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The relationships among the genera of the early-diverging eudicot family Berberidaceae have long been controversial. To resolve these relationships and to better understand plastome evolution within the family, we sequenced the complete plastome sequences of ten Berberidaceae genera, combined these with six existing plastomes for the family, and conducted a series of phylogenomic analyses on the resulting data set. Five of the newly sequenced plastomes were found to possess the typical angiosperm plastome complement of 79 protein-coding genes, 4 rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes. The infA gene was found to be pseudogenized in Bongardia , Diphylleia , Dysosma and Vancouveria ; rps7 was found to be severely truncated in Diphylleia , Dysosma and Podophyllum ; clpP was found to be highly divergent in Vancouveria ; and a ∼19 kb inversion was detected in Bongardia. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses of a 79-gene, 24-taxon data set including nearly all genera of Berberidaceae recovered four chromosome groups ( x  = 6, 7, 8, 10), resolved the x  = 8 group as the sister to the x  = 10 group, and supported the monophyly of the clade comprising x  = 7, 8, 10. The generic relationships within each group were all resolved with high support. Based on gene presence within the Inverted Repeat (IR), a total of seven plastome IR types were identified within Berberidaceae. Biogeographical analysis indicated the origin and diversification of Berberidaceae has likely been strongly influenced by the distribution of its favored habitat: temperate forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grade of early-diverging eudicots includes five major lineages: Ranunculales, Trochodendrales, Buxales, Proteales and Sabiaceae. To examine the evolution of plastome structure in early-diverging eudicots, we determined the complete plastome sequences of eight previously unsequenced early-diverging eudicot taxa, Pachysandra terminalis (Buxaceae), Meliosma aff. cuneifolia (Sabiaceae), Sabia yunnanensis (Sabiaceae), Epimedium sagittatum (Berberidaceae), Euptelea pleiosperma (Eupteleaceae), Akebia trifoliata (Lardizabalaceae), Stephania japonica (Menispermaceae) and Papaver somniferum (Papaveraceae), and compared them to previously published plastomes of the early-diverging eudicots Buxus , Tetracentron , Trochodendron , Nelumbo , Platanus , Nandina , Megaleranthis , Ranunculus , Mahonia and Macadamia . All of the newly sequenced plastomes share the same 79 protein-coding genes, 4 rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes, except for that of Epimedium , in which infA is pseudogenized and clpP is highly divergent and possibly a pseudogene. The boundaries of the plastid Inverted Repeat (IR) were found to vary significantly across early-diverging eudicots; IRs ranged from 24.3 to 36.4 kb in length and contained from 18 to 33 genes. Based on gene content, the IR was classified into six types, with shifts among types characterized by high levels of homoplasy. Reconstruction of ancestral IR gene content suggested that 18 genes were likely present in the IR region of the ancestor of eudicots. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of a 79-gene, 97-taxon data set that included all available early-diverging eudicots and representative sampling of remaining angiosperm diversity largely agreed with previous estimates of early-diverging eudicot relationships, but resolved Trochodendrales rather than Buxales as sister to Gunneridae , albeit with relatively weak bootstrap support, conflicting with what has been found for these three clades in most previous analyses. In addition, Proteales was resolved as sister to Sabiaceae with the highest support (bootstrap >90%) yet observed in plastome-scale phylogenetic analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid-phase reactions were used for the synthetization of the spinel Li 1.6 Mn 1.6 O 4 powder and the lithium ion-sieve MnO 2 ·0.5H 2 O was subsequently obtained by the leaching of the lithium. The physical characterization showed that the polycrystalline precursor and the MnO 2 ·0.5H 2 O were nearly pure spinel, as well as that during the process of the adsorption-desorption, the structural stability was high. The Langmuir isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetics model showed consistency with the adsorption behavior, which indicated the presence of homogeneous adsorption sites for the lithium adsorption and that its process was chemisorption. Adsorbents were found to remain being characterized with a relatively high Li+ uptake (26.13 ​mg ​g−1) with low manganese extracted (1.71%) after the circulation experiment was performed up to 5 times, proving a significant repeatability and stability for the lithium ion-sieve. The concentration factors exhibited the highly selective adsorption capacity for absorbent from Qarhan raw brine with high concentrations of Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+. The adsorbents could be efficiently used for Li+ recovery from Salt Lake brine as well as its excellent potential for further application. Due to the sieving effect (steric hindrance effect and hydration free energy effect), the lithium ion-sieve selectively adsorbed Li+ when the ion-sieve was immersed in brine, indicating that the ion-sieve MnO 2 ·0.5H 2 O was expected to recover Li+ from the solutions including Salt Lake brine, seawater, and wastewater. Image 1 • The precursor was prepared by practical two-stage solid-phase sintering technique. • The Li 1.6 Mn 1.6 O 4 exhibited excellent adsorption performance. • The materials showed the highly selective adsorption from Qarhan raw brine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]