A suspension culture of soybean (Glycine max L.) was grown on a defined medium in which the nitrogen sources were nitrate (25 mM) and ammonium (2 mM). The cells did not grow on nitrate unless the medium was supplemented with ammonium or glutamine. The l- and d-isomers of 12 amino acids tested singly could not replace ammonium. Most amino acids (4 mM) inhibited growth when the cells were culture...

Abbreviations: EC – embryogenic calli; EFA – esterified fatty acids; FA – fatty acids; FAME – fatty acid methyl ester; FFA – free fatty acid; GC – gas chromatography; GC-MS – gas chromatography and mass spectrometry; HS – hypocotyl segments; HSC – hypocotyl segments with incipient calli formation; LCFA – long-chain fatty acid; MCFA – mediumchain fatty acids; NEC – non-embryogenic calli; PCA – p...

The analysis of metals bound to proteins requires careful sample preparation. Experimental procedures involved in this area should be developed aiming to retain the metal species bound to the protein structure. Some pre-fractionation steps are commonly used and in many cases it is necessary to disrupt the lipid-protein interaction by performing lipid removal before protein extraction. This pape...

Exposing seedlings of the flax, Linum usitatissimum L., to a variety of weak environmental stresses followed by a 2 day calcium deprivation, triggers the common response of production of epidermal meristems (actively dividing groups of cells) in the hypocotyl, which is the part of the stem between the root and the cotyledons (the pre-existing leaves in the embryo). This production reaches a pla...

The extreme climate of the Canadian Prairies poses a major challenge to improve yield. Although it is possible to breed for yield per se, focusing on yield-related traits could be advantageous because of their simpler genetic architecture. The Canadian flax core collection of 390 accessions was genotyped with 464 simple sequence repeat markers, and phenotypic data for nine agronomic traits incl...