Endoribonuclease E (RNase E) is a regulator of global gene expression in Escherichia coli and is the best studied member of the RNase E/G ribonuclease family. Homologues are present in other bacteria but the roles of plant RNase E/G-like proteins are not known. Arabidopsis thaliana contains a single nuclear gene (At2g04270) encoding a product with the conserved catalytic domain of RNase E/G-lik...

*Correspondence: Douglas A. Campbell, Department of Biology, Mount Allison University, 63B York St., Sackville, NB E4L1G7, Canada e-mail: [email protected] Diatoms contribute ∼40% of primary production in the modern ocean and encompass the largest cell size range of any phytoplankton group. Diatom cell size influences their nutrient uptake, photosynthetic light capture, carbon export efficiency,...

Background: Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a common but very expensive herbal medicine. As an important traditional medicine, it has an outstanding effect in treating irregular and painful menstruation. Recently, the over-demand tendency of saffron results in an unusual phenomenon in the medicinal markets. Adulterants and saffron-like substitutes are intentionally mixed into medicinal markets a...

Taxonomic study of the genus Padina (Dictyotales, Phaeophyceae) from the Persian Gulf coast was conducted based on morphology and molecular phylogenetic analyses using chloroplast encoded large subunit RuBisCo (rbcL) gene sequences. Detailed descriptions of each species found in this study are described. Several morphological characters, such as number of cell layers composing the thallus, pr...

s. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden, 250. Conti E, Litt A, Sytsma KJ. 1996. Circumscription of Myrtales and their relationships to other rosids: evidence from rbcL sequence data. American Journal of Botany 83: 221–233. Contreras VR, Scogin R, Philbrick CT. 1993. A phytochemical study of selected Podostemaceae: systematic implications. Aliso 13: 513–520. Cronquist A. 1981. An integrated syst...

Generic concepts in the economically important agarophyte red algal family Gracilariaceae were evaluated based on maximum parsimony, Bayesian likelihood, and minimum evolution analyses of the chloroplast-encoded rbcL gene from 67 specimens worldwide. The results confirm the monophyly of the family and identify three large clades, one of which corresponds to the ancestral antiboreal genera Curdi...

BACKGROUND At present, plant molecular systematics and DNA barcoding techniques rely heavily on the use of chloroplast gene sequences. Because of the relatively low evolutionary rates of chloroplast genes, there are very few choices suitable for molecular studies on angiosperms at low taxonomic levels, and for DNA barcoding of species. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We scanned the entire chlo...

Phylogenetic resolution is often low within groups of recently diverged taxa due to a paucity of phylogenetically informative characters. We tested the relative utility of seven noncoding cpDNA regions and a pair of homoeologous nuclear genes for resolving recent divergences, using tetraploid cottons (Gossypium) as a model system. The five tetraploid species of Gossypium are a monophyletic asse...