Zinc tolerance in populations ofDeschampsia cespitosa (Gramineae) beneath electricity pylons

Patterns of zinc tolerance were examined in eightDeschampsia cespitosa (L.)Beauv. populations from normal and zinc-contaminated soils, using solution culture methods. Zinc-tolerant populations have evolved beneath pylons, and their tolerance patterns (degree, variance, heritability) vary. Tolerance is genetically based in all of them. In contrast to the cases of other species previously reported, some within-population differences are considerable, and may be due to both heterogeneity of the soils zinc contents, various gene combinations and gene recombinations between genotypes. One control population contains many tolerant plants, an original result which is discussed.     

Strain-specific salt tolerance and chemotaxis ofAzospirillum brasilense and their associative N-fixation with finger millet in saline calcareous soil

Three salt-tolerantAzospirillum brasilense strains were isolated from the roots of finger millet grown in saline calcareous soil and characterized. The effect of various salts on growth and N₂ase activity of these strains was tested and strain STR1 was found more tolerant at higher concentrations of Cl^-, SO₄ ² and HCO₃ ^-. Bicarbonate was found to be the most toxic. The content and concentrations of root exudates of finger millet genotypes were different and chemotaxis to sugars, amino acids, organic acids and root exudates was strain specific. Under salt stress, significant interactions between strains and genotypes of finger millet resulted in different responses of N₂ase activity, endo- and exorhizospheric population, dry weight of root, shoot and grain yield.     

Isolation of a copper complex and its rate of appearance in roots of Mimulus guttatus

A Cu-complex was isolated from the roots of copper-tolerant Mimulus guttatus. The elution volume of the complex determined by gel permeation chromatography was similar to that of rat-liver cadmium thionein. The complex was heat stable, had a relatively high ratio of absorbance at 254 nm: 280 nm and incorporated ³⁵S. The complex, purified using a combination of gel permeation chromatography and anion-exchange chromatography, contained more glutamine/glutamic acid and glycine residues than mammalian metallothioneins. The amount of the complex in roots increased after 5 h growth in a solution containing 16 M Cu. Induction was preceded by an increase in the concentrations in root tissue of unknown compounds containing sulphur which may serve as precursors. The availability of these compounds appeared to regulate the rate of synthesis of this Cu-complex.Abbreviations CuBP copper-binding protein - HPLC highperformance liquid chromatography - MT metallothionein - Th thionein - Tris 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)1-3-propanediol     

Effects of salinity on uptake and distribution of Na+, Cl- and K+ in two wheat cultivars

Plants of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars differing in salt tolerance were grown in sand with nutrient solutions. 35-d-old plants were subjected to 5 levels of salinity created by adding NaCl, CaCl₂ and Na₂SO₄. Growth reduction caused by salinity was accompanied by increased Na⁺ and Cl^- concentrations, Na⁺/K⁺ ratio, and decreased concentration of K⁺. The salt tolerant cv. Kharchia 65 showed better ionic regulation. Salinity up to 15.7 dS m^-1 induced increased uptake of Na⁺ and Cl^- but higher levels of salinity were not accompanied by further increase in uptake of these ions. Observed increases in Na⁺ and Cl^- concentrations at higher salinities seemed to be the consequence of reduction in growth. Uptake of K⁺ was decreased; more in salt sensitive cultivar. This was also accompanied by differences in its distribution.     

芦苇耐盐变异植株及其细胞学鉴定

用甲基磺酸乙酯（ＥＭＳ）处理芦苇（Ｐｈｒａｇｍ ｉｔｅｓｃｏｍ ｍ ｕｎｉｓ Ｔｒｉｎ．）胚性愈伤组织。从处理后的愈伤组织诱导获得芦苇耐盐变异植株Ｒ５００２－１２。变异植株能在含有１％ ＮａＣｌ的ＭＳ培养基上生长。细胞学检查变异植株是混倍体,染色体数目变异范围在１００至３３ 之间。分蘖植株具有相似的形态学及染色体变异特性     

Thermal stratification and benthic foraging patterns of white sucker

Abundances of white sucker, 100–500 mm FL, were not significantly different among the epilimnia, metalimnia and portions of the hypolimnia shallower than 20 m in each of two lakes. However, small suckers < 200 mm were captured most frequently in the epilimnion and no white suckers were captured in the deepest region, 20–38 m, of the two lakes. White suckers consumed prey from all three temperature zones in each lake. Prominent food items were Hyalella azteca and the chironomid larvae Heterotrissocladius, Djalmabatista and Procladius. Despite differences in relative densities of benthic invertebrates among thermal zones of the two lakes, suckers in neither lake foraged exclusively on prey of epilimnetic origin. Suckers captured in the metalimnia foraged on invertebrates that were common to all three thermal zones. And, only 0–4% of the suckers captured in the hypolimnia of the two lakes contained prey that were unique to the epilimnia. Suckers caught in the hypolimnia mainly consumed deep water invertebrates; 83% of the suckers foraged in the metalimnion and hypolimnion of Islets Lake and 45% foraged in the hypolimnion in Burnt Island Lake. Consequently there was little evidence of a massive inshore feeding migration followed by a post-feeding return to the hypolimnion. Northern pike and lake trout rarely fed on white suckers in these lakes and thus piscivory was an unlikely factor in the observed distribution of suckers.     

