Pre-induction priming of the uterine cervix with oral prostaglandin E2 and a placebo

A double blind study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness or oral prostaglandin E2 as a means of improving the pelvic score prior to induction of labour. 48 patients who were greater than 37 were gestation and who had Bishop scores of less than 6 entered the study. Ten tablets were given on an hourly regime. Of 25 patients in the prostaglandin group, 17 were considered successes (68.0%), whereas of 23 patients who received a placebo, 9 were successes (39.1%). No adverse effects were recorded. Prostaglandin E2 is therefore considered a safe and effective method for priming the unfavourable cervix prior to induction of labour.     

Origin of the disjunct tetraploid Cardamine amporitana (Brassicaceae) assessed with nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequence data

Seventy-four nucleotide sequences from the ITS regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA and 76 from the trnL-trnF spacer of chloroplast DNA were used to address the origin of tetraploid Cardamine amporitana, the conspecifity of central Italian and northeastern Spanish populations, and the possible cause for such geographic disjunction. Because of the complex lineage relationships in Cardamine, the sampling included 22 taxa. In the results, both data sets are highly congruent in supporting a close relationship of C. amporitana to the widespread Eurasian C. amara. Low genetic variability in northeastern Spanish populations of C. amporitana suggests long-distance dispersal from central Italy. The interior position of the single northeastern Spanish haplotype in a statistical parsimony network of trnL-trnF haplotypes however does not support this scenario and invokes other plausible phylogeographic explanations. The disappearance of geographically intermediate populations and genetic impoverishment by migration and isolation, both probably associated with Quaternary climatic oscillations, appears as an alternative hypothesis to explain the phylogeographic pattern. A recent hybridization event is reported between C. amporitana and a diploid from the C. pratensis group in central Italy on the basis of additive polymorphisms in ITS for all the 22 distinguishing nucleotides.     

Additive polymorphisms and reticulation in an ITS phylogeny of thrifts (Armeria, Plumbaginaceae)

A parsimony analysis of 133 sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS1 + 5.8S + ITS2 region from 71 taxa in Armeria was carried out. The presence of additive polymorphic sites (APS; occurring in 14 accessions) fits the reticulate scenario proposed in previous work for explaining the ITS pattern of variation on a much smaller scale and is based mainly on the geographical structure of the data, irrespective of taxonomic boundaries. Despite the relatively low bootstrap values and large polytomies, part of which are likely due to disruptive effects of reticulation and concerted evolution in these multicopy sequences, the ITS analysis has phylogenetic and biogeographic implications. APS detected in this study are consistent with hypothesized hybridization events, although biased concerted evolution, previously documented in the genus, needs to be invoked for specific cases and may be responsible for a possible “sink” effect in terminals from a large clade. The causes for sequences of the same species appearing in different clades (here termed transclade) are discussed.