RESUMEN
Understanding migratory routes is crucial for the conservation of birds and their habitats. Zhejiang is a crucial stopover and wintering area for birds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway; however, detailed information on this area, and particularly on connections between coastal areas, is limited. By synthesizing ringed and recapture records from local bird-ringing projects and re-sighting community science data (208 records of 35 species), we established migratory connectivity between the Zhejiang coast and nine countries (i.e., Russia, Mongolia, the United States, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia), as well as eleven sites within China, and established its crucial role in this flyway. Stopover fidelity was verified by some species with high recapture frequency (seven species exceeded 1%) and species with duplicated re-sighted records (seven Black-faced Spoonbill, one Dalmatian Pelican, and two Spoon-billed Sandpiper individuals). We identified six areas-Hangzhou Bay, Aiwan Bay, Xuanmen National Park, Wenzhou Bay, the reclaimed area between the Ou and Feiyun Rivers, and the Wenzhou Jiangnan Reclamation Area-as crucial stopovers and wintering refuges for waterbirds. Notably, in Xuanmen National Park and the coastal regions along Wenzhou, there were many recovery records for flagship species, such as the Black-faced Spoonbill and Spoon-billed Sandpiper. There were several cases of the recovery of the same individual studied across the years. These findings indicate that these unprotected wetlands require particular attention. Broadly, our findings highlight the feasibility of integrating comprehensive ringing projects with citizen science data to formulate effective conservation strategies and underscore the critical importance of the Zhejiang Coast for migratory waterbirds, particularly those with high conservation concerns, emphasizing the need to mitigate the threats faced by these vulnerable populations.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Among secondary metabolites, flavonoids are particularly crucial for plant growth, development, and reproduction, as well as beneficial for maintenance of human health. As a flowering plant, safflower has synthesized a striking variety of flavonoids with various pharmacologic properties. However, far less research has been carried out on the genes involved in the biosynthetic pathways that generate these amazing flavonoids, especially characterized quinochalcones. In this study, we first cloned and investigated the participation of a presumed flavanone 3-hydroxylase gene (F3H) from safflower (CtF3H) in a flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. RESULTS: Bioinformation analysis showed that CtF3H shared high conserved residues and confidence with F3H from other plants. Subcellular localization uncovered the nuclear and cytosol localization of CtF3H in onion epidermal cells. The functional expressions of CtF3H in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)pLysS cells in the pMAL-C5x vector led to the production of dihydrokaempferol when naringenin was the substrate. Furthermore, the transcriptome expression of CtF3H showed a diametrically opposed expression pattern in a quinochalcone-type safflower line (with orange-yellow flowers) and a flavonol-type safflower line (with white flowers) under external stimulation by methyl jasmonate (MeJA), which has been identified as an elicitor of flavonoid metabolites. Further metabolite analysis showed the increasing tendency of quinochalcones and flavonols, such as hydroxysafflor yellow A, kaempferol-3-O-ß-D-glucoside, kaempferol-3-O-ß-rutinoside, rutin, carthamin, and luteolin, in the quinochalcone-type safflower line. Also, the accumulation of kaempferol-3-O-ß-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-O-ß-D-glucoside in flavonols-typed safflower line showed enhanced accumulation pattern after MeJA treatment. However, other flavonols, such as kaempferol, dihydrokaempferol and quercetin-3-O-ß-D-glucoside, in flavonols-typed safflower line presented down accumulation respond to MeJA stimulus. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that the high expression of CtF3H in quinochalcone-type safflower line was associated with the accumulation of both quinochalcones and flavonols, whereas its low expression did not affect the increased accumulation of glycosylated derivatives (kaempferol-3-O-ß-rutinoside and rutin) in flavonols-typed safflower line but affect the upstream precursors (D-phenylalanine, dihydrokaempferol, kaempferol), which partly revealed the function of CtF3H in different phenotypes and chemotypes of safflower lines.