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Germplasm resources are the source of herbal medicine production. The cultivation of superior germplasm resources helps to resolve the conflict between long-term population persistence and growing market demand by consistently producing materials with high quality. The fern species Cibotium barometz is the original plant of cibotii rhizoma ("Gouji"), a traditional Chinese medicine used in the therapy of pain, weakness, and numbness in the lower extremities. Long-history medicinal use has caused serious wild population decline in China. Without sufficient understanding of the species and lineage diversity of Cibotium, it is difficult to propose a targeted conservation scheme at present, let alone select high-quality germplasm resources. In order to fill such a knowledge gap, this study sampled C. barometz and relative species throughout their distribution in China, performed genome skimming to obtain plastome data, and conducted phylogenomic analyses. We constructed a well-supported plastome phylogeny of Chinese Cibotium, which showed that three species with significant genetic differences are distributed in China, namely C. barometz, C. cumingii, and C. sino-burmaense sp. nov., a cryptic species endemic to NW Yunnan and adjacent regions of NE Myanmar. Moreover, our results revealed two differentiated lineages of C. barometz distributed on the east and west sides of a classic phylogeographic boundary that was probably shaped by monsoons and landforms. We also evaluated the resolution of nine traditional barcode loci and designed five new DNA barcodes based on the plastome sequence that can distinguish all these species and lineages of Chinese Cibotium accurately. These novel findings on a genetic basis will guide conservation planners and medicinal plant breeders to build systematic conservation plans and exploit the germplasm resources of Cibotium in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dysregulation of the complement system has been linked to pathogenesis of hypertension. However, whether genetic changes of complement factor H (CFH) and its related genes are associated with hypertension is unknown. We genotyped three SNPs in the CFH gene cluster that are closely linked to age-related macular degeneration, namely rs1061170 (Y402H), rs2274700 (A473A) and rs7542235 (CFHR1-3Δ), and tested for their associations with blood pressure and hypertension risk in a population-based cohort including 3,210 unrelated Chinese Hans (50-70 years of age) from Beijing and Shanghai. We found that rs2274700 (A473A) and rs7542235 (CFHR1-3Δ) were both significantly associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (β = 0.632-1.431, P⩽0.038) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (β= 1.567-4.445, P⩽0.008), and rs2274700 (A473A) was associated with hypertension risk (OR [95%CI]: 1.175 [1.005-1.373], P = 0.048). Notably, the associations of rs2274700 (A473A) with DBP (P = 2.1610-3), SBP (P=8610-5) and hypertension risk (P = 7.9610-3) were significant only in the individuals with low CRP levels (<2.0 mg/l), but not in those with RP levels ⩾2.0 mg/l (P⩾0.0807) (P for interaction ⩽0.0467). However, no significant association between rs1061170 (Y402H) and blood pressure or hypertension risk was observed (P⩾0.259). In conclusion, our results suggest that genetic variations in CFH and its related genes may contribute to hypertension risk in Chinese Hans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]