Topic
Cytinus
About: Cytinus is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 23 publications have been published within this topic receiving 469 citations.
Papers
TL;DR: These findings show that Cytinus extracts have antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, suggesting a possible application of CyTinus as sources of natural antimicrobials and antioxidants.
Abstract: Cytinus is small genus of endophytic parasitic plants distributed in South Africa, Madagascar, and in the Mediterranean region. In the latter area, two species occur, Cytinus hypocistis and C. ruber, distinguished by both morphological characters and ecological traits. We characterized the ethanolic and aqueous extracts obtained from the inflorescences of C. hypocistis and C. ruber collected in Sardinia, Italy, and explored their tannin content, antioxidant properties and antimicrobial activities. Total phenolic contents were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu spectrophotometric method. Tannin content was determined by HPLC. Antioxidant activity of the extracts was tested with both electron transfer-based (FRAP, TEAC, DPPH) and spectrophotometric HAT methods (ORAC-PYR). The antimicrobial activities of extracts/compounds were evaluated using the broth microdilution method. The bactericidal activity was evaluated using the time-kill method. Biofilm formation was evaluated by crystal violet (CV) staining assay. Characterization of the tannin profile of C. hypocistis and C. ruber revealed a significant amount of gallotannins, in particular 1-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose. In addition, pentagalloyl-O-β-D-glucose was present in all extracts, reaching the concentration of 0.117 g/kg in the ethanolic extract of C. hypocistis. C. hypocistis extracts displayed a strongest antioxidant activity than C. ruber extracts. Three Gram-positive bacterial species tested (Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecium) resulted sensitive to both Cytinus extracts, with MICs ranging from 125 to 500 μg/ml for aqueous extracts and from 31.25 to 250 μg/ml for ethanolic extracts; on the contrary, Gram-negative strains (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae) were not affected by Cytinus extracts. Intriguingly, we observed the suppressive activity of ethanolic extracts of C. hypocistis and C. ruber on biofilm formation of S. epidermidis. Experiments performed with synthetic compounds indicated that pentagalloyl-O-β-D-glucose is likely to be one of the active antimicrobial components of Cytinus extracts. These findings show that Cytinus extracts have antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, suggesting a possible application of Cytinus as sources of natural antimicrobials and antioxidants.
132 citations
TL;DR: Mutualistic services by ant are essential for the pollination of Cytinus hypocistis, a self-compatible monoecious species that relies on insects for seed production that is evolving to a more specialized ant-pollination system.
104 citations
TL;DR: Observations of wild Propithecus diadema strongly suggest that olfaction is used to locate the inflorescences of two subterranean parasitic plant species (Langsdorffia sp. and Cytinus sp.).
Abstract: Primates usually locate food resources using visual cues and memory, yet the potential for olfactory-guided (or olfactory-assisted) food location remains relatively unexplored Here we report observations of wild Propithecus diadema that strongly suggest that olfaction is used to locate the inflorescences of two subterranean parasitic plant species (Langsdorffia sp and Cytinus sp) These valued but seasonal food resources are found obscured in leaf litter, and sifakas spend considerable time on the ground engaged in what appears to be olfactory exploration before they locate the inflorescences Because they are visually obscured and occur within a substrate that is rarely used by sifakas, accidental discovery of these resources seems unlikely Individuals may learn to exploit them by watching conspecifics Am J Primatol 69:1–6, 2007 © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc
52 citations
TL;DR: The genetic differentiation among the five races of Cytinus is congruent with the view that these races are well-characterized lineages that have evolved independently as a result of selective pressures imposed by their hosts.
Abstract: Summary
• Speciation via race formation is an important evolutionary process in parasites, producing changes that favour their development on particular host species. Here, the holoparasitic plant Cytinus, which has diverse host species in the family Cistaceae, has been used to study the occurrence of such races.
• Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses were performed on 174 individuals of 22 populations parasitizing 10 Cistaceae species in the Western Mediterranean basin.
• Neighbour-joining, multivariate ordination analyses, and individual-based Bayesian analyses, clustered Cytinus populations into five well-characterized genetic races that, overall, agreed with the taxonomic sections of their hosts. In the AMOVA, among-races differences accounted for almost 50% of the genetic variation. The isolation-by-distance model was not supported by a Mantel test among Cytinus populations (r = 0.012; P = 0.456). All races showed low within-population genetic diversity, probably as a result of restricted pollen flow aggravated by flowering asynchrony, restricted seed dispersion, or stochastic processes.
• The genetic differentiation among the five races of Cytinus is congruent with the view that these races are well-characterized lineages that have evolved independently as a result of selective pressures imposed by their hosts. This pattern, with genetically distinctive groups associated with the infrageneric sections of the host species, has not been reported previously for parasitic angiosperms.
40 citations
TL;DR: The endophytic system of Cytinus develops in all host root tissues and reaches its most mature stages in the host xylem, which is more complex than previously reported, and the first report of well-developed phloem in a holoparasiticendophytic species.
40 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 |
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2019 | 1 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 |