Comparison of Antioxidant Constituents of Agriophyllum squarrosum Seed with Conventional Crop Seeds.[Pubmed: 29870059]

Twelve chemical constituents were identified from the Agriophyllum squarrosum seed (ASS). ASS contained large amounts of flavonoids, which were more concentrated in the seed coat. ASS-coat (1 g) contained 335.7 μg flavonoids of rutin equivalent, which was similar to the flavonoid content in soybean (351.2 μg/g), and greater than that in millet, wheat, rice, peanut, and corn. By LC-MS analysis, the major constituents in ASS were 3-O-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D- glucopyranosyl]-7- O-(β-D-glucopyranosyl)-quercetin (1), rutin (4), quercetin-3-O-β-D- apiosyl(1→2)-[α-L-rhamnosyl(l→6)]-β-D-glucoside (2), isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside (5), and allantoin (3), compared with isoflavonoids-genistin (16), daidzin (14), and glycitin (18) in soybean. Among constituents in ASS, compounds 1, 2, 4, protocatechuic acid (8), isoquercitrin (11), and luteolin-6-C-glucoside (12) potently scavenged DPPH radicals and intracellular ROS; strongly protected against peroxyl radical-induced DNA scission; and upregulated Nrf2, phosphorylated p38, phosphorylated JNK, and Bcl-2 in HepG2 cells. These results indicate that ASS is rich in antioxidant constituents that can enrich the varieties of food flavonoids, with significant beneficial implications for those who suffer from oxidative stress-related conditions.

Morphological description and DNA barcoding study of sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum, Chenopodiaceae) collected in Kazakhstan.[Pubmed: 29143601]

Sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum (L.) Moq.) is an annual shrub-like plant adapted to the mobile sand dunes in desert and semi-desert regions of Asia. It has a balanced nutrient composition with relatively high concentration of lipids and proteins, which results in its nutrition being similar to legumes. Sand rice's proteins contain the full range of essential amino acids. However, calories content is more similar to wheat. These features together with desert stress resistance make sand rice a potential food crop resilient to ongoing climate change. It is also an important fodder crop (on young stages of growth) for cattle in arid regions of Kazakhstan. In our work, sand rice samples were collected from two distant regions of Kazakhstan as a part of the nation-wide project to determine genetic variation of the native flora.

Population dynamics of Agriophyllum squarrosum, a pioneer annual plant endemic to mobile sand dunes, in response to global climate change.[Pubmed: 27210568]

Climate change plays an important role in the transition of ecosystems. Stratigraphic investigations have suggested that the Asian interior experienced frequent transitions between grassland and desert ecosystems as a consequence of global climate change. Using maternally and bi-parentally inherited markers, we investigated the population dynamics of Agriophyllum squarrosum (Chenopodiaceae), an annual pioneer plant endemic to mobile sand dunes. Phylogeographic analysis revealed that A. squarrosum could originate from Gurbantunggut desert since ~1.6 Ma, and subsequently underwent three waves of colonisation into other deserts and sandy lands corresponding to several glaciations. The rapid population expansion and distribution range shifts of A. squarrosum from monsoonal climate zones suggested that the development of the monsoonal climate significantly enhanced the population growth and gene flow of A. squarrosum. These data also suggested that desertification of the fragile grassland ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau was more ancient than previously suggested and will be aggravated under global warming in the future. This study provides new molecular phylogeographic insights into how pioneer annual plant species in desert ecosystems respond to global climate change, and facilitates evaluation of the ecological potential and genetic resources of future crops for non-arable dry lands to mitigate climate change.

Different Sets of Post-Embryonic Development Genes Are Conserved or Lost in Two Caryophyllales Species (Reaumuria soongorica and Agriophyllum squarrosum).[Pubmed: 26815143]

Reaumuria soongorica and sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) belong to the clade of Caryophyllales and are widely distributed in the desert regions of north China. Both plants have evolved many specific traits and adaptation strategies to cope with recurring environmental threats. However, the genetic basis that underpins their unique traits and adaptation remains unknown. In this study, the transcriptome data of R. soongorica and sand rice were compared with three other species with previously sequenced genomes (Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa, and Beta vulgaris). Four different gene sets were identified, namely, the genes conserved in both species, those lost in both species, those conserved in R. soongorica only, and those conserved in sand rice only. Gene ontology showed that post-embryonic development genes (PEDGs) were enriched in all gene sets, and different sets of PEDGs were conserved or lost in both the R. soongorica and sand rice genomes. Expression profiles of Arabidopsis orthologs further provided some clues to the function of the species-specific conserved PEDGs. Such orthologs included LEAFY PETIOLE, which could be a candidate gene involved in the development of branch priority in sand rice.

Transcriptomic analysis of a psammophyte food crop, sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) and identification of candidate genes essential for sand dune adaptation.[Pubmed: 25287394]

Sand rice (Agriophyllum squarrosum) is an annual desert plant adapted to mobile sand dunes in arid and semi-arid regions of Central Asia. The sand rice seeds have excellent nutrition value and have been historically consumed by local populations in the desert regions of northwest China. Sand rice is a potential food crop resilient to ongoing climate change; however, partly due to the scarcity of genetic information, this species has undergone only little agronomic modifications through classical breeding during recent years.

[Effects of sand burial on growth and physiological process of Agriophyllum squarrosum seedlings in Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia, North China].[Pubmed: 24697053]

In 2010-2011, a sand burial experiment was conducted on the Horqin Sand Land of Inner Mongolia to study the growth characteristics and physiological properties of Agriophyllum squarrosum seedlings under different depths of sand burial. The A. squarrosum seedlings had stronger tolerance against sand burial. The seedling growth could be severely inhibited when the burial depth exceeded seedling height, but some seedlings could still be survived when the burial depth exceeded 1.66 times of seedling height. When the burial depth did not exceed the seedling height, the seedling MDA content and membrane permeability had no significant change, but the lipid peroxidation was aggravated and the cell membrane was damaged with increasing burial depth. Under sand burial stress, the seedling SOD and POD activities and proline content increased significantly, while the seedling CAT activity and soluble sugar content deceased. Sand burial decreased the leaf photosynthetic area and damaged cell membrane, inducing the increase of seedling mortality and the inhibition of seedling growth. The increase of SOD and POD activities and proline content played a definite role in reducing the sand burial damage to A. squarrosum seedlings.