Bryophytes and the symbiotic microorganisms, the pioneers of vegetation restoration in karst rocky desertification areas in southwestern China.

In karst rocky desertification areas, bryophytes coexist with algae, bacteria, and fungi on exposed calcareous rocks to form a bryophyte crust, which plays an irreplaceable role in the restoration of karst degraded ecosystems. We investigated the biodiversity of crust bryophytes in karst rocky desertification areas from Guizhou Province, China. A total of 145 species in 22 families and 56 genera were identified.

Highly Rigid Labdane-Type Diterpenoids from a Chinese Liverwort and Light-Driven Structure Diversification.

Two unprecedented labdane-type diterpenoids haplomintrins A (1) and B (2) with six rings system were isolated from a Chinese liverwort Haplomitrium mnioides. Light-driven reaction of homologous haplomitrenonolides C (6), A (4), and D (3) afforded haplomintrins A-C (1, 2, and 7), respectively, while 4 was converted to more complex congeners haplomintrins D-G (8-11) through intramolecular cyclization. Formation of 1 and 2 from compounds 6 and 4, respectively, helps us to postulate that a photochemical reaction is involved in the biosynthetic pathway.

De novo assembly, gene annotation, and simple sequence repeat marker development using Illumina paired-end transcriptome sequences in the pearl oyster Pinctada maxima.

We analyzed the mantle transcriptome of pearl oyster Pinctada maxima and developed EST-SSR markers using Illumina HiSeq 2000 paired-end sequencing technology. A total of 49,500,748 raw reads were generated. De novo assembly generated 108,704 unigenes with an average length of 407 bp.