Following publication of the original article [1] author Hatem Shabana wrote to say that one of her affiliations was missing. The affiliation is as follows: Departmento de Biología Vegetal, Universidad de Málaga, P. O. Box 59, 29080 Málaga, Spain.

We developed a HPLC/MS method for the identification and determination of solanine in plants. This method was applied for samples of Solanum dulcamara (from Iaşi and Vânători Neamţ areas in Romania) and Physalis alkekengi (from Bucium and Breazu, Iaşi, Romania) during August-September 2009. Isolation of solanine was performed by extraction with a mixture consisting of water/methanol/acetic acid...

In Xenopus, endodermal cell fate is determined gradually from late blastula to early gastrula stages; cell-cell interaction plays an important role in this process. Here we use a cell dissociation assay to show that extracellular signaling is required continuously before endoderm determination. Activin and Vg1, but not BMP2 or basic FGF, rescue the expression of endodermal markers in dissociate...

BACKGROUND Herbaceous plants are common vegetal species generally exposed, for a limited period of time, to bioavailable environmental pollutants. Heavy metals contamination is the most common form of environmental pollution. Herbaceous plants have never been used as natural bioindicators of environmental pollution, in particular to monitor the amount of heavy metals in soil. In this study, we ...

1 Departamento de Biologia Animal e Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Londrina. E-mail: [email protected] (autor para correspodências) 2 Departamento de Biologia Animal e Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Londrina. E-mail: [email protected] 3 Departamento de Biologia Animal e Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Londrina. E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.5433/1679-0367.2013v34n2p149 This...

We examined the reorganization of actin filaments and microtubules during Xenopus oocyte maturation. Surrounding the germinal vesicle (GV) in immature oocytes, the cytoplasmic actin filaments reorganized to accumulate beneath the vegetal side of the GV, where the microtubule-organizing center and transient microtubule array (MTOC-TMA) assembled, just before GV breakdown (GVBD). Immediately afte...

The distribution of annulate lamellae, electron-dense masses, rough endoplasmic reticulum, and Golgi complexes in longitudinal sections of newt oocytes at several stages of progesterone-induced maturation was recorded with an electron microscope equipped with a drawing device. Annulate lamellae in full-grown oocytes occur in close contact with electron-dense masses and the nuclear envelope and ...

Pattern formation in early embryogenesis is guided by maternal, localized determinants and by inductive interactions between cells. In Xenopus eggs, localized molecules have been identified and some, such as Vg1 and Xwnt-11, can specify cell fates by functioning as inducers or patterning agents. We have used differential screening to identify new Xenopus genes that regulate mesodermal patternin...

Embryonic morphogenesis takes place via a series of dramatic collective cell movements. The mechanisms that coordinate these intricate structural transformations across an entire organism are not well understood. In this study, we used gentle mechanical deformation of developing zebrafish embryos to probe the role of physical forces in generating long-range intercellular coordination during epi...

Following fertilization, the Xenopus egg cortex rotates relative to the cytoplasm by 30 degrees about a horizontal axis. The direction of rotation, and as a result the orientation of the embryonic body axes, is normally specified by the position of sperm entry. The mechanism of rotation appears to involve an array of aligned microtubules in the vegetal cortex (Elinson and Rowning, 1988, Devl Bi...