Elimination of apple stem grooving virus by chemotherapy and development of an immunocapture RT-PCR for rapid sensitive screening

Ombuin (7,4′-dimethyl quercetin) (10 μg ml^-1, for 12 wk), glycyrrhizin/quercetin (80 μg ml^-1and 10 μg ml^-1respectively, for 18 wk), ribavirin (10 μg ml^-1, for 12 wk) and quercetin/ribavirin (10 μg ml^-1each, for 9–12 wk) reduced the titre of apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) when applied in vitro to infected tissue cultures of Nicotiana occidentalis obliqua Wheeler, and/or Malus domestica. ASGV was not detectable in both plant species after the quercitin/ribavirin treatment when tested by ISEM, herbaceous host indexing, RT-PCR, and immunocapture RT-PCR. A sensitive immunocapture RT-PCR procedure for the detection of ASGV was developed for the screening of treated samples to assess antiviral activity.     

Climate change cannot be entirely responsible for soil carbon loss observed in England and Wales, 1978–2003

We present results from modelling studies, which suggest that, at most, only about 10–20% of recently observed soil carbon losses in England and Wales could possibly be attributable to climate warming. Further, we present reasons why the actual losses of SOC from organic soils in England and Wales might be lower than those reported.     

Neural Control of Cell Cycle Events in Regenerating Salamander Limbs

Nerves, wound epidermis, and injury are indispensable for salamanderlimb regeneration, but their mechanism of action is not understood.A hypothesis has been presented (Tassava and Mescher, 1975)which suggests that injury is important to dedifferentiationand entry of limb stump cells into the cell cycle, nerves arerequired for one or more G₂ events in order that cells can proceedto mitosis, and the wound epidermis maintains the daughter cellsin the cell cycle. The resultant cells accumulate to form theblastema. Complete and partial denervation experiments, which attemptedto test this hypothesis, are discussed. Blastema cell cycleparameters, measured after complete denervation, did not varygreatly from innervated controls, even though denervated blastemaswere resorbed. Blastema cell cycle parameters of partially denervatedlimbs, which exhibited delayed regeneration, were likewise notlengthened when compared to completely innervated controls.These results are consistent with the view that after eithercomplete or partial denervation, some blastema cells continueto cycle and reach the M phase in the same time as controls.Other blastema cells block completely, never reach M, and arethen removed. A possible mechanism for resorption of denervatedblastemas is presented.