Apertural System and Exine Stratification in Thesium Divaricatum (Santalaceae)

The type and position of the particular apertural system in Thesium divaricatum has been discussed. The study of the exine stratification shows a discontinous endexine that can be explained by the harmomegathic efficiency hypothesis to accomodate volume changes, caused by climatic variation.     

Short-term impact of dry olive mill residue addition to soil on the resident microbiota

The short-term response of the resident soil bacterial and fungal communities to the addition of 5% (w/w) of either dry olive mill residue (DOR), DOR treated with Phlebia sp. (PTDOR) or DOR previously extracted with water (WEDOR) was investigated. As opposed to bacteria, the diversity of fungi increased upon the amendments as assessed by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 18S rDNA. Over the first 30 days, phospholipid fatty acids analyses indicated a gradual decrease in the relative abundances of Gram⁺ bacteria (from 44.8% to 37.9%) and a concomitant increase of Gram⁻ bacteria (from 37.3% to 51.2%) in DOR-amended soil. A considerable increase in the fungal/bacterial ratio was observed after 7 days in DOR, WEDOR and PTDOR-amended soils with respect to the control (0.316, 0.165 and 0.265, respectively, vs. 0.011). The overall microbial activity was stimulated by the amendments as indicated by the higher activity levels of both dehydrogenase and fluorescein diacetate hydrolase. These results indicate that DOR at the application level examined is not toxic on soil microorganisms.     

Electrophoretic mobility of N- and C-terminal monoferric fragments of bovine transferrin phenotypes AA,D1D1, D2D2, and EE,and N-terminal amino acid sequences

Iron-saturated bovine transferrins A, D1, D2, and E were cleaved by trypsin yielding monoferric fragments. The N-terminal fragments (F) of transferrins A and D2 had identical mobility in cellulose acetate electrophoresis, that of transferrin D1 a slower mobility, and that of E a still slower mobility. The C-terminal fragments (S) gave multiple bands which were essentially identical in the case of transferrins A, D1, and E, but of slower mobility in the case of transferrin D2. All four variants had identical N-terminal amino acid sequences. The electrophoretic mobility of the C-terminal fragments was reduced by neuraminidase treatment, but the N-terminal fragments were unaffected. The four transferrin variants therefore appear to be made up from three electrophoretically distinguishable N-terminal halves and two C-terminal halves. The feature responsible for the electrophoretic double banding of homozygous bovine asialotransferrins is consistently associated with the C-terminal half of the molecule.     

An autonomously replicating plasmid transforms Botrytis cinerea to phleomycin resistance

Abstract A transformation system has been developed for the pathogen fungus Botrytis cinerea , based on the utilization of the wide host plasmid pUT737 that contains the Sh ble gene, conferring resistance to phleomycin. Transformed protoplasts were regenerated at 10–25 μg ml⁻¹ of phleomycin, at a frequency of 25–40 transformants per μg of DNA, and they were resistant up to 50 μg ml⁻¹. Southern hybridization using undigested and digested total DNA showed the presence of circular autonomously replicating plasmid pUT737 in the transformants. Reisolated plasmid from transformed fungus transformed E. coli and rescued plasmid was identified as pUT737. Transformants were grown for four generations under non-selective conditions and replicative plasmids were still detected. Plasmids present in all transformants at this stage had been modified from native pUT737 and showed the same size and configuration indicating that selection through stabilizing plasmid forms has happened.