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Abstract

On the cover

Lycium ruthenicum is a defoliated shrub belonging to the family Solanaceae. It is mainly distributed in the desert regions of Northwest China, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe, Mongolia, and North African countries along the Mediterranean Sea. It is widely used as healthy vegetables and natural medicine foods in Asian for containing numerous functional components in leaves, roots and fruits. Here, tetraploid plants of L. ruthenicum were obtained with colchicine in vitro. The photo shows the morphological comparison of 8-month-old diploids and tetraploids seedlings. The left: Diploid plants; The right: Tetraploid plants (This issue, p. 160–168).

(J. Chen: National Engineering Laboratory for Tree Breeding, Beijing Forestry University, China)