''Coix'' is a genus of Asian and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n plants in the

grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

. The best-known species is ''

Coix lacryma-jobi Job's tears (''Coix lacryma-jobi)'', also known as Adlay or Adlay millet, is a tall grain-bearing perennial tropical plant of the family Poaceae (grass family). It is native to Southeast Asia and introduced to Northern China and India in remote ...

,'' 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. The generic name is from Ancient Greek κόϊξ (''koix''), which originally referred to the doum palm (''

Hyphaene thebaica ''Hyphaene thebaica'', with common names doum palm (Ar: دوم) and gingerbread tree (also mistakenly doom palm), is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit. It is a native to the Arabian Peninsula and also to the northern half and western pa ...

''); the fruits of the doum palm resemble the

diaspore Diaspore , also known as diasporite, empholite, kayserite, or tanatarite, is an aluminium oxide hydroxide mineral, α-AlO(OH), crystallizing in the orthorhombic system and isomorphous with goethite. It occurs sometimes as flattened crystals, bu ...

s of ''Coix''.

Species

*''

Coix aquatica ''Coix'' is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family. 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 so ...

'' Roxb. -

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

( Yunnan, Guangdong,

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

), Indian Subcontinent, Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia; naturalized in New Guinea *''

Coix gasteenii ''Coix'' is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family. 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 so ...

'' B.K.Simon - northern Queensland *''

'' L. -

, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia; naturalized in other parts of Asia as well as in southern Europe, Africa, the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, and various oceanic islands

Formerly Included

see ''

Chionachne ''Chionachne'' is a genus of Asian, Australian, and Papuasian plants in the grass family. Species * '' Chionachne biaurita'' Hack. - Luzon * '' Chionachne cyathopoda'' (F.Muell.) F.Muell. ex Benth. - New Guinea, northern Australia * ''Chionach ...

Polytoca ''Polytoca'' is a genus of Asian and Papuasian plants in the grass family. ; Species * ''Polytoca digitata'' (L.f.) Druce - southern China, eastern Himalayas, Andaman Islands, Indochina, Philippines, Java, New Guinea * '' Polytoca wallichiana'' ...

Tripsacum ''Tripsacum'' is a genus of plants in the grass family native to the Western Hemisphere. Gamagrass is a common name for plants in this genus. Species formerly included see ''Anthephora Apluda Chionachne Coelorachis Elionurus Hackelochloa Hem ...

Formerly included in

This genus was formerly placed in the Maydeae, now known to be polyphyletic.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)."

Proteins and expression

Members of this genus produce their own variety of α-zein

prolamin Prolamins are a group of plant storage proteins having a high proline amino acid content. They are found in plants, mainly in the seeds of cereal grains such as wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin), corn (zein), sorghum (kafirin), and ...

s. These prolamins have undergone unusually rapid evolutionary divergence from closely related grasses, by way of copy-number changes.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)."

References

External links

The World Online Grass Flora Grassbase: ''Coix''
Poaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{medicinal-plant-stub