We report the results of high-angular-resolution observations that search for exozodiacal light in a sample of main sequence stars and sub-giants. Using the “jouvence” of the fiber linked unit for optical recombination (JouFLU) at the center for high angular resolution astronomy (CHARA) telescope array, we have observed a total of 44 stars. Out of the 44 stars, 33 are new stars added to the ini...

Plants enlarge mostly because the walls of certain cells enlarge, with accompanying input of wall constituents and other factors from the cytoplasm. However, the enlargement can occur without input, suggesting an uncertain relationship between cytoplasmic input and plant growth. Therefore, the role of the input was investigated by quantitatively comparing growth in isolated walls (no input) wit...

In order to determine the concentration of pyrophosphate (PPi) and its subcellular distribution in Chara corallina, a new method to concentrate PPi from cell extracts was developed. PPi was extracted and concentrated as CazPzO, under alkaline conditions. The amount of PPi in the precipitate was measured using an enzyme system containing pyrophosphate:fructose6-phosphate 1-phosphotransferase (E...

In contrast to higher plants, Chara rhizoids have single membrane-bound compartments that appear to function as statoliths. Rhizoids were generated by germinating zygotes of Chara in either soil water (SW) medium or artificial pond water (APW) medium. Differential-interference-contrast microscopy demonstrated that rhizoids form SW-grown plants typically contain 50 to 60 statoliths per cell, w...