglossum, have not well been understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As one of the earliest land plant lineages, Selaginella is important for studying land plant evolution. It is the largest genus of lycophytes containing 700-800 species. Some unique characters of Selaginella plastomes have been reported, but based only on 20 species.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HypoPP) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by episodic flaccid paralysis with concomitant hypokalemia. More than half of patients were associated with mutations in that encodes the alpha-1-subunit of the skeletal muscle L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel. Mutations in may alter the structure of CACNA1S and affect the functions of calcium channels, which damages Ca-mediated excitation-contraction coupling.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Old World fern genera Hypodematium and Leucostegia had long been placed in the families Dryopteridaceae and Davalliaceae, respectively, before the advent of molecular phylogenetics. Recent molecular studies confirmed the recognition of the family Hypodematiaceae composed of these two genera, but the relationships within each of these two genera have been unclear. In the present study we performed phylogenetic analyses (MP, ML, BI) based on DNA data from six plastid markers (atpB, atpB-rbcL, matK, rbcL, rps4 & rps4-trnS, and trnL & trnL-F) of 165 accessions representing 31 species in two genera of Hypodematiaceae as the ingroup and 26 accessions representing Cystopteridaceae, Didymochlaenaceae, Dryopteridaceae, Davalliaceae, Oleandraceae, and Woodsiaceae as the outgroups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Polypodiales, which make up about 82% of fern species, likely diversified during the Late Cretaceous, with divergence times estimated using both penalized likelihood and Bayesian methods on a dataset of 208 plastomes.
  • The phylogenetic analysis revealed six major lineages similar to nuclear studies but showed differing positions for one lineage, while relationships among families, especially in Aspleniineae, were highly resolved.
  • Divergence estimates suggest the common ancestor of Polypodiales dates back to the Triassic, with major lineages established in the Jurassic, possibly indicating a simultaneous diversification with angiosperms just before the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, highlighting a previously overlooked aspect of ecosystem evolution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The complex is morphologically variable and difficult in species delimitation. Owing to lack of comprehensive sampling in phylogenetic studies, the taxonomy of this complex remains unresolved. Based on extensive field observations, specimen examination and our recent molecular data, the present study aims to clarify the identities of three species of in this complex from Asia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The first chloroplast genome of the fern genus Roth (Dryopteridaceae) is reported here. (Baker) Diels belongs to subgenus (; Dryopteridaceae), many species of which are endangered or critically endangered species. The complete chloroplast genome of was determined for the first time in this work, which is revealed a circle quadripartite structure of 154,143 bp in length comprising a large single-copy region (LSC) of 86,990 bp, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 21,593 bp and a pair of inverted regions (IRs) of 22,780 bp, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

New Guinea is the world's largest tropical island and has fascinated naturalists for centuries. Home to some of the best-preserved ecosystems on the planet and to intact ecological gradients-from mangroves to tropical alpine grasslands-that are unmatched in the Asia-Pacific region, it is a globally recognized centre of biological and cultural diversity. So far, however, there has been no attempt to critically catalogue the entire vascular plant diversity of New Guinea.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

As an ancient lineage of ferns, Ophioglossaceae are evolutionarily among the most fascinating because they have the highest chromosome count of any known organism as well as the presence of sporophores, subterranean gametophytes, eusporangiate sporangia without annuli, and endophytic fungi. Previous studies have produced conflicting results, identifyingsome lineages with unresolved relationships, and have paid much attention to the subfamily Botrychioideae. But the other species-rich subfamily, Ophioglossoideae, has remained largely understudied and only up to 12 accessions of Ophioglossoideae have been sampled.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF