Studies of mitochondrial redox signaling predict that the colonial hydroids Eirene viridula and Podocoryna carnea should respond to manipulations of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Both species encrust surfaces with feeding polyps connected by networks of stolons; P. carnea is more 'sheet-like' with closely spaced polyps and short stolons, while E. viridula is more 'runner-like' with widely spac...

Abstract To uncover the nature of various kinds stolons Utricularia subgenus Polypompholyx (Lentibulariaceae) we studied branching by scanning electron microscopy, statistically investigated correlations stolon types and other traits across 56 species, evaluated seedling development process morphological aspects. Some results were compared to sister genera Pinguicula Genlisea . A key nine in is...

In a mutant strain of Hydractinia (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa), the polyps develop ectopic supernumerary tentacles and heads (hypostomes) after an initial phase of wild-type growth. In order to elucidate the molecular mechanisms implicated in the development of aberrant phenotypes, we tried to enhance or suppress the expressivity of this hypomorphic mutation by exposing subclones to factors supposedly ...

BACKGROUND The ability of small clonal fragments to establish and grow after disturbance is an important ecological advantage of clonal growth in plants and a major factor in the invasiveness of some introduced, clonal species. We hypothesized that orientation in the horizontal position (typical for stoloniferous plants) can increase the survival and growth of dispersed clonal fragments, and th...

The patatin multicopy gene family encodes the major storage protein in potato tubers and is organized as a single cluster in the potato genome. We sequenced a 154-kb bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone containing a portion of the patatin gene cluster. Two putatively functional patatin genes were found in this BAC. These two genes are embedded within arrays of patatin pseudogenes. Using ...

Spatially heterogeneous distribution of interspecific competitors and intraspecific aggregation of offspring ramets may affect the growth and size structure of clonal plant populations, but these have been rarely studied. We conducted a greenhouse experiment in which we grew a population of eight offspring ramets (plants) of the stoloniferous clonal plant Hydrocotyle vulgaris aggregately or seg...

The colonial hydroid Podocoryna carnea grows adherent to surfaces progressing along them by a motile stolon tip. We here ask whether the stolon tip grows preferentially within grooves etched in silicon wafers. In a series of pilot experiments, we varied the dimensions of grooves and found that stolons did not utilize grooves with a width:depth of 5:5 μm or 10:10 μm, occasionally followed groove...

Clonal plants could modify phenotypic responses to nutrients heterogeneously distributed both in space and time by physiological integration. It will take times to do phenotypic responses to modifications which are various in different growth periods. An optimal phenotype is reached when there is a match between nutrient conditions and foraging ability. A single plantlet of Buchloe dactyloides ...

Utricularia julianae, a new species from the savannas near the Oyapock River, French Guiana, is here described and illustrated. The new species is most similar to U. tenuissima, from which it can be easily distinguished by the leaves and stolons apparently lacking (vs. leaves few and on the stolons, the stolons few or lacking, in U. tenuissima), traps ellipsoid, 0.3 mm long, with 4–5 capillifor...

Licorice (roots and stolons of Glycyrrhiza plants, Leguminosae) is a well-known natural sweetener, and its sweet constituent is an oleanane-type triterpene saponin, glycyrrhizin. Cultured cells of G. glabra do not produce glycyrrhizin, but produce two structurally different triterpenoid constituents, betulinic acid and soyasaponins. Both glycyrrhizin and soyasaponins are oleanane-type triterpen...