Economic history of ostrich fern,Matteuccia struthiopteris,the edible fiddlehead

Although the ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris,is distributed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere, its consumption as a spring vegetable has been largely restricted to the tables of the Maritime Provinces in Canada and neighboring Maine in the United States. However, in little more than a decade the demand has expanded beyond these traditional boundaries, due to the present availability of the frozen product. The heart of the industry is undoubtedly New Brunswick. The harvest of 200 t/yr is approximately 4 times that of Maine, and from an historical vantage the traditional use as a spring vegetable is with the New Brunswickers as well. In light of the present high demand for the product and the reports of localized overpicking, a review of the economic history, resource management and attempts at cultivation is presented.     

Application of the Indirect Immunoperoxidase Stain Technique to the Flagella of Azospirillum brasilense

An indirect immunoperoxidase stain was used to demonstrate by electron microscopy that an antigenic difference exists between the polar flagellum and the lateral flagella of Azospirillum brasilense ATCC 29145.     

Elytrigia turcica sp. nova,an octoploid species of theE. elongata complex

Elytrigia turcica sp. nov., (Poaceae) (2n=8x=56), a member of the polyploid complex related toE. elongata (Host) Nevski, (2n=2x=14), is described and distinguished fromE. pontica (Podp.) Holub, (2n=10x=70), which it most resembles.     

Enucleation eliminates a differentiation-specific surface marker from normal and leukemic murine erythroid cells

Mammalian erythropoiesis includes a step in which the nucleus is extruded through the cell membrane. We have investigated the relationship between concanavalinA (conA) plasma membrane receptors, which are known to leave the incipient reticulocyte during enucleation, and regions of the plasma membrane which bind merocyanine 540, a differentiation-specific marker of hematopoietic cells. The distribution of these two fluorescent probes was examined on living cells from the spleens of neonatal mice and on erythroleukemia cells induced to enucleate in culture. In both cases, the region of the membrane extruded with the nucleus preferentially binds conA and merocyanine 540, whereas the plasma membrane which is left behind retains the capacity to bind another lectin, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA). The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the mechanism by which markers are eliminated from the erythrocyte cell surface.