Dopamine is a well-known neurotransmitter in animals that is critical for reward, motivation, and movement control. Recent investigations demonstrated that dopamine is also a pivotal secondary metabolite in plants, aiding in the regulation of growth, adaptability to stressors, and defense capabilities. The review delves into the various dopamine biosynthetic routes identified in animals and plants, paying attention to the key enzyme systems that enable the transformation of tyrosine to dopamine via L-DOPA. Dopamine is essential for plant development and nutrient uptake, but it is also essential for the adaptation of plants to abiotic conditions such as drought, salinity, and heavy metals. Dopamine is critical to the nervous system of animals, and dysregulation of this neurotransmitter is linked to disorders such as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. The review explores the potential of utilizing plant-derived L-DOPA for therapeutic purposes, especially in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. The review also discusses metabolic engineering approaches designed to boost L-DOPA production in plants, encompassing both transgenic and non-transgenic methods. While the prospect of enhanced L-DOPA yield appears promising, the review highlights obstacles such as oxidative stress induced by elevated L-DOPA levels, alongside ethical considerations concerning genetic manipulation. This thorough review underscores the multifaceted role of dopamine across diverse biological domains and its capacity to establish a connection between botanical research and human health.
The plant order Saxifragales, comprising 15 families and approximately 3,160 species, occupies a pivotal phylogenetic position within the superrosids. It is generally resolved as sister to the core rosids, with Vitales sister to the combined Saxifragales–core rosid clade, although its remarkable morphological diversity long obscured its shared ancestry. This review synthesizes advances in molecular phylogenetics, comparative genomics, and historical biogeography that have established Saxifragales as an informative system for understanding angiosperm evolution. Phylogenomic analyses strongly support the monophyly of Saxifragales, the generally earliest-diverging position of Peridiscaceae, and the principal Paeoniaceae–woody and core Saxifragales lineages. Recent nuclear evidence favors Cynomoriaceae as sister to core Saxifragales, although several deep relationships remain discordant among nuclear and organellar datasets. Plastomes provide substantial phylogenetic resolution; mitogenomes exhibit extensive structural rearrangement, recombination, and intracellular DNA transfer; and nuclear genomes document the ancestral core-eudicot γ triplication, lineage-specific duplications, transposable-element proliferation, and chromosome restructuring. Molecular dating supports a Cretaceous origin and rapid early radiation, followed by Cenozoic diversification shaped by continental fragmentation, mountain uplift, climatic change, extinction, and long-distance dispersal into alpine, arid, and aquatic environments. Major gaps include the absence of comprehensive family-wide phylogenomic studies with broad taxonomic and geographical sampling in Daphniphyllaceae, Grossulariaceae, Iteaceae, and Haloragaceae, incomplete genomic representation of smaller Haloragaceae-alliance families, and limited functional validation of candidate adaptive genes. Future priorities include long-read sequencing, coalescent- and network-based analyses, and phylogeographic assessment of vulnerable lineages under accelerating climate change.
Earth is experiencing shifts in climatic parameters that are impacting various life forms and ecological processes. Since the beginning, plants have been influenced by these climatic changes, which have played a significant role in shaping the planet’s floral diversity across different geological periods, ultimately leading to the present floristic composition. Conifers, a major group of gymnosperms, are exhibiting noticeable responses to changing climatic conditions, making them valuable bioindicators of climate change. Changing climatic conditions are affecting various aspects of conifer species, including population dynamics, secondary metabolites, morphological, anatomical and physiological processes, pollination syndrome, and dispersal syndrome. The study emphasizes the use of conifers as model species for analyzing the changing climate effects across spatial and temporal scales. The paper underscores the need for research on the impact of changing climatic conditions on conifers and how these changes, in turn, influence human health, emphasizing the complex interrelationship between climate change, conifer ecosystems, and human well-being.
Bromeliaceae exhibits significant pollen diversity. Within the family, pollen grains are dispersed either as monads or tetrads and may be monosulcate, bi-, tri-, tetra-, or pantoporate, or even inaperturate. Ornamentation includes reticulate, foveolate, microreticulate, perforate, or psilate patterns. Additional variations are observed in the margins of the apertures and in the exine deposition on the aperture membrane. In general, pollen grains are relatively well-documented in Bromeliaceae. However, there is a lack of systematization and organization to provide a comprehensive and integrated understanding of its pollen structure. This study aims to conduct a general review of pollen morphology in Bromeliaceae, analyze character diversity based on the current phylogeny of the family, and propose the ancestral states of pollen traits. The study sampled 127 species from 47 genera, supplemented by literature data of 220 species (from 14 additional genera). Together, this dataset encompasses over 70
Most angiosperm flowers and vegetative shoots of land plants have an acropetal sequence of organ initiation, namely, the more proximal the organ position, the earlier its primordium appears in ontogeny. This is apparently the ancestral condition for angiosperm flowers. An acropetal sequence is the only way in which pre-patterning of organs along a spiral can be established and the only documented sequence of visible organ initiation in spiral flowers. This constraint is absent for whorled flowers, in contrast to whorled vegetative shoots. Non-acropetal developmental sequences are known from both species-rich angiosperm clades with flowers that are predominantly (eudicots) or exclusively whorled (monocots). Deviations from a strict acropetal pattern can be interpreted as sequence heterochronies, related to early termination of the floral meristem and subsequent fractionation of the floral apex into organ primordia. Monocots provide a useful opportunity to generate a large-scale comparative analysis of sequence heterochronies in floral evolution. We recognize several patterns of heterochronic shifts in monocot flowers. An ‘external’ pattern is related to the influence of extrafloral structures such as a flower-subtending bract, creating a delay in initiation of outer whorl organ(s) in the abaxial sector. All ‘internal’ patterns lack any obvious external influence; they include: (1) basipetal organ initiation in wind- and water-pollinated flowers, associated with overall perianth reduction; (2) basipetal organ initiation in secondarily multistaminate androecia (some palms and some Alismataceae) and secondarily multicarpellate gynoecia (some Triuridaceae); (3) non-acropetal patterns associated with common primordia, mostly tepal-stamen (occasional instances in six monocot orders); (4) simultaneous initiation of two neighbouring whorls lacking common primordia (some Alismatales, Dioscoreales, Pandanales, Poales). We propose a typification of common primordia, recognizing tangential and radial types, the latter being either bilobed or entire at the earliest stages. The following hypothesis is testable, but yet untested: at least the entire type is related to the development of two organs from the same prepatterning site. The most important tendencies distinguishing monocots from eudicots are the more frequent occurrence of common primordia, their presence in some epigynous flowers, the scarcity of polymerous androecia with centrifugal development, the apparent absence of complex polyandry, and polyandry associated with a hypanthium. Some monocots have flowers with multicarpellate gynoecia and at the same time oligostaminate androecia, a pattern that is rare in eudicots.
