Coix Explained

Coix is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family.^{[1] [2]}

The best-known species is Coix lacryma-jobi, widely called Job's tears. Its variety Coix lacryma-jobi var. ma-yuen is cultivated in many warm regions as a source of food, medicine, and ornamentation.^{[3] [4]}

The generic name is from Ancient Greek κόϊξ (koix), which originally referred to the doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica); the fruits of the doum palm resemble the diaspores of Coix.^[5]

Species

^[6]

• Coix aquatica Roxb. - China (Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi), Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia; naturalized in New Guinea
• Coix gasteenii B.K.Simon - northern Queensland
• Coix lacryma-jobi L. - China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia; naturalized in other parts of Asia as well as in southern Europe, Africa, the Americas, and various oceanic islands

Formerly Included

see Chionachne Polytoca Tripsacum

Formerly included in

This genus was formerly placed in the Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.^[7]

Proteins and expression

Members of this genus produce their own variety of α-zein prolamins. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.^[8]

References

• Schnable . James C. . Genome Evolution in Maize: From Genomes Back to Genes . . . 66 . 1 . 2015-04-29 . 1543-5008 . 10.1146/annurev-arplant-043014-115604 . 329–343. 25494463 . free .

External links

• The World Online Grass Flora Grassbase: Coix

Notes and References

1. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358993#page/414/mode/1up Linnaeus, Carl von. 1753. Species Plantarum 2: 972
2. Web site: Tropicos. www.tropicos.org.
3. Hill,A.F. 1952. Economic Botany, McGraw-Hill
4. Arora, R. K., 1977, "Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) - a minor food and fodder crop of northeastern India." Economic Botany, Volume 31, issue 3, pages 358–366.
5. Book: Etymological Dictionary of Grasses. Harold T.. Clifford. Peter D.. Bostock. May 16, 2007. Springer Science & Business Media. 9783540384342 . Google Books.
6. Web site: Search results — The Plant List. www.theplantlist.org.
7. p.331, "Maize and Tripsacum were previously grouped with a number of other grasses that have monoecious flowering patterns the most widely known being Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) into the Maydeae (74); however, molecular data revealed that this grouping was polyphyletic (61)."
8. p.335, "Clusters of locally duplicated genes can also expand and contract rapidly, as shown by investigation of the 22-kDa α zein gene families in maize, sorghum, and coix, which appear to have experienced independent copy-number amplifications since the divergence of these three species (107)."