Respiratory and Carbohydrate Changes in Developing Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Seeds in Relation to their Ability to Withstand Desiccation

In the development of garden pea seeds (P. sativum L., cv. ‘KelvedonWonder’) the ability to withstand desiccation was foundto be preceded by a fall in respiration rate and seed moisturecontent, both of which followed a sharp decline in ethanol-solublesugars. When harvested seeds were kept in high humidity conditionsrespiration was found to decline even though the moisture contentwas maintained. The fall in respiration was always associatedwith a fall in the level of sugars. Further experiments showedthat the seeds whose respiration had fallen in humid storagecould be induced to respire more rapidly by the addition ofsucrose. It is suggested that seeds can only withstand rapid desiccationafter a decrease in physiological activity following a fallin the supply of respiratory substrate in the form of sugars.     

Substrates Determine Spatial Distribution of Oxytricha bifaria (Ciliata Hypotrichida)

The extent to which a particular substrate (scratched glass) affects the distribution of a population ( Oxytricha bifaria ) that settled on it was measured, yielding the following results: (1) the species distinguishes among substrates slightly differing in the quality of their superficial scratches (average dimensions of 2, 2.8, 3.5, 6.5, 17 and 25 μm, respectively); (2) it "chooses" the preferred substrate by adopting specific differential behaviors; and (3) population cell density conditions its overall distribution.     

Selection of candidate coding DNA barcoding regions for use on land plants

An in silico screen of 41 of the 81 coding regions of the Nicotiana plastid genome generated a shortlist of 12 candidates as DNA barcoding loci for land plants. These loci were evaluated for amplification and sequence variation against a reference set of 98 land plant taxa. The deployment of multiple primers and a modified multiplexed tandem polymerase chain reaction yielded 85–94% amplification across taxa, and mean sequence differences between sister taxa of 6.1 from 156 bases of accD to 22 from 493 bases of matK. We conclude that loci should be combined for effective diagnosis, and recommend further investigation of the following six loci: matK, rpoB, rpoC1, ndhJ, ycf5 and accD. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 159 , 1–11.