Pre-dispersal seed predators are often chosen as biocontrol agents because of their high impacts on plant fitness; however, they have a mixed record in realizing decreased plant population growth. Few studies have experimentally removed agents to explore their impact on weed population growth. Here, we used manipulative experiments with invasive yellow starthistle (YST), Centaurea solstitialis,...

Acyl carrier protein (ACP) contains an essential sulfhydryl group in its phosphopantetheine prosthetic group. We have investigated the state of this sulfhydryl in developing and mature spinach seed (Spinacia oleracea). Seed extracts were separated on sodium dodecyl sulfate or native polyacrylamide gels, blotted to nitrocellulose, and probed with antibodies raised against spinach ACP-I. In extra...

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are a diverse group of proteins and are highly abundant in plant species. Although majority of these sHSPs were shown to express specifically in seed, their potential function in seed physiology remains to be fully explored. Our proteomic analysis revealed that OsHSP18.2, a class II cytosolic HSP is an aging responsive protein as its abundance significantly inc...

The formation of abnormal amino acid residues is a major source of spontaneous age-related protein damage in cells. The protein l-isoaspartyl methyltransferase (PIMT) combats protein misfolding resulting from l-isoaspartyl formation by catalyzing the conversion of abnormal l-isoaspartyl residues to their normal l-aspartyl forms. In this way, the PIMT repair enzyme system contributes to longevit...

The stem and bulb nematode (Ditylenchus dipsaci) is a serious quarantine pest of vegetables spreading worldwide via seed and planting material. Currently, a hot water technique is used as the pre-seed treatment, which is difficult to execute and the risk of seed damage is high. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the (a) penetration of gaseous hydrogen cyanide (HCN) into garlic tissue...

Seed treatments of improved Kentucky bluegrass and fescue cultivars with carbofuran, oxamyl, and phenamiphos dissolved in acetone reduced seedling emergence, but treatments were not extremely phytotoxic. Phenamiphos was the most toxic, particularly at the 5,000 mug/ml concentration. Fresh weight of grass clippings 35 d following planting generally was greater in treatments than in controls exce...

Poor seed germination and early seedling growth associated with urea-induced soil ammonia volatilization are major constraints in the adoption of dry direct-seeded rice. To directly examine soil ammonia volatilization and its damage to seed germination and early seedling growth of dry direct-seeded rice when urea is applied at seeding, two Petri-dish incubation experiments and a field experimen...

Naphthalic anhydride is a seed-applied herbicide safener which reduces the toxicity of ima­ zethapyr, an imidazolinone herbicide, to maize (Zea mays L.). Protection of maize from ima­ zethapyr was dependent on the amount of naphthalic anhydride applied to the seed. M etabo­ lism of imazethapyr by maize roots and shoots was increased by exposure of the roots to a solution containing naphthalic a...

The foundation of many plant-ant mutualisms is ant protection of plants from herbivores in exchange for food and/or shelter. While the role of symbiotic ants in protecting plants from stem- and leaf-feeding herbivores has been intensively studied, the relationship between ant defense and measures of plant fitness has seldom been quantified. We studied ant aggression, damage by herbivores and se...

The sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), are important pests of corn in Brazil and have not been successfully managed, because of the difficulty of managing them with pesticides. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of Bt corn MON810, transformed with a gene from Baci...