Pasquariello Marianna, Martinelli Tommaso, Paris Roberta, Moschella Anna, Colombo Roberto, Di Bello Alice, Frigerio Jessica, Kheloufi Abdenour, Mirzaabolghasemi Mohammad Amin, Puglisi Damiano, Esposito Salvatore, Scalercio Stefano, Virzì Nino, De Vita Pasquale, Pecchioni Nicola, Bassolino Laura
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops (CREA-CI), Bologna, Italy.
NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Jun 3;16:1584104. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1584104. eCollection 2025.
The genus belonging to the Asteraceae family, is composed of two species, and , although, in the past, their classification was not always appropriate. While is very well known since ancient times for the medicinal properties of a blend of different flavonolignans contained in the achenes and named silymarin, very little information is available about chemodiversity. Here, we describe the biochemical characterization of a wide germplasm collection including 83 wild accessions collected during sampling campaigns in Italy, Spain, Iran and Algeria as well as accessions acquired by seed GenBanks and studied at both population and single plant level. Interestingly, our results confirm the presence of only three chemotypes in , namely A, B and C. Conversely, accessions, exhibit a distinct and stable chemotype (D) where isosilychristin is the predominant silymarin component. Additionally, DNA barcoding based on the ribosomal DNA region combined with morphological phenotyping and chemotyping, successfully resolves frequently found mistakes in the identification of the two species. These findings significantly expand our knowledge of the global biodiversity of the genus and provide valuable insights for future breeding programs and potential applications in nutrition and human health sciences.
该属属于菊科，由两个物种组成，即[物种1]和[物种2]，不过在过去，它们的分类并不总是恰当的。由于瘦果中所含不同黄酮木脂素混合物（称为水飞蓟素）的药用特性，[物种1]自古以来就广为人知，而关于[物种2]的化学多样性信息却很少。在此，我们描述了一个广泛的种质收集的生化特征，其中包括在意大利、西班牙、伊朗和阿尔及利亚的采样活动中收集的83份野生[物种2]种质，以及从种子基因库获取并在种群和单株水平上进行研究的种质。有趣的是，我们的结果证实[物种2]中仅存在三种化学型，即A、B和C。相反，[物种1]种质表现出一种独特且稳定的化学型（D），其中异水飞蓟宾是主要的水飞蓟素成分。此外，基于核糖体DNA区域的DNA条形码技术结合形态表型分析和化学分型，成功解决了这两个物种鉴定中经常出现的错误。这些发现显著扩展了我们对该属全球生物多样性的认识，并为未来的育种计划以及在营养和人类健康科学中的潜在应用提供了有价值的见解。
