Nitrogen fertilizers are widely applied to increase rice yields, but excessive fertilization poses an environmental risk. It has been shown that rice-duck farming can be more efficient in terms of N use by improving growth. Several pathways have proposed for how ducks may improve growth paddy fields. The aim this study was investigate the isolated effect farm soil on rice, namely content differ...

All plant organs are derived from meristems. The shoot apical meristem (SAM) produces the aerial part of the plant. It has two main functions: the maintenance of a group of stem cells at the center of the meristem and the initiation of organs at its periphery. The organs are initiated in a regular spatial pattern, referred to as phyllotaxy, and are separated from the surrounding tissue by a bou...

In plants, multiple detached tissues are capable of forming a pluripotent cell mass, termed callus, when cultured on media containing appropriate plant hormones. Recent studies demonstrated that callus resembles the root-tip meristem, even if it is derived from aerial organs. This finding improves our understanding of the regeneration process of plant cells; however, the molecular mechanism tha...

Development of the flattened laminar structure in plant leaves requires highly regulated cell division and expansion patterns. Although tight regulation of these processes is essential during leaf development, leaf shape is highly diverse across the plant kingdom, implying that patterning of growth must be amenable to evolutionary change. Here, we describe the molecular identification of the cl...

Treatment with 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg body weight of aqueous leaf extract (ALE) of Cardiospermum halicacabum for 30 days produced a significant dose dependent increase in the sperm counts and sperm motility in both caput and cauda regions. Further, significant increase in serum testosterone level was evident at all applied doses. However, no significant changes in the weight of sex organs were...

This paper proposes a new interpretation for primary thickening in monocotyledons. The anatomy of the vegetative organs of the following species was examined: Cephalostemon riedelianus (Rapataceae), Cyperus papyrus (Cyperaceae), Lagenocarpus rigidus, L. junciformis (Cyperaceae), Echinodorus paniculatus (Alismataceae) and Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae). The endodermis with meristematic acti...

Development of the flattened laminar structure in plant leaves requires highly regulated cell division and expansion patterns. Although tight regulation of these processes is essential during leaf development, leaf shape is highly diverse across the plant kingdom, implying that patterning of growth must be amenable to evolutionary change. Here, we describe the molecular identification of the cl...

DNA gel blot analysis suggested that asparagine synthetase (AS; EC 6.3.5.4) occurred as a single gene in rice. A fusion protein consisting of 17 kDa tagged-region from pET32a(+) expression plasmid and 42 kDa N-terminal region of rice AS was first expressed in Escherichia coli. The resulting polypeptide was purified and a mono-specific antibody for rice AS was prepared after affinity-purificatio...

Leaf, fruit, stem, bark and root of Zanthoxylum americanum were investigated for antifungal activity with 11 strains of fungi representing diverse opportunistic and systemic pathogens, including Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans and Aspergillus fumigatus. All extracts demonstrated a broad spectrum of antifungal activity and inhibited at least eight fungal species in a disk diffusion ass...