Gene flow is a potential concern associated with the use of transgenic crops because it could affect genetic diversity of related landraces and wild relatives. This concern has taken on added importance with the looming introduction of transgenic crops in centers of crop domestication (Mexico, China) and those producing pharmaceutical compounds. For gene flow to take place among cultivars and t...

Contents 1. Introduction – biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems 2. Planned diversity and the functioning of agricultural systems 2.1. Intraspecific diversity 2.2. Species diversity 2.3. Habitat and landscape diversity 3. Unplanned diversity and the functioning of agricultural systems. 3.1. Pollination services 3.2. Soil processes 3.3. Natural pest control 4. Conclusions Bibliography Biograph...

The capsule polysaccharide locus (cps) is the site of the capsule biosynthesis gene cluster in encapsulated Streptococcus pneumoniae. A set of pneumococcal samples and non-pneumococcal streptococci from Denmark, the Gambia, the Netherlands, Thailand, the UK and the USA were sequenced at the cps locus to elucidate serologically mistyped or non-typable isolates. We identified a novel serotype 33B...

The evolution of multicellularity was one of the key innovations in the history of life on Earth. Virtually all morphological and ecological diversity in macro-organisms builds upon the evolutionary potential associated with multicellularity. We examined the potential for ecological diversity to rapidly arise following transitions to multicellularity. Replicate microcosms containing the yeast S...

We used hybridization to the ATH1 gene expression array to interrogate genomic DNA diversity in 23 wild strains (accessions) of Arabidopsis thaliana (arabidopsis), in comparison with the reference strain Columbia (Col). At <1% false discovery rate, we detected 77,420 single-feature polymorphisms (SFPs) with distinct patterns of variation across the genome. Total and pair-wise diversity was high...

Approximately 7000 marine zooplanktonic species have been described so far for the World Ocean; in the South Atlantic the presence of 40% of these has been confirmed, and an additional 20–30% are expected to be recorded in the future. The overall number of described species is very low when compared with other communities, and yet it may not be too far from the final, complete inventory. Very a...

Punctuated antigenic change is believed to be a key element in the evolution of influenza A; clusters of antigenically similar strains predominate worldwide for several years until an antigenically distant mutant emerges and instigates a selective sweep. It is thought that a region of East-Southeast Asia with year-round transmission acts as a source of antigenic diversity for influenza A and se...

chamomile (matricaria chamomilla), an important medicinal plant belonging to the asteraceae family,has a wide distribution in iran and other parts of the world. the medicinal and pharmacological effects ofchamomile are mainly associated with its essential oil content and it is widely used in food, cosmetics andpharmaceutical industries. despite its wide geographical distribution in iran, little...

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most significant cereal crops, about 3 billion people, nearly half the world's population; depend on rice for survival and it offers up to 80% of daily energy intake in most of the Asian countries. Knowledge of the distribution, extent and pattern of genetic variation is useful for estimation of any possible loss of genetic diversity and its role in breeding...