Obligate Acacia ant plants house mutualistic ants as a defense mechanism and provide them with extrafloral nectar (EFN). Ant/plant mutualisms are widespread, but little is known about the biochemical basis of their species specificity. Despite its importance in these and other plant/animal interactions, little attention has been paid to the control of the chemical composition of nectar. We foun...

The polysaccharide exuded by Acacia decurrens trees contains residues of D-galactose , LArabinose , L-Fucose and Dglucuronic acid. An examination of the OMethyl derivatives of the gum yields 2,3,4,6 tetra –O-methyl –D-galactose, 2,3 –di-O-Methyl –L-arabinose , 2,3,4-triO-methyl-D-galactose, 2,4-di-O-methyl-D-galactose together with 2,3,4 tri-O-methyl-Dglucuronic acid by acid hydrolysis. The deg...

Intracellular endosymbiotic bacteria are common and can play a crucial role for insect pathology. Therefore, such bacteria could be a potential key to our understanding of major losses of Western honey bees (Apis mellifera) colonies. However, the transmission and potential effects of endosymbiotic bacteria in A. mellifera and other Apis spp. are poorly understood. Here, we explore the prevalenc...

Synbiotics offer potential in the prophylactic management of gastrointestinal disorders. Therefore, present study evaluates the effect of prebiotics (inulin and gum acacia) on Lactocaillus plantarum for developing a freeze-dried synbiotic product from the selected culture. L. plantarum exhibited the highest specific growth rate (0.23/h) in presence of inulin followed by gum acacia (0.22/h) and ...

Honeybees are threatened by various pathogens and parasites. More than 18 viruses have been described in honeybees and many of them have been detected in China and Argentina. In China, both Apis cerana and Apis mellifera are raised. In Argentina, beekeepers raise different ecotypes of A. mellifera: European honeybees (in both temperate and subtropical regions) and Africanised honeybees (in subt...

Studying the genetic signatures of climate-driven selection can produce insights into local adaptation and the potential impacts of climate change on populations. The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an interesting species to study local adaptation because it originated in tropical/subtropical climatic regions and subsequently spread into temperate regions. However, little is known about the genet...

Determining how competing species coexist is essential to understanding patterns of biodiversity. Indirect facilitation, in which a competitively dominant species exerts a positive effect on one competitor by more strongly suppressing a third, shared competitor, is a potentially potent yet understudied mechanism for competitive coexistence. Here we provide evidence for indirect facilitation in ...

Ritonavir, a widely prescribed anti-retroviral drug, belongs to Class II under 'BCS' and exhibit low and variable oral bioavailability due to its poor aqueous solubility. Ritonavir is practically insoluble in water and aqueous fluids. Its aqueous solubility was reported to be 2.56 mg/100 ml. As such oral absorption of ritonavir is dissolution rate limited and it requires enhancement in solubili...

The ®rst stage of leaf litter decomposition of two eucalyptus hybrids and Acacia auriculiformis was studied in laboratory experiments where the decaying leaves were leached with water. Although the litter of both the species were characterized by a high content of soluble compounds, little soluble organic matter of acacia litter was recovered in litter leachates. By contrast, soluble organic ma...

Legumes are a highly diverse angiosperm family that include many agriculturally important species. To date, 21 complete chloroplast genomes have been sequenced from legume crops confined to the Papilionoideae subfamily. Here we report the first chloroplast genome from the Mimosoideae, Acacia ligulata, and compare it to the previously sequenced legume genomes. The A. ligulata chloroplast genome ...