Button botany: plasmodesmata in vegetable ivory

The hard endosperm of species of the palm genus Phytelephas (elephant plant), known as vegetable ivory, was used in the manufacture of buttons in the nineteenth century, the early twentieth century, and again in more recent times. Here, we show that the pathways for intercellular communication, including the cytoplasm in opposite pits and the plasmodesmata that traverse the cell wall, can be visualized in century-old inexpensive buttons that are readily available in antique shops.     

Productivity and sustainability of a vegetable ivory palm (Phytelephas aequatorialis, arecaceae) under three management regimes in Northwestern Ecuador

This study examines the productivity, sustainability, and management of tagua nuts from the palm Phytelephas aequatorialis under three management regimes in northwestern Ecuador. Tagua nuts are used internationally as an ivory substitute and the palm fronds are used locally as roof thatch. Plots were established in a control site and in three local management regimes: pure tagua groves; stands with tagua and cacao in an agroforestry system; and tagua groves where the undergrowth is cleared and old fronds removed. Data were collected for one year and local extractors were interviewed about their tagua management. Palm demography indicates heavy management with few subadult individuals and many more adult females than males. Productivity analyses do not demonstrate the influence of any one environmental variable on leaf or infructescence productivity. The pure tagua grove is the management regime most conducive to tagua sustainability. The sustainability results are underscored by the extractive methodology, where local extractors maximize tagua collected while minimizing collection time. These results are incorporated into management recommendations to foster tagua extraction while ensuring its sustainability and future use.     

Plant breeding and the vegetable industry

Beginning in prehistoric times, man has continuously sought to obtain vegetables of progressively greater productivity and better conformity to his ever increasing requirements. Today’s breeders must use the most modern knowledge and devices in efforts to keep abreast of new demands that grow out of our fast moving, mechanized, industrialized ways of working and living. Varieties are being modified more successfully than ever before to meet changing requirements, but always something more is desired.     

Phages in the global fruit and vegetable industry

From recent articles, we have learned that phages can constitute a promising alternative in the food industry to eliminate bacterial pathogens from seedlings in greenhouse and field environments, as well as from fresh‐cut food products. The fruit and vegetable industry requires quite a different approach than the meat or dairy industry. Several factors can inhibit efficacy of phage treatment such as plant watering or washing ready‐to‐eat products (water may dilute therapeutic doses), UV irradiation or extensive spreading of phytopathogens by wind, insects or even humans. Spontaneously occurring anomalous weather conditions in different parts of the world also may have an enormous impact on phage persistence in cultivations and on yields. Despite that, some phage preparations are commercially available and, without doubt, are much safer than chemical treatments. Along with increasing worldwide fruit and vegetable consumption, plant diseases and human foodborne illnesses are becoming a serious economic problem, resulting in a focus on optimization of phage treatment.     

Demography of the vegetable ivory palm Phytelephas seemannii in Colombia, and the impact of seed harvesting

1. The demography of the vegetable ivory palm Phytelephas seemannii was studied on the Pacific coast of Colombia and a female-based matrix model was used to determine the proportion of seed that can be sustainably harvested from the population.
2. The density of the palm stands ranged from 240 to 420 adult palms ha⁻¹. The sex ratio was 1:1 and palms of both sexes produced leaves at the same rate. Seedlings produced 1·2 leaves per year on average, juveniles 1·8, and adults 6·1–7·4.
3. Adult females had fewer leaves than males (18·5 vs. 21·3 on average). Leaves of females lasted about 2·7 years in the crown, those of males about 3·2 years.
4. Stems creep on the ground, growing at the apex and often dying behind, the extant portion not always reflecting the palm's total age. The longest stem of a female palm in the study plots was 2·5 m, corresponding to an 'extant' age of 85 years; the longest stem recorded was that of a male (outside the plots) 10·5 m long, corresponding to an 'extant' age of 184 years. These figures reflect differences in growth habit, not in longevity.
5. Reproduction began at about 24 years, when the palm still lacked an above-ground stem.
6. The population growth rate λ was 1·059, and was most sensitive to changes in survival of juveniles and adults, and relatively insensitive to changes in fecundity and growth.
7. River channel migration is the most important cause of adult mortality. Phytelephas seemannii is apparently an efficient colonizer of the understorey in the late phases of riverine forest succession.
8. The population can tolerate a harvest intensity of 86% of all seeds before λ decreases to the equilibrium level of 1·00. Monitoring of the populations under intensive harvesting is required.     

Surviving Shattered Worlds: Vietnam and Cambodia

Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam's Highland People during the Vietnam War . Gerald Cannon Hickey
Beyond the Killing Fields: Voices of Nine Cambodian Survivors in America . Usha Welaratna     

Gold in the ivory tower: equity rewards of outlicensing

An analysis of life-science initial public offerings from three time periods reveals that the equity share received by universities and their academic researchers has changed over time.     

Migration and Agricultural Change: The Case of Smallholder Agriculture in Highland Ecuador

A large and growing number of agricultural households in less developed countries are also engaged in international migration. Thousands of farmers from the highland provinces of Cañar and Azuay, Ecuador, have immigrated to metropolitan New York, where they work in menial jobs and remit, as a group, millions of dollars annually. This paper examines the effects of international migration on agricultural production and land-use in two regions of Cañar Province. An agricultural survey was administered in two communities to determine land-use and agricultural production of migrant and nonmigrant households. Contrary to most reports on the subject, migration has neither led to agricultural abandonment nor have remittances been dedicated to agricultural improvements. Semisubsistence agriculture remains an important riskaverse economic and cultural activity, but cultivation is a poor investment. A large investment in housing and land has converted much of the region into a peri-urban landscape of cultivated real estate.     

