Variation of leaf morphological and effective components of Eucommia ulmoides natural female population and its response to climatic factors

Variation of leaf morphological and effective components of Eucommia ulmoides natural female population and its response to climatic factors | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Variation of leaf morphological and effective components of Eucommia ulmoides natural female population and its response to climatic factors Hongguo Li, Chong Qin, Huimin Gong, Chengzhong Xiao, Li Tian, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7362368/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. is a significant medicinal and economically valuable tree species endemic to China. Female E. ulmoides plants are particularly prized for their fruits and seeds, which serve as important industrial, medicinal, and oil resources, offering a longer industrial chain and higher economic value compared to male plants. However, the morphological variation in leaves among natural female populations, the dynamics of pharmacologically active compounds, and their interactions with climatic and geographical factors remain poorly characterized. In this study, we examined five leaf morphological traits (e.g., leaf length, leaf width) and quantified twelve bioactive compounds in 126 mature E. ulmoides individuals from 10 populations across four provinces. Among the analyzed compounds, six major constituents chlorogenic acid (CGA), asperuloside (ASP), aucubin (AU), geniposidic acid (GPA), rutin (RT), and isoquercitrin (IQ) accounted for 96.25% of the total active ingredient content, while the remaining six minor components collectively represented only 3.75% (each < 0.1%). The six major compounds exhibited substantial variability, with coefficients of variation ranging from 36.67% (CGA) to 92.56% (AU) and Shannon diversity indices spanning from 1.61 (RT) to 2.01 (CGA). Significant inter-population differences were detected, with explanatory power values ( \(\:{\widehat{P}}^{2}\) ) as follows: CGA (0.24), AU (0.34), GPA (0.84), ASP (0.52), RT (0.15), and IQ (0.40). Across populations and leaf phenotypic traits, chemical composition showed strong associations with perimeter, length, and shape index. Notably, GPA exhibited a positive correlation with CGA and AU but negative correlations with the other nine compounds, suggesting that its biosynthesis may regulate the accumulation of CGA, IQ, ASP, and RT. While individual climatic and geographical factors showed weak associations with leaf traits and bioactive compounds, their combined effects played a more substantial role in shaping phenotypic and biochemical variation. These findings provide mechanistic insights into how female E. ulmoides plants optimize morphological and biochemical traits in response to environmental heterogeneity. Moreover, this study provides a scientific foundation for optimizing male-to-female planting ratios, advancing precision cultivation, and promoting the high-value utilization of E. ulmoides resources. Female Eucommia ulmoides Natural population Active constituent Phenotypic variation Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7362368","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":516370828,"identity":"6755b79a-efe0-462e-bd6f-c5d20a39018c","order_by":0,"name":"Hongguo 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natural female population and its response to climatic factors","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Female Eucommia ulmoides, Natural population, Active constituent, Phenotypic variation","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7362368/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7362368/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEucommia ulmoides\u003c/em\u003e Oliv. is a significant medicinal and economically valuable tree species endemic to China. Female E. \u003cem\u003eulmoides\u003c/em\u003e plants are particularly prized for their fruits and seeds, which serve as important industrial, medicinal, and oil resources, offering a longer industrial chain and higher economic value compared to male plants. However, the morphological variation in leaves among natural female populations, the dynamics of pharmacologically active compounds, and their interactions with climatic and geographical factors remain poorly characterized. In this study, we examined five leaf morphological traits (e.g., leaf length, leaf width) and quantified twelve bioactive compounds in 126 mature E. \u003cem\u003eulmoides\u003c/em\u003e individuals from 10 populations across four provinces. Among the analyzed compounds, six major constituents chlorogenic acid (CGA), asperuloside (ASP), aucubin (AU), geniposidic acid (GPA), rutin (RT), and isoquercitrin (IQ) accounted for 96.25% of the total active ingredient content, while the remaining six minor components collectively represented only 3.75% (each \u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.1%). The six major compounds exhibited substantial variability, with coefficients of variation ranging from 36.67% (CGA) to 92.56% (AU) and Shannon diversity indices spanning from 1.61 (RT) to 2.01 (CGA). Significant inter-population differences were detected, with explanatory power values (\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\:{\\widehat{P}}^{2}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e) as follows: CGA (0.24), AU (0.34), GPA (0.84), ASP (0.52), RT (0.15), and IQ (0.40). Across populations and leaf phenotypic traits, chemical composition showed strong associations with perimeter, length, and shape index. Notably, GPA exhibited a positive correlation with CGA and AU but negative correlations with the other nine compounds, suggesting that its biosynthesis may regulate the accumulation of CGA, IQ, ASP, and RT. While individual climatic and geographical factors showed weak associations with leaf traits and bioactive compounds, their combined effects played a more substantial role in shaping phenotypic and biochemical variation. These findings provide mechanistic insights into how female E. \u003cem\u003eulmoides\u003c/em\u003e plants optimize morphological and biochemical traits in response to environmental heterogeneity. Moreover, this study provides a scientific foundation for optimizing male-to-female planting ratios, advancing precision cultivation, and promoting the high-value utilization of E. \u003cem\u003eulmoides\u003c/em\u003e resources.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Variation of leaf morphological and effective components of Eucommia ulmoides natural female population and its response to climatic factors","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-09-23 11:48:09","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7362368/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"69616056-1867-4e2a-aea1-bd9294e48957","owner":[],"postedDate":"September 23rd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-11T15:24:10+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-09-23 11:48:09","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7362368","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7362368","identity":"rs-7362368","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}