The attitudes of riparian communities to the presence of water hyacinth in the Wouri River Basin,Douala, Cameroon

Since publication of the first record of Eichhornia crassipes in Cameroon in 1997, the weed has become highly invasive in the Wouri River Basin. Between June and September 2014, a socio-economic survey using participatory and qualitative methods was undertaken in the riparian villages of the Wouri River Basin to assess the perception of respondents to the presence of water hyacinth. The survey revealed that water hyacinth was a significant threat to activities along the river, which included fishing, sand extraction and river transportation. The presence of water hyacinth mats reduced catch rates of several common fish species, river transportation by 75%, and significantly reduced the income for sand extraction. Cameroon employs manual clearing of water hyacinth; however, respondents indicated they would consider other control methods, provided they do not have any negative impacts.     

The effects of water content of the topsoil on micronutrient availability and uptake in a siliceous sandy soil

Summary Effects of water content of the topsoil on the supply of manganese, zinc and copper to plants from an acid, siliceous sandy soil were investigated. The experiment was designed to provide a good supply of water and of nutrients other than those mentioned above at all times.Water content of the topsoil affected the root growth in that layer significantly. However, drying of the topsoil for as long as 42 days did not significantly affect the concentration of micronutrients in the shoots of oats, provided the plants did not experience water stress.Despite the acidic, siliceous sandy nature of the topsoil it showed a surprisingly high ability to render added manganese, zinc and copper unavailable. This phenomenon, probably mediated by organic matter, had a dominant effect on the exchangeable micronutrients in comparison to the effects due to fluctuations in soil water content.     

The effects of drying of the topsoil and of micronutrients in the subsoil on micronutrient uptake by an intermittently defoliated ryegrass

Summary A glasshouse experiment was conducted to study the effects of water content of the topsoil on the micronutrient nutrition of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) growing in a siliceous sandy soil of marginal micronutrient status, with and without a supply of micronutrients at lower depths. The main objectives were to investigate whether micronutrient supplies would be sustained for the regrowth of defoliated grass after the topsoil had dried, and to assess the contribution made by small amounts of micronutrients in the subsoil to nutrient supply.In the absence of supply from deeper layers, topsoil drying rapidly induced deficiency of micronutrients, particularly of manganese, resulting in significant yield depression. When small amounts of micronutrients were present in a deeper, wet layer there was little reduction in yield after the topsoil had dried.The evidence suggests that, provided the roots had access to water in the subsoils, significant amounts of manganese, zinc and copper can be absorbed from topsoils as dry or drier than wilting point. Supply of micronutrients to the subsoil appears to have enhanced the efficiency of manganese absorption from dry topsoil.     

Expression of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A in Escherichia coli

A synthetic gene for bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A (RNase A) has been expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion protein with beta-galactosidase linked by the tetrapeptide Ile-Glu-Gly-Arg. RNase A was cleaved from the fusion using factor Xa, and the resulting product purified and reconstituted. The isolated RNase A was chromatographically, catalytically, and immunologically identical with authentic RNase A. This work argues that the method suggested by Nagai and Thogersen [Nagai, K. & Thogersen, H. C. (1984) Nature (Lond.) 309, 810-812] for releasing fusion proteins is quite general, even when applied to particularly complicated expression problem. The procedure here makes RNase A available for the first time as a model for studying structure-function relationships in proteins using site-directed mutagenesis.