M, -ost divers, photographers and snorkelers ignore a vital part of the reef life when diving. Many people, attracted by the movement of bright colored tropical fish, crustaceans lurking under rocks or the spectacular forms of colorful corals, overlook the starting point in the food chain, the plants. Without plant life to convert food energy from sunlight, there would be no animals. Herbivores...

Although maize (Zea mays L.) routinely experiences both intraand interspecific competition for limited resources, most plant-plant interaction studies have principally focused on maize-weed interactions. Thus very few investigations have considered the impacts of plant crowding and nitrogen (N) availability on maize intra-specific competition. The primary objective of this two-year field study ...

All sexually reproducing eukaryotes have a life cycle consisting of a haploid and a diploid phase, marked by meiosis and syngamy (fertilization). Each phase is adapted to certain environmental conditions. In land plants, the recently reconstructed phylogeny indicates that the life cycle has evolved from a condition with a dominant free-living haploid gametophyte to one with a dominant free-livi...

This study is a systematic overview of data on use of wild and semi-wild edible plants in nutrition of people in 1430 days of the siege of Sarajevo during aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). The author of this study spent all that time in Sarajevo. In 1993, the author prepared a survival program for people that included usage of edible wild plants. In addition, he conducted a deta...

Optimizing root system architecture can overcome yield limitations in crop plants caused by water or nutrient shortages. Classic breeding approaches are difficult because the trait is governed by many genes and is difficult to score. We generated transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants with enhanced root-specific degradation of the hormone cytokinin, a negative re...

†Background and Aims In complex communities, organisms often form mutualisms with multiple different partners simultaneously. Non-additive effects may emerge among species linked by these positive interactions. Ants commonly participate in mutualisms with both honeydew-producing insects (HPI) and their extrafloral nectary (EFN)-bearing host plants. Consequently, HPI and EFN-bearing plants may e...

Segregating populations were developed to evaluate the inheritance of the fuzzless seed phenotypes in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Accession 143 of the Mississippi Obsolete Variety Collection (MOVC) has a fuzzless seed phenotype. This line carries the n(2) locus which is recessive to the seed fuzz phenotype. Data from the F(2), BC(1)F(1), F(2:3), and BC(1)F(2) populations of DP 5690 x...

The tobacco N gene is a member of the Toll-interleukin-1 receptor/nucleotide-binding site/leucine-rich repeat (TIR-NBS-LRR) class of plant resistance (R) genes and confers resistance to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). We investigated the importance of specific domains of N in inducing TMV resistance, by examining various N deletion and point mutations that introduce single amino acid substitution m...

Metabolic engineering was used to disrupt glutamine metabolism in microspores in order to block pollen development. We used a dominant-negative mutant (DNM) approach of cytosolic glutamine synthetase (GS1) gene under the microspore-specific promoter NTM19 to block glutamine synthesis in developing pollen grains. We observed partial male sterility in primary transgenic plants by using light micr...

In Ethiopia, malaria control has been complicated due to resistance of the parasite to the current drugs. Thus, new drugs are required against drug-resistant Plasmodium strains. Historically, many of the present antimalarial drugs were discovered from plants. This study was, therefore, conducted to document antimalarial plants utilized by Sidama people of Boricha District, Sidama Zone, South Re...