CROSSING EXPERIMENTS,LIPID COMPOSITION,AND THE SPECIES CONCEPT IN ECTOCARPUS SILICULOSUS AND E. FASCICULATUS (PHAEOPHYCEAE,ECTOCARPALES)1

Sporophytes of Ectocarpus siliculosus (Dillwyn) Lyngbye and E. fasciculatus Harvey were collected in the vicinity of Roscoff Brittany, France. Gametophytes derived from meiospores were used for intra- and interspecific crosses. Intraspecific gamete combinations gave viable zygotes, which developed into fertile sporophytes. Interspecific crosses were unsuccessful. Gamete fusions did not occur between female gametes of E. fasciculatus and male gametes of E. siliculosus. Hybrid zygotes were formed in the reciprocal combination but died soon after germination. We conclude that the two species of Ectocarpus at Roscoff represent distinct taxonomic entities, which are separated by pre- and postzygotic compatibility barriers. These biological findings are confirmed by the differential occurrence of the chemotaxonomic marker betaine-lipid diacetylglycerylhydroxymethyltrimethyl-β-alanine, which is present in our cultures of E. fasciculatus but absent in E. siliculosus.     

Leilani Muir versus the Philosopher King: Eugenics on trial in Alberta

The Province of Alberta in Canada was the only jurisdiction in the British Empire where a eugenic sterilization law was passed (in 1928) and vigorously implemented. The pace of sterilization orders accelerated during the Nazi era and remained high after World War II, terminating only in 1972 when the Sexual Sterilization Act was repealed. The Alberta Eugenics Board operated away from public and legislative scrutiny, and many things done in the name of eugenics were clearly illegal. Eugenics was put on trial in Alberta in 1995 and a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench ruled in 1996 that the government had wrongly sterilized Leilani Muir. After hearing evidence about the history of the eugenics movement, the origins of Alberta's Sexual Sterilization Act, the operation of the Eugenics Board, and details of Muir's life, Madam Justice Joanne B. Veit found that ‘the damage inflicted by the operation was catastrophic’, the ‘wrongful stigmatization of Ms. Muir as a moron ⋯ has humiliated Ms. Muir every day of her life’, and ‘the circumstances of Ms. Muir's sterilization were so high-handed and so contemptuous of the statutory authority to effect sterilization, and were undertaken in an atmosphere that so little respected Ms. Muir's human dignity that the community's, and the court's, sense of decency is offended’. Veit awarded Muir damages of $740,780 CAD and legal costs of $230,000 CAD. The order for Muir's sterilization was signed by John M. MacEachran, founder of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Alberta and chairman of the Eugenics Board from 1929 to 1965. An exponent of Platonic idealism, MacEachran believed sterilization of children with a low IQ test score was a means of ‘raising and safeguarding the purity of the race’. However, the Alberta Sterilization Act was passed and implemented with cavalier disregard for the principles of genetics as well as the rights of children. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

CULTURE AND HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES ON GIGARTINA PAPILLATA (RHODOPHYTA)1

The foliose red alga Gigartina papillata (C. Ag.) J. Ag. was studied in culture to determine its life history and possible relationship to the life history of Petrocelis middendorffii (Ruprecht) Kjellman. Carpospores cultured from individual female plants gave rise to either crustose Petrocelis-like plants that reproduced by tetraspores, or to another generation of foliose female (cystocarpic) plants that reproduced by carpospores. Apices cultured from blades of individual field-collected female plants produced either papillae with many procarps that developed cystocarps only when crossed with male plants, or papillae with few procarps that produced cystocarps in the absence of male plants. The results are interpreted to demonstrate that two types of life history occur in G. papillata: one, a sexual life history involving a crustose tetrasporophyte; the other, a possibly apomictic life history involving only cystocarpic plants. Hybridization experiments demonstrated, that G. papillata is interfertile with Gigartina-phase gametophytes cultured from tetraspores of P. middendorffii. Sexual plants of G. papillata are postulated to represent the naturally-occurring gametophyte of P. middendorffii in California. The possible relationships of the sexual and apomictic plants of G. papillata are discussed.     

CULTURE STUDY OF REPRODUCTIVE CYCLES AND SYSTEMATICA IN MOUGEOTIA TRANSEAUI (CHLOROPHYTA)1,2

Asexual and sexual reproductive cyries are described and illustrated for a cultured homothallic strain of Mougeotia transeaui Collins. Reproduction is by aplanospores and zygospores. Aplanospore formation precedes zygospore formation and continues longer with regreening of older cultures occurring regularly from precocious germination of aplanospores. Aplanospores typically form when most of the protoplast moves into the central swollen region of a cell and two new cross walls form to delimit an aplanosporangium. Conjugation is scalariform without the movement and fusion of well-organized gametes. During zygospore maturation, three new cross walls form in the receptive gametangium and conjugation tube to produce a zygosporangium.     

Gynandromorphs of the pycnogonid Anoplodactylus portus

A large sample of the pycriogonid Anoplodactylus portus , collected from the Pacific side of the Panama Canal Zone, contains a high percentage of gynandromorphs. The literature on aquatic arthropod gynandromorphs is outlined. The nature and variations of the sexual mosaic population are described and discussed. The several morphological differences between normal and mosaic members of the population are illustrated, and the possible origin of these gynandromorphs is discussed.