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The genus Sanguisorba, which contains about 30 species around the world and seven species in China, is the source of the medicinal plant Sanguisorba officinalis, which is commonly used as a hemostatic agent as well as to treat burns and scalds. Here we report the complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequences of four Sanguisorba species (S. officinalis, S. filiformis, S. stipulata, and S. tenuifolia var. alba). These four Sanguisorba cp genomes exhibit typical quadripartite and circular structures, and are 154,282 to 155,479 bp in length, consisting of large single-copy regions (LSC; 84,405–85,557 bp), small single-copy regions (SSC; 18,550–18,768 bp), and a pair of inverted repeats (IRs; 25,576–25,615 bp). The average GC content was ~37.24%. The four Sanguisorba cp genomes harbored 112 different genes arranged in the same order; these identical sections include 78 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes, if duplicated genes in IR regions are counted only once. A total of 39–53 long repeats and 79–91 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the four Sanguisorba cp genomes, which provides opportunities for future studies of the population genetics of Sanguisorba medicinal plants. A phylogenetic analysis using the maximum parsimony (MP) method strongly supports a close relationship between S. officinalis and S. tenuifolia var. alba, followed by S. stipulata, and finally S. filiformis. The availability of these cp genomes provides valuable genetic information for future studies of Sanguisorba identification and provides insights into the evolution of the genus Sanguisorba.

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Genomic data have demonstrated considerable traction in accelerating contemporary studies in traditional medicine. However, the lack of a uniform format and dispersed storage limits the full potential of herb genomic data. In this study, we developed a Global Pharmacopoeia Genome Database (GPGD). The database contains 34,346 records for 903 herb species from eight global pharmacopoeias (Brazilian, Egyptian, European, Indian, Japanese, Korean, the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China, and U.S. Pharmacopoeia’s Herbal Medicines Compendium). In particular, the GPGD contains 21,872 DNA barcodes from 867 species, 2,203 organelle genomes from 674 species, 55 whole genomes from 49 species, 534 genomic sequencing datasets from 366 species, and 9,682 transcriptome datasets from 350 species. Among the organelle genomes, 534 genomes from 366 species were newly generated in this study. Whole genomes, organelle genomes, genomic fragments, transcriptomes, and DNA barcodes were uniformly formatted and arranged by species. The GPGD is publicly accessible at http://www.gpgenome.com and serves as an essential resource for species identification, decomposition of biosynthetic pathways, and molecular-assisted breeding analysis. Thus, the database is an invaluable resource for future studies on herbal medicine safety, drug discovery, and the protection and rational use of herbal resources. Supporting Information The supporting information is available online at 10.1007/s11427-021-1968-7. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (Angptl4) is a secreted protein predominantly expressed in liver and adipose tissues, and has been identified as an adipokine. Angptl4 is the target gene of peroxisome proliferator‑activated receptors, which are widely used as lipid‑lowering and anti‑diabetic drugs, and previous studies have demonstrated that Angptl4 is able to directly stimulate adipocyte lipolysis. The current study focused on how Angptl4 was involved in regulating lipid and glucose metabolism in high‑fat‑diet (HFD) C57 mice. In the present study, mice were divided into three groups, with standard chow mice as a normal control, adenovirus (adv)‑injected HFD mice as a model control and adv‑Angptl4‑injected HFD mice as the Angptl4+ group. Firstly, compared with the normal control group, mice in the model control group gained more body weight with severe liver steatosis and increased serum levels of triglyceride, total cholesterol, free fatty acids, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. In the Angptl4+ group, Angptl4 reduced the weight growth rate, aggravated hepatic steatosis and further increased all the aforementioned serum indexes. Secondly, compared with the normal control, the model control group had a reduced glucose tolerance and developed insulin resistance. Angptl4 expression and the phosphorylation levels of several insulin signaling pathway‑associated genes, insulin receptor substrate 1, protein kinase B, janus kinase 2, signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 were downregulated in the liver samples. Adv‑Angptl4 injection was observed to improve glucose tolerance and insulin resistance. The genes measured were identified to be upregulated close to normal levels. All the results suggested that Angptl4 served an important role in lipid and glucose metabolism in HFD‑induced obese mice, and this may have a great significance for treatment of hyperlipidemia, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and other diseases.

BackgroundDiosgenin, mainly extracted from wild diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species, is a well-known starting material of steroidal and contraceptive drugs. However, due to large market demand and increasingly ecological damage, wild Dioscorea species resources available have been gradually declining. Therefore, identification of new potential ecological distribution of diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species is necessary for diosgenin production.MethodsIn this study, a large occurrence dataset (1808 data points) of diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species was obtained from Eastern Asia, Southern North America and Southern Africa. Along with the data for six critical environmental parameters and one soil factor, Geographic Information System for Global Medicinal Plant was applied to predict the potential suitable distribution of Dioscorea species.ResultsThe results showed that the potential distribution of these Dioscorea species covered a wide field, and that new ecological suitability areas were mainly distributed in the central region of South America, the southern part of the European and coastal region of Oceania. Jackknife test indicated that annual precipitation and annual mean radiation were the important climatic factors controlling the distribution of Dioscorea species.ConclusionsThe suitable areas and critical climatic factors will serve as a useful guide for diosgenin-contained Dioscorea species conservation and cultivation in ecological suitable areas.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13020-018-0215-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Global biodiversity is strongly influenced by the decrease in endangered biological species. Predicting the distribution of endangered medicinal plants is necessary for resource conservation. A spatial distribution model—geographic information system for global medicinal plants (GMPGIS)—is used to predict the global potential suitable distribution of four endangered Panax species, including Panax japonicas (T. Nees) C. A. Meyer and Panax japonicas var. major (Burkill) C. Y. Wu & K. M. Feng distributed in low- and middle-latitude, Panax zingiberensis C. Y. Wu & K. M. Feng and Panax stipuleanatus C. T. Tsai & K. M. Feng in low-latitude regions of China based on seven bioclimatic variables and 600 occurrence points. Results indicate that areas of P. japonicus and P. japonicus var. major are 266.29 × 105 and 77.5 × 105 km2, respectively, which are mainly distributed in China and America. By contrast, the areas of P. zingiberensis and P. stipuleanatus are 5.09 × 105 and 2.05 × 105 km2, respectively, which are mainly distributed in Brazil and China. P. japonicus has the widest distribution among the four species. The data also indicate that the mean temperature of coldest quarter is the most critical factor. This scientific prediction can be used as reference for resource conservation of endangered plants and as a guide to search for endangered species in previously unknown areas.