Elymus L. is often planted in temperate and subtropical regions as forage. Species in the genus have 5 allopolyploid genomes that are found in the grass tribe Triticeae. To determine the phylogenetic relationships in Elymus species from western China, we estimated phylogenetic trees using sequences from the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer and non-coding chloroplast DNA sequences f...

To help in the clarification of the taxonomic status of Elymus L. and related genera Agropyron Gaertn., Leymus Hochst., Hordelymus (Jess.) Harz, and Brachypodium P.Beauv., the sequence diversity in the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal DNA was studied. ITS data of 64 Triticeae accessions including 40 Elymus, 12 Agropyron, 7 Leymus, and 4 Hordelymus, and 1 Brachypodiu...

Most organisms anticipate daily environmental variations and orchestrate cellular functions thanks to a circadian clock which entrains robustly to the day/night cycle, despite fluctuations in light intensity due to weather or seasonal variations. Marine organisms are also subjected to fluctuations in light spectral composition as their depth varies, due to differential absorption of different w...

The XMM-Newton Extended Survey of the Taurus Molecular Cloud (XEST) is a survey of the nearest large star-forming region, the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC), making use of all instruments on board the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory. The survey, presently still growing, has provided unprecedented spectroscopic results from nearly every observed T Tauri star, and from ≈50% of the studied brown dwarfs...

Five organisms having completely sequenced genomes and belonging to all major branches of green plants (Viridiplantae) were analyzed with respect to their content of P-type ATPases encoding genes. These were the chlorophytes Ostreococcus tauri and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and the streptophytes Physcomitrella patens (a non-vascular moss), Selaginella moellendorffii (a primitive vascular plant)...

The hallmark of eukaryotic cells is their segregation of key biological functions into discrete, membrane-bound organelles. Creating accurate models of their ultrastructural complexity has been difficult in part because of the limited resolution of light microscopy and the artifact-prone nature of conventional electron microscopy. Here we explored the potential of the emerging technology electr...

Biological rhythms that allow organisms to adapt to the solar cycle are generated by endogenous circadian clocks. In higher plants, many clock components have been identified and cellular rhythmicity is thought to be driven by a complex transcriptional feedback circuitry. In the small genome of the green unicellular alga Ostreococcus tauri, two of the master clock genes Timing of Cab expression...

Common problems hindering rapid progress in Plant Sciences include cellular, tissue and whole organism complexity, and notably the high level of genomic redundancy affecting simple genetics in higher plants. The novel model organism Ostreococcus tauri is the smallest free-living eukaryote known to date, and possesses a greatly reduced genome size and cellular complexity, manifested by the prese...

The marine green alga Ostreococcus tauri is the smallest-known free-living eukaryote. The recent sequencing of its genome extends this distinction, because it also has one of the smallest and most compact nuclear genomes. For other highly compacted genomes (e.g. those of microsporidian parasites and relic endosymbiont nucleomorphs), compaction is associated with severe gene loss. By contrast, O...

Numerous hybrid and polypoid species are found within the Triticeae. It has been suggested that the H subgenome of allopolyploid Elymus (wheatgrass) species originated from diploid Hordeum (barley) species, but the role of hybridization between polyploid Elymus and Hordeum has not been studied. It is not clear whether gene flow across polyploid Hordeum and Elymus species has occurred following ...