Cryo-electron tomography: The challenge of doing structural biology in situ

The mitotic segregation apparatus composed of microtubules and chromatin functions to faithfully partition a duplicated genome into two daughter cells. Microtubules exert extensional pulling force on sister chromatids toward opposite poles, whereas pericentric chromatin resists with contractile springlike properties. Tension generated from these opposing forces silences the spindle checkpoint to ensure accurate chromosome segregation. It is unknown how the cell senses tension across multiple microtubule attachment sites, considering the stochastic dynamics of microtubule growth and shortening. In budding yeast, there is one microtubule attachment site per chromosome. By labeling several chromosomes, we find that pericentromeres display coordinated motion and stretching in metaphase. The pericentromeres of different chromosomes exhibit physical linkage dependent on centromere function and structural maintenance of chromosomes complexes. Coordinated motion is dependent on condensin and the kinesin motor Cin8, whereas coordinated stretching is dependent on pericentric cohesin and Cin8. Linking of pericentric chromatin through cohesin, condensin, and kinetochore microtubules functions to coordinate dynamics across multiple attachment sites.     

Resurrection Plants: The Puzzle of Surviving Extreme Vegetative Desiccation

Tolerance to near complete desiccation of vegetative organs is a widespread capability in bryophytes and is also shared by a small group of vascular plants known as resurrection plants. To date more than 300 species, belonging to pteridophytes and angiosperms, have been identified that possess this kind of desiccation-tolerance. The vegetative desiccation-tolerance of resurrection plants is an inductive process displayed only under environmental stress with or without the involvement of abscisic acid as molecular signal. The different problems associated with desiccation encountered by resurrection plants render the employment of many interacting mechanisms necessary. Preservation of cell order and correct structure of membranes and macromolecules is underpinned by the synthesis of large amounts of sugars, amino acids, and small polypeptides such as late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins and dehydrins. Some of these compatible solutes, such as sucrose and LEA proteins, are also involved in cytoplasm vitrification, which occurs during the last phase of desiccation. Mechanical damage due to vacuole shrinkage in dehydrating cells is avoided by cell wall folding or by replacing the water in vacuoles with nonaqueous substances. Oxidative stress, due to enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) especially by chloroplasts, is minimized through two different strategies. The homoiochlorophyllous resurrection plants, which conserve chloroplasts with chlorophylls and thylakoids upon drying, fold leaf blades and synthesize anthocyanins, as both sunscreens and free radical scavengers, and additionally increase the activity of antioxidant systems in cells. In contrast, the chloroplasts in poikilochlorophyllous species degrade chlorophylls and thylakoid membranes yielding desiccoplasts that are devoid of any internal structures. These adaptive mechanisms preserve cells from damage by desiccation and allow them to resume vital functions once rehydrated. Even if based mainly on cell protection during drying, the vegetative desiccation-tolerance of resurrection plants also relies on systems of cell recovery and repair upon rehydration. However, most of these systems are prepared during cell dehydration.     

Oil industry, wild meat trade and roads: indirect effects of oil extraction activities in a protected area in north-eastern Ecuador

Starting in 1994, a wholesale wild meat market developed in north-eastern Ecuador, involving Waorani and Kichwa people in the area of influence of a road built to facilitate oil extraction within Yasuní National Park. Between 2005 and 2007, we recorded the trade of 11 717 kg of wild meat in this market, with pacas Cuniculus paca , white-lipped peccaries Tayassu pecari , collared peccaries Pecari tajacu and woolly monkeys Lagothrix poeppiggi accounting for 80% of the total biomass. Almost half of the wild meat brought to the market was transported by dealers for resale at restaurants in Tena, a medium-sized town 234 km west of the market. Prices of wild meat were 1.3–2 times higher than the price of meat of domestic animals, suggesting that it is a different commodity and not a supplementary protein source in the urban areas where it is consumed. The actual price of transportation between the local communities and the market was a significant predictor of the amount of meat sold in Pompeya. Based on this relationship the Waorani hunters sold exceptionally larger amounts of wild meat than would be expected if they would not have the transportation subsidies provided by the oil companies. Although the scale of this wild meat wholesale market is still relatively small, its dynamic reflects the complex interactions that emerge as the overriding influence of oil companies or other private industries modify the culture and subsistence patterns of marginalized indigenous groups, increasing their potential impacts on wildlife and natural ecosystems.     

The genus Cremosperma (Gesneriaceae) in Ecuador

A key to the 10 species of Cremosperma occurring in Ecuador is presented, including four new species that are described: C. ecuadoranum, C. humidum, C. muscicola and C. reldioides . A new variety is C. hirsutissimum var. glabrum. Cremosperma demissum and C. album , originally described from Ecuador and Colombia, respectively, are reduced to C. hirsutissimum var. demissum and C. hirsutissimum var. album. Cremosperma pusillum var. ecuadorense is transferred to C. hirsutissimum var. hirsutissimum . The distribution of Cremosperma is discussed.     

Ecological Imagery and Cultural Adaptability: The Canelos Quichua of Eastern Ecuador

Ecological imagery among the Upper Amazonian Canelos Quichua native peoples of eastern Ecuador provides a paradigmatic, symbolic template organized by sets of cosmological premises. This template, anchored by traditional shamanism and ceramic manufacture, is invoked in emotionally charged ceremonial and juropolitical contexts to express resistance to normative culture bearers who have a potential or real impact on the ecosystem and indigenous political economy. The imagery is described as it exists within a system of radical change. Mechanisms are discussed whereby ecosystem knowledge and social structure are systemically linked to cosmological premises within a dynamic system of indigenous cultural adaptability . [Ecuador, symbolism of Canelos Quichua, Amazonian cosmology, cultural adaptability, ecological imagery]