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Macleaya cordata is a traditional Chinese medicine in China. Its main active ingredients are mainly isoquinoline alkaloids, which has a variety of biological activity such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-tumor. It is an ideal alternative to antibiotics. The paper mainly introduces the characteristics of sanguinarine and chelerythrine, the main active components of Macleaya cordata, reviews the biological activities of Macleaya cordata, such as antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-tumor activities, as well as its application in animal production, to provide a reference for further development and application of Macleaya cordata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dicranostigma leptopodum (Maxim) Fedde (DLF) is a renowned medicinal plant in China, known to be rich in alkaloids. However, the unavailability of a reference genome has impeded investigation into its plant metabolism and genetic breeding potential. Here we present a high-quality chromosomal-level genome assembly for DLF, derived using a combination of Nanopore long-read sequencing, Illumina short-read sequencing and Hi-C technologies. Our assembly genome spans a size of 621.81 Mb with an impressive contig N50 of 93.04 Mb. We show that the species-specific whole-genome duplication (WGD) of DLF and Papaver somniferum corresponded to two rounds of WGDs of Papaver setigerum. Furthermore, we integrated comprehensive homology searching, gene family analyses and construction of a gene-to-metabolite network. These efforts led to the discovery of co-expressed transcription factors, including NAC and bZIP , alongside sanguinarine (SAN) pathway genes CYP719 (CFS and SPS). Notably, we identified P6H as a promising gene for enhancing SAN production. By providing the first reference genome for Dicranostigma , our study confirms the genomic underpinning of SAN biosynthesis and establishes a foundation for advancing functional genomic research on Papaveraceae species. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of high-quality genome assemblies in elucidating genetic variations underlying the evolutionary origin of secondary metabolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The inducing abilities of two alkaloids, Sanguinarine (San) and Nitidine (Nit), to fold human telomeric DNA d[5′-TTGGG(TTAGGG)3A-3′] (H24A) into G-quadruplex structures has been investigated by using CD and 1H NMR spectroscopy. It is found that, under salt-deficiency condition, San could induce H24A to fold into a normal anti-parallel G-quadruplex while Nit may induce hybrid or mixed-type G-quadruplex structures. In order to understand the structure of H24A induced by Nit, the interaction between Nit and existed hybrid G-quadruplex H24A in the presence of K+ has been examined for comparison. The different behaviors of these two molecules interacted with DNA could be ascribed to distinct binding mode, which may be resulted from the steric hindrance of the molecular frame of these two alkaloids. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]