The shoot apical meristem generates stem, leaves, and lateral shoot meristems during the entire shoot ontogeny. Vegetative leaves are generated by the meristem in the vegetative developmental phase, while in the reproductive phase either bracts subtending lateral flower primordia (or paraclades), or perianth and strictly reproductive organs are formed. Meristem growth is fully characterized by ...

Many healthy subjects who have had no exposure to cotton textile dusts will experience significant reductions in expired flow rate following an inhalational challenge with an aqueous extract of cotton bracts (CBE). Differences noted among individuals in the magnitude of the bronchial response to a standardized preparation of CBE suggest variable airway reactivity. The mechanism of this response...

Cotton at three stages of crop phenological development was infested with eggs and third instar larvae of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), to determine the effect of larval feeding on fruit damage and yield. Regression analyses indicated that numbers of damaged squares and bolls were significantly (P @ 0.05) influenced by the number of egg masses and third instars placed o...

Banana (Musa spp.) is one of the most important fruit crops in the world. India contributes around 37.2 % of total world production and is the largest producer in the world producing 28.45 million tones from an area of 0.796 million hectares with a net productivity of 35.7 MT/ha (http://faostat3.fao.org/faostatgateway/go/to/home/E; http://nhb.gov.in/area-pro/ database-2012.pdf). The edible bana...

Charophytes (Charales) are benthic algae with a complex morphology. They are vulnerable to ecosystem changes, such as eutrophication, and are red-listed in many countries. Accurate identification of Chara species is critical for understanding their diversity and for documenting changes in species distribution. Species delineation is, however, complicated, because of high phenotypic plasticity. ...

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a major source of natural fiber and an important cash crop. The cotton growth habit architecture determine its productivity influence management strategies for commercial production. GATA transcription factors (TFs) control various developmental processes in plants, such as flower, bract embryo development, petal differentiation. As stable transformation still bottlen...

The Lower Cretaceous plant assemblage of Bernissart (Mons Basin, Belgium) was studied in detail during the 1900s, but no recent revisions have been performed. taxonomy taxa recovered from this site is updated, which includes one undetermined “aquatic plant” taxon, nine fern (Cladophlebis sp., Hausmannia dichotoma, Phlebopteris dunkeri, Matoniaceae indet., Ruffordia goeppertii, Onychiopsis psilo...

Burgess Shale-type deposits provide invaluable insights into the early evolution of body plans and the ecological structure of Cambrian communities, but a number of species, continue to defy phylogenetic interpretations. Here we extend this list to include a new soft-bodied animal, Siphusauctum gregarium n. gen. and n. sp., from the Tulip Beds (Campsite Cliff Shale Member, Burgess Shale Formati...

We document a new species of ovulate cone (Pararaucaria collinsonae) on the basis of silicified fossils from the Late Jurassic Purbeck Limestone Group of southern England (Tithonian Stage: ca. 145 million years). Our description principally relies on the anatomy of the ovuliferous scales, revealed through X-ray synchrotron microtomography (SRXMT) performed at the Diamond Light Source (UK). This...