Transgenic cotton resistant to herbicide bialaphos

Resistance to bialaphos, a non-selective herbicide, was intro duced into cotton through genetic engineering. A gene encoding phosphinothric in acetyltransferase (bar) from Streptomyces hygroscopicus was inserted into elite varieties of cotton through particle bombardment. Based on the marker gene, -glucuronidase (gus) expression, a total of 18 Pima (Gossypium barbadense), 45 DP50 (G. hirsutum L.), 20 Coker 312 (G. hirsutum) and 2 El Dorado (G. hirsutum) transgenic plants were recovered. Integration of the bar gene into cotton genomic DNA was confirmed by Southern blot analysis and gene expression was confirmed by northern blot and enzyme assays. Herbicide (Basta®) tolerance up to 15 000 ppm was demonstrated in greenhouse trials. The newly introduced herbicide tolerance trait is inherited in a Mendelian fashion in the progenies of germline transformants. This study demonstrates the potential for particle bombardment to introduce commerically important genes directly into elite varieties of cotton. This mode of gene transfer can expedite the introduction of transgenic cotton products into world markets     

A revision of Nereimyra (Psamathini,Hesionidae, Aciculata,Annelida)

Nereimyra Blainville, 1828 (Psamathini, Hesionidae, Aciculata, Annelida) is revised based on examination of all available types and newly collected specimens. We assessed the phylogeny of Nereimyra in an analysis based on cytochrome oxidase c subunit I (COI), 16S rDNA, 18S rDNA, and 28S rDNA. The genus is delineated to include the three species Nereimyra aphroditoides (Fabricius, 1780), Nereimyra punctata (O.F. Müller, 1776), and Nereimyra woodsholea (Hartman, 1965), which are redescribed. Nereimyra punctata has a characteristic pigmentation, but otherwise there are no clear morphological characters for separating the species. Based on the molecular data we obtained strong support both for the monophyly of Nereimyra and for each of the three included species. Nereimyra punctata and N. woodsholea are sister species, and the Kimura two‐parameter (K2P)‐corrected COI distances between the three species are 16–23%. Syllidia Quatrefages, 1866, is sister group to Nereimyra. Previous uncertainties regarding the type species of the genus are settled to Nereis rosea Fabricius, 1780, junior synonym of N. aphroditoides. A neotype is designated for N. aphroditoides. The distribution of Nereimyra is at present restricted to the Arctic and the boreal parts of the North Atlantic, possibly extending to the Gulf of Mexico on the United States east coast. Records outside this area require verification. Castalia multipapillata Théel, 1879, and Nereimyra alvinae Blake, 1985, are of uncertain affinity and are treated as nomina dubia. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 164 , 36–51.     

The isolation of nucleoli from ungerminated pea embryos

A method is described for the isolation of nuclei and nucleoli from ungerminated pea embryos. Electron micrographs of the nucleolar preparation indicate a high degree of purity but only a partial preservation of composition, because of a loss of material from the nucleoli which occurs during the isolation procedure.