Ipomoea (morning glory) is the largest genus in the family Convolvulaceae. Cultivation of morning glory plants began in the late Edo period in Japan, and this horticultural success resulted in thousands of plants with varying floral displays. In addition to the different flower morphologies, leaf shape is highly variable within this family making it an ideal group in which to study leaf develop...

phosphate (p) is one of the key substrates in energy metabolism and biosynthesis of nucleic acids and membranes. in order to identify molecular mechanisms involved in rice adaptation to p deficiency, we applied a proteomic approach to compare a rice parental line, nipponbare (sensitive), and its near isogenic line (nil6-4) (resistant). the experiment was conducted using a completely randomized ...

Interest in the structure and function of physical biological networks has spurred the development of a number of theoretical models that predict optimal network structures across a broad array of taxonomic groups, from mammals to plants. In many cases, direct tests of predicted network structure are impossible given the lack of suitable empirical methods to quantify physical network geometry w...

This work tested the hypothesis that ectomycorrhizas (EM) of Dicymbe corymbosa alter leaf-litter decomposition and residual litter quality in tropical forests of Guyana. Mass loss of leaf litter in litter bags was determined on three occasions, in two experiments, during a 12-month period. Paired root-exclusion plots were located randomly within a D. corymbosa forest. Both D. corymbosa and mixe...

A digital image analysis method previously used to evaluate leaf color changes due to nutritional changes was modified to measure the severity of several foliar fungal diseases. Images captured with a flatbed scanner or digital camera were analyzed with a freely available software package, Scion Image, to measure changes in leaf color caused by fungal sporulation or tissue damage. High correlat...

To explore genome-wide DNA polymorphisms and identify DNA markers for leaf margin phenotypes, a restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing analysis was employed to analyze three bulked DNAs of F1 progeny from a cross between a 'piping-leaf-type' cultivar, 'Yugafu', and a 'spiny-tip-leaf-type' variety, 'Yonekura'. The parents were both Ananas comosus var. comosus. From the analysis, piping-leaf ...

Diverse leaf forms ranging from simple to compound leaves are found in plants. It is known that the final leaf size and shape vary greatly in response to developmental and environmental changes. However, changes in leaf size and shape have been quantitatively characterized only in a limited number of species. Here, we report development of LeafletAnalyzer, an automated image analysis and classi...

Apterous populations of Chaitophorous populicola Thomas (Homoptera: Aphididae) appear to track Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr.) leaf development. Few aphids occur onmature leaves.Marked individual aphids on leaves of different developmental stageswereobserved through a period of new leaf initiation. Nymph and adult C. populicola frequently track leaf development bymoving up to youn...

We present a global assessment of the relationships between the short-wave surface albedo of forests, derived from the MODIS satellite instrument product at 0.5° spatial resolution, with simulated atmospheric nitrogen deposition rates (Ndep ), and climatic variables (mean annual temperature Tm and total annual precipitation P), compiled at the same spatial resolution. The analysis was performed...

Mulberry (Morus spp.) is a perennial tree cultivated for its foliage to rear the domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori L. Mulberry has improved through conventional breeding in general aims to improve the quantity and quality of leaf yield, which have direct bearing on silk productivity. Leaf senescence is one of the major constraints, which restricts the quantity of quality leaf availability for ...