Telling the Truth in Difficult Times: Malaysian Anthropologists and Orang Asli

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Comparative analysis of genetic diversity in pea assessed by RFLP- and PCR-based methods

DNA-based molecular-marker techniques have been proven powerful in genetic diversity estimations. Among them, RFLP was the first and is still the most commonly used in the estimation of genetic diversity of eukaryotic species. The recently developed PCR-based multiple-loci marker techniques, which include RAPD, AFLP, Microsatellite-AFLP and inter-SSR PCR, are playing increasingly important roles in this type of research. Despite the wide application of these techniques, no direct comparison of these methods in the estimation of genetic diversity has been carried out. Here we report a direct comparison of DNA-based RFLP with various PCR-based techniques regarding their informativeness and applicability for genetic diversity analysis. Among ten pea genotypes studied, all the PCR-based methods were much more informative than cDNA-RFLP. Genetic diversity trees were derived from each marker technique, and compared using Mantel's test. By this criterion, all trees derived from the various molecular marker techniques, except for the tree derived from inter-SSR PCR, were significantly correlated, suggesting that these PCR-based techniques could replace RFLP in the estimation of genetic diversity. On the basis of this result, AFLP analysis was applied to assess the genetic diversity of a sample of accessions representing the various species and subspecies within the genus Pisum.     

Effects of simulated browsing on growth and leaf chemical properties in Colophospermum mopane saplings

Browsing intensity influences a plant's response to herbivory. Plants face a trade-off between investment in the production of secondary compounds and investment in growth. To elucidate this trade-off, we simulated four browsing intensities (0%, 50%, 75% and 100%) on mopane saplings, Colophospermum mopane (J.Kirk ex Benth.) J.Léonard, in a greenhouse experiment. This showed that, with increasing defoliation intensity, plants change their investment strategy. At intermediate levels of defoliation (50%), mopane saplings increased the synthesis of condensed tannins, so that tannin concentrations followed a hump-shaped relation with defoliation intensity, with significantly higher tannin concentration at intermediate defoliation levels. When defoliated heavily (75% and 100%), tannin concentrations dropped, and plants were carbon stressed as indicated by a reduced growth rate of the stem diameter, and leaf production and mean individual leaf mass were reduced. This suggests that, at intermediate defoliation intensity, the strategy of the plants is towards induced chemical defences. With increasing defoliation, the relative costs of the secondary metabolite synthesis become too high, and therefore, the plants change their growing strategy. Hence, browsers should be able to benefit from earlier browsing by either adopting a low or a relatively high browsing pressure.