The genus Phytopythium (Peronosporales) has been described, but a complete circumscription has not yet been presented. In the present paper we provide molecular-based evidence that members of Pythium clade K as described by Lévesque & de Cock (2004) belong to Phytopythium. Maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (LSU and SSU) and mitochondrial DNA cyto...

DNA from 14 Pythium species, Verrucalvus flavofaciens and Zoophagus insidians was characterized by CsCl-bisbenzimide density gradients in order to investigate its taxonomic potential. A few incomplete analyses were made for other species. All clearly assignable Pythium species produced three DNA bands in the gradient. Pythium undulatum along with Verrucalvus and Zoophagus produced only two band...

One of the major field constraints to seed production in safflower has proven tobe soil born pathogens, Phytophthora drechsleri and Pythium ultimum. In order toevaluate the efficiency of a field-laboratory selection method to improve resistanceof safflower against soil born pathogens, Ph. drechsleri and P. ultimum, a two-yearinvestigation was conducted. The results showed that selection is an e...

Females are often considered responsible for hybridization between two species because usually they are the choosier sex and their cooperation is needed for successful copulation. However, males can also be responsible for hybridization, for example in species in which males are able to force copulation. We studied the pattern of hybridization in two congeneric damselfly species, Calopteryx spl...

There is increasing evidence that microbial volatiles (VOCs) play an important role in natural suppression of soil-borne diseases, but little is known on the factors that influence production of suppressing VOCs. In the current study we examined whether a stress-induced change in soil microbial community composition would affect the production by soils of VOCs suppressing the plant-pathogenic o...

Leaf composts were studied for their suppressive effects on Pythium ultimum sporangium germination, cottonseed colonization, and the severity of Pythium damping-off of cotton. A focus of the work was to assess the role of fatty-acid-metabolizing microbial communities in disease suppression. Suppressiveness was expressed within the first few hours of seed germination as revealed by reduced P. ul...

Molluscides have been used as one of the strategies to control schistosomiasis. Many plant extracts with molluscidal effects have been tested, but the action of the latex of Euphorbia splendens var. hislopii is considered the most promising because it meets the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). The objective of this study was to determine the lethal dose and identify the e...

Although predation is thought to affect species divergence, the effects of predator-mediated natural selection on species divergence and in nonadaptive radiations have seldom been studied. Wing melanization in Calopteryx damselflies has important functions in sexual selection and interspecific interactions and in species recognition. The genus Calopteryx and other damselfly genera have also bee...