Variegate porphyria is one of the most frequently encountered genetic conditions in South Africa. It is inherited as an autosomal dominant disease and in excess of 300 heterozygous cases have been studied by the Cape Town unit. Despite this, the homozygous condition has not previously been encountered in South Africa. We report two cases of homozygous variegate porphyria, one of whom represents...

Variegate porphyria (VP) is an acute hepatic porphyria with autosomal dominant inheritance due to a partial deficiency of protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPOX) activity. The molecular defect responsible for VP was investigated by sequencing PPOX gene coding sequence from four patients in three unrelated VP families of French Caucasian origin. In a first patient, a point insertion of a G at position...

Mitotic root micronucleus (MCN) frequency in Vicia faba as a bioassay, is primarily based on the extent of the sentinel Vicia response in terms of cytogenetic damage quantitatively or qualitatively to indicate the presence of mutagenic contaminants. This paper describes an investigation designed to assess changes in MCN frequencies of Vicia faba from three generation plants obtained, respective...

This study concerns diploid chromosome numbers and karyotype analysis of nine species belonging to four sections (Vicilla, Cracca, Variegata and Anatropostylia) of the subgenus Vicilla of the genus Vicia (Fabaceae). The chromosome numbers of Vicia alpestris subsp. hypoleuca, V. aucheri, V. ciceroideae, V. gariensis, V. iranica, V. koeieana, V. rechingeri, V. sojakii and V. venulosa are reported...

Haemolytic favism is a severe, acute anaemia which occurs in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficient individuals, usually following the ingestion of Vicia faba seeds. Current interest is focused on the nature of the active substances of Vicia faba and on the causes of the varying susceptibility among G6PD-deficient individuals to episodes of severe haemolysis. The results of experiments in ...

The temperate and herbaceous genus Vicia L. is a member of the legume tribe Fabeae of the subfamily Papilionoideae. The genus Vicia comprises 166 annual or perennial species distributed mainly in Europe, Asia, and North America, but also extending to the temperate regions of South America and tropical Africa. The use of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for Vicia species has not been investi...

Cyanamide had long been recognized as a synthetic compound but more recently has been found as a natural product from several leguminous plants. This compound's biosynthetic pathway, as yet unelaborated, has attracted attention because of its utility in many domains, such as agriculture, chemistry, and medicine. We noticed that the distribution of L-canavanine in the plant kingdom appeared to i...