MALDI-TOF-MS and 16S rRNA characterization of lead tolerant metallophile bacteria isolated from saffron soils of Kashmir for their sequestration potential

Toxic metal contamination in soils due industrialization is nowadays a concern to the scientists worldwide. The current study deals with the evaluation of response and tolerance by isolated metallophilic bacteria in different lead concentrations (100 ppm to 1000 ppm). By taking optical densities of the isolates, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Pb²⁺ were determined.16S rRNA and MALDI-TOF MS were used for the identification of the bacteria. Total of 37 isolates were observed, among them 04 (Staphylococcus equorum, Staphylococcus warneri, Bacillus safensis and Bacillus thuringiensis), isolated were detected having efficacy of Pb²⁺tolerance and sequestration at varying MIC. Furthermore, B. thuringiensis was observed to have highest (900 ppm) tolerance for lead and lowest (500 ppm) for Staphylococcus warneri. Moreover, the highest (65.3%) sequestration potential has been observed for B. thuringiensis and least (52.8%) for S. warneri. The tolerance and sequestration potential properties of these isolated species can be utilised to exterminate heavy metals and reduce their toxicity from the contaminated environment.     

Effect of bacterial inoculation of strains of pseudomonas aeruginosa,alcaligenes feacalis and bacillus subtilis on germination,growth and heavy metal (cd,cr, and ni) uptake of brassica juncea

Bacterial inoculation may influence Brassica juncea growth and heavy metal (Ni, Cr, and Cd) accumulation. Three metal tolerant bacterial isolates (BCr3, BCd33, and BNi11) recovered from mine tailings, identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa KP717554, Alcaligenes feacalis KP717561, and Bacillus subtilis KP717559 were used. The isolates exhibited multiple plant growth beneficial characteristics including the production of indole-3-acetic acid, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, insoluble phosphate solubilization together with the potential to protect plants against fungal pathogens. Bacterial inoculation improved seeds germination of B. juncea plant in the presence of 0.1 mM Cr, Cd, and Ni, as compared to the control treatment. Compared with control treatment, soil inoculation with bacterial isolates significantly increased the amount of soluble heavy metals in soil by 51% (Cr), 50% (Cd), and 44% (Ni) respectively. Pot experiment of B. juncea grown in soil spiked with 100 mg kg^?1 of NiCl₂, 100 mg kg^?1 of CdCl₂, and 150 mg kg^?1 of K₂Cr₂O₇, revealed that inoculation with metal tolerant bacteria not only protected plants against the toxic effects of heavy metals, but also increased growth and metal accumulation of plants significantly. These findings suggest that such metal tolerant, plant growth promoting bacteria are valuable tools which could be used to develop bio-inoculants for enhancing the efficiency of phytoextraction.     

A workflow to increase the detection rate of proteins from unsequenced organisms in high-throughput proteomics experiments

We present and evaluate a strategy for the mass spectrometric identification of proteins from organisms for which no genome sequence information is available that incorporates cross-species information from sequenced organisms. The presented method combines spectrum quality scoring, de novo sequencing and error tolerant BLAST searches and is designed to decrease input data complexity. Spectral quality scoring reduces the number of investigated mass spectra without a loss of information. Stringent quality-based selection and the combination of different de novo sequencing methods substantially increase the catalog of significant peptide alignments. The de novo sequences passing a reliability filter are subsequently submitted to error tolerant BLAST searches and MS-BLAST hits are validated by a sampling technique. With the described workflow, we identified up to 20% more groups of homologous proteins in proteome analyses with organisms whose genome is not sequenced than by state-of-the-art database searches in an Arabidopsis thaliana database. We consider the novel data analysis workflow an excellent screening method to identify those proteins that evade detection in proteomics experiments as a result of database constraints.     

Clustering of halophytic species from Cyprus based on ionic contents

This paper presents the work conducted on the chemical constituents of some common and widely distributed halophyte taxa from Cyprus with the aim that these studies will help in the evaluation of halophytes for different economical purposes. The plant species of Crithmum maritimum L., Limbarda crithmoides (L.) Dumort, Atriplex portulacoides L., Salsola kali L., Atriplex halimus L., Limonium oleifolium Mill., L. meyeri (Boiss.) Kuntze; and Tetraena alba (L.f.) Beier & Thulin were collected in the middle of July. The shoot tissue and leaf samples were collected from the natural habitats and left for drying under air circulation followed by placing them in oven at 60 °C for 96 hours. The material was crushed using mortar and pestle and subjected to an analysis of macro- and micro-nutrients and biochemical compounds. K⁺/Na⁺ in the leaf tissues of the dicot species showed relatively high values depicting their behavior as Na+ includes but very low Cl- levels were recorded. Out of the species investigated here in 4 TFAA content was rather high. Values ranging from 0.5% to 1% dry weight were exhibited in one species. However, only 3 species showed very low TFAA values. Later may be due to low nitrogen availability in their environment. The phenetic analyses of eight halophyte species performed on the data matrix using Ntsys-pc program version 2.1 revealed that, cluster analysis of the overall results obtained here leads to 2 clusters. This discrimination appears to be as a result of their different abilities to accumulate either proline or glycine betaine.