In this essay, I convey the results of some of our recent studies of reproduction in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Our work has been influenced by the investigations of a large and interactive community of researchers studying a variety of plant systems, including lily, tobacco, maize, and plants from the mustard family (for recent reviews, see Cheung et al., 2000; Dixit and Nasrallah,...

Benefits of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) can be enhanced by raising their bioavailability through microencapsulation.Pollen can be emptied to form hollow shells, known as exines, and then used to encapsulate material,such as oils in a dry powder form.6 healthy volunteers ingested 4.6 g of fish oil containing 20% EPA in the form of ethyl-ester first alone and then as 1:1 microencapsulated powder ...

Airborne pollen allergies and asthma are on a rise in the metropolitan city of Islamabad. Knowledge of allergenic pollen is limited in the area. Cannabis sativa L. or commonly known as Hemp is widely spread weed in the city. Morphological studies performed via light microscopy and SEM have shown that the pollen of Cannabis sativa are 21μm long having triporate aperture, spheroidal in shape and ...

The recessive genetic male sterility (RGMS) system plays a key role in the production of hybrid varieties in self-pollinating B. napus plants, and prevents negative cytoplasmic effects. However, the complete molecular mechanism of the male sterility during male-gametogenesis in RGMS remains to be determined. To identify transcriptomic changes that occur during the transition to male sterility i...

The pollen wall, an essential structure for pollen function, consists of two layers, an inner intine and an outer exine. The latter is further divided into sexine and nexine. Many genes involved in sexine development have been reported, in which the MYB transcription factor Male Sterile 188 (MS188) specifies sexine in Arabidopsis. However, nexine formation remains poorly understood. Here we rep...

Vegetative cells and cysts of Azotobacter vinelandii 12837 were prepared for electron microscopy by several methods assumed to preserve structural details destroyed by techniques previously reported in the literature. Examination of large numbers of cells and cysts by these methods revealed four structural details not reported previously: intine fibrils, intine vesicles, intine membrane, and mi...

Salvia indica L., which belongs to section Aethiopis, is a perennial herb usually growing on rocky limestone slopes and Quercus scrubs in the Southeast Anatolia. In this study, the morphological, anatomical and palynological characteristics of this species using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) have been investigated. In addition, nutlet morphology, emended and expanded description, phenology...

Present study has been carried out to understand the mating strategies of Eremurus himalaicus Baker., important medicinal endemic plant, for its sustainable utilization. The inflorescence architecture, large numbers attractive flowers, presence sterile flowers which give specific arrangement inflorescence, coloured, androecia and nectaries attract pollinators. Protoandry, moderate high pollen o...