FOSSIL WOOD OF ROBINIA AND GLEDITSIA FROM THE TERTIARY OF MONTANA

Prakash , U., E. S. Barghoorn , and R. A. Scott . (Harvard U., Cambridge, Mass.) Fossil wood of Robinia and Gleditsia from the Tertiary of Montana . Amer. Jour. Bot. 49(7): 692–696. Illus. 1962.—Fossil woods representing 2 genera of the Leguminosae, Robinia Linnaeus and Gleditsia Clayton, have been identified from Tertiary beds in southern Montana. These woods are noteworthy owing to their exceptionally fine structural preservation and from the standpoint of their paleogeographical distribution. Neither genus now lives in the region of Montana.     

Tissue repair in a poikilothermic vertebrate, Carassius auratus (L.): a preliminary study

The effects of mechanical injury on the skin, connective tissue, muscle and bone of the goldfish is described 28 days following the injury. There is evidence of a dynamic response but the apparent inability of muscle regeneration to any degree is noted.     

The anal sac secretion of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes); its chemistry and microbiology. A comparison with the anal sac secretion of the lion (Panthera leo)

Phenylacetic, 3-phenylpropionic, $\text{p}$-hydroxyphenylacetic and 3 ($\text{p}$-hydroxyphenyl) propionic acids together with the series of C₂ to C₆ saturated fatty acids previously reported in the anal sac secretion of the red fox ($\text{Vulpes vulpes}$) are identified as constituents of the anal sac secretion of the lion (Panthera leo). All these compounds are also observed in the anal sac secretion of the red fox using gas chromatography. The aerobic microflora of red fox and domestic dog ($\text{Canis familiaris}$) anal sac secretion samples invariably consisted predominantly of $\text{Streptococcus faecium}$ and $\text{Streptococcus faecalis}$. The hypothesis that the secretion volatiles so far identified may be microbiologically produced is examined.     

Ontogeny of the proventitious epicormic buds in Quercus petraea.

In the present work, we described the fate of proventitious epicormic buds on the trunks of 40-year-old Quercus petraea trees and in parallel the vascular trace they produced in the wood. Our results show that small and large individual epicormic buds can survive as buds for 40 years and that both are composed of a terminal meristem and scales. Meristematic areas are detected in the scale axils of small buds; in addition to these meristems the large buds also have secondary bud primordia. The small buds are connected to the pith of the main stem by a unique trace, whereas the large buds are connected by one or multiple traces. A single trace might imply that the whole bud is still alive and multiple traces might indicate that the terminal meristem has died. In the latter case, each trace is connected to a secondary bud of the large bud. The buds found in a cluster are composed of a terminal meristem and scales with axillary meristems in the scale axils. A cluster is connected to the pith of a stem either by a unique trace when it seems to be the result of partial abscission of an epicormic shoot or multiple traces when it might have originated from an epicormic bud in which the terminal meristem has died. Whatever the type of the bud, the vascular trace in the bark is composed of a cambium, secondary xylem and parenchyma cells and the trace present in the wood had parenchyma cells with vestiges of secondary xylem. Each year, the vascular trace should be produced in the bark by the cambium of the tree but not by the bud itself. On 40-year-old Q. petraea, we observed a proliferation of epicormic buds and in parallel a multiplication of the number of vascular traces in the trunk, but the knots caused by the traces of epicormic buds in the wood, either as individuals or in clusters, are minor since their colours are only slightly darker than those of woody rays and they are less than 2 mm in diameter. The knots will appear when epicormic buds develop into shoots. Received: 30 March 1999 / Accepted: 09 June 1999     

Circadian clock adjustment to plant iron status depends on chloroplast and phytochrome function

Plant chloroplasts are not only the main cellular location for storage of elemental iron (Fe), but also the main site for Fe, which is incorporated into chlorophyll, haem and the photosynthetic machinery. How plants measure internal Fe levels is unknown. We describe here a new Fe‐dependent response, a change in the period of the circadian clock. In Arabidopsis, the period lengthens when Fe becomes limiting, and gradually shortens as external Fe levels increase. Etiolated seedlings or light‐grown plants treated with plastid translation inhibitors do not respond to changes in Fe supply, pointing to developed chloroplasts as central hubs for circadian Fe sensing. Phytochrome‐deficient mutants maintain a short period even under Fe deficiency, stressing the role of early light signalling in coupling the clock to Fe responses. Further mutant and pharmacological analyses suggest that known players in plastid‐to‐nucleus signalling do not directly participate in Fe sensing. We propose that the sensor governing circadian Fe responses defines a new retrograde pathway that involves a plastid‐encoded protein that depends on phytochromes and the functional state of chloroplasts.     

Molecular Reclassification of Crohn’s Disease: A Cautionary Note on Population Stratification

Complex human diseases commonly differ in their phenotypic characteristics, e.g., Crohn’s disease (CD) patients are heterogeneous with regard to disease location and disease extent. The genetic susceptibility to Crohn’s disease is widely acknowledged and has been demonstrated by identification of over 100 CD associated genetic loci. However, relating CD subphenotypes to disease susceptible loci has proven to be a difficult task. In this paper we discuss the use of cluster analysis on genetic markers to identify genetic-based subgroups while taking into account possible confounding by population stratification. We show that it is highly relevant to consider the confounding nature of population stratification in order to avoid that detected clusters are strongly related to population groups instead of disease-specific groups. Therefore, we explain the use of principal components to correct for population stratification while clustering affected individuals into genetic-based subgroups. The principal components are obtained using 30 ancestry informative markers (AIM), and the first two PCs are determined to discriminate between continental origins of the affected individuals. Genotypes on 51 CD associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are used to perform latent class analysis, hierarchical and Partitioning Around Medoids (PAM) cluster analysis within a sample of affected individuals with and without the use of principal components to adjust for population stratification. It is seen that without correction for population stratification clusters seem to be influenced by population stratification while with correction clusters are unrelated to continental origin of individuals.