Morphological ontogeny of Neoseiulus zwoelferi (Acari: Phytoseiidae)

The morphological ontogeny of Neoseiulus zwoelferi (Dosse, 1957) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) was studied based on specimens from a laboratory culture originally collected from the leaves of Xanthium sibiricum Patrin ex Widder (Asteraceae) in Taigu County, Shanxi province, China. All life stages including larva, protonymph, deutonymphal female and male, adult female and male were described and illustrated. The morphological characters of Neoseiulus species with both immature and adult stages are discussed. Neoseiulus subreticulatus (Wu, 1987) is considered a junior synonym of Neoseiulus zwoelferi (Dosse, 1957).

Interacting Flooding and Competition Negatively Affect Growth of Riparian Species Dominating a Reservoir Shoreline

Plant–plant interactions change in response to environmental conditions, and riparian species are commonly influenced by flooding. This study tested whether flooding affects the intraspecific and interspecific competition of two riparian species and whether such effects depend on the topographic positions where plants have established. Seeds of the riparian species Polygonum hydropiper were collected from both low and high positions within the shoreline of the Three Gorges Reservoir. Groups of P. hydropiper seedlings from each position were either grown alone (i.e., without competition), with another group of P. hydropiper seedlings (i.e., intraspecific competition), or with a group of seedlings of the companion species Xanthium sibiricum (i.e., interspecific competition). Each group comprised six replicates. In total, 288 plants of P. hydropiper and 84 plants of X. sibiricum were selected for the experiment. Seedlings were subjected to control and flooding treatments for 60 days. Irrespective of competition type (i.e., intra- or interspecific), both flooding and competition negatively affected the growth and/or photosynthetic capacities of P. hydropiper. Flooding only interacted with competition to explain total biomass. Flooding reduced total biomass in a larger proportion in the absence of competition, and, to a lesser extent, with intraspecific competition, compared to interspecific competition. However, such interaction effects were independent of the positions where the seeds that originated from the plants were collected from. Interspecific competition significantly decreased the chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency of plants, while intraspecific competition did not. In general, plants from lower positions had higher total chlorophyll content than plants from higher positions. These results suggest that flooding may regulate the population dynamics of P. hydropiper by altering its competitive interactions.

Protective effects of 4, 5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid against mouse sepsis via down-regulation of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8

Purpose: To investigate the protective effects of 4, 5-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid (DCQA) isolated from Xanthium sibiricum Patr. against mouse sepsis caused by cecal ligation/puncture (CLP) in vivo, as well as the molecular mechanisms of action involved.Methods: DCQA (7.5, 15, and 30 mg/kg/day) were administered to the mice with sepsis and the survival rate was obtained. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 were examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Subsequently, the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) neutralizing ability of DCQA (2, 4, and 8 μg/mL) was measured using limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test in vitro. Furthermore, the effect of DCQA (10, 20, and 40 μg/mL) on mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 in LPS (100 ng/mL)-treated RAW 264.7 cells was assessed using quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay.Results: DCQA significantly improved the survival rate of mice with sepsis caused by CLP (35, 50, and 65 %, respectively vs. 15 % for control, p < 0.05). LPS levels fell on co-incubation with DCQA in vitro. Moreover, ELISA and RT-qPCR results revealed that DCQA treatment lowered tendency in the mRNA expression of TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 (p < 0.01).Conclusion: DCQA exhibits protective effects against sepsis in mice mediated by downregulating TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8. Further studies, in animals and humans are requied to determine the safety and efficacy of DCQA in both animal and clinical management of sepsis. Keywords: Xanthium sibiricum, 4,5-O-Dicaffeoylquinic acid, Sepsis, Cecal ligation and puncture, Lipopolysaccharide, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8

Rapid Characterization and Discovery of Chemical Markers for Discrimination of Xanthii Fructus by Gas Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry

Xanthii Fructus (XF) is known as a medicinal plant. It has been used as a traditional medicine because of its high biological efficacy. However, there have been few comprehensive studies on the specific chemical composition of the plant and consequently, the information is lacking for the mechanism of the natural product metabolites in humans. In this study, an efficient analytical method to characterize and discriminate two species of Xanthii Fructus (Xanthium canadense Mill. and Xanthium sibiricum Patrin ex Widder) was established. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polar metabolites, and fatty acids were classified by integrated sample preparation, which allowed a broad range for the detection of metabolites simultaneously. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) followed by a multivariate statistical analysis was employed to characterize the chemical compositions and subsequently to discriminate between the two species. The results demonstrate that the two species possess obviously diverse chemical characteristics of three different classifications, and discriminant analysis was successfully applied to a number of chemical markers that could be used for the discrimination of the two species. Additional quantitative results for the selected chemical markers consistently showed significant differences between the two species.