in desert reclamation strainer plants can be used for improvement and decrease pollution of soil and water. this technology can be used to remove both inorganic and organic contaminants in soil. in this study, one year old acacia victoriae seedlings were exposed to pb (no3)2 in 5 different concentrations; 0, 50, 250, 500 and 1000 mg pb l-1 for 45 days in two growing seasons. subsequently, the h...

Marine systems have traditionally been thought of as "open" with few barriers to gene flow. In particular, many marine organisms in the Southern Ocean purportedly possess circumpolar distributions that have rarely been well verified. Here, we use the highly abundant and endemic Southern Ocean brittle star Ophionotus victoriae to examine genetic structure and determine whether barriers to gene f...

Avicins are proapoptotic and anti-inflammatory triterpene electrophiles isolated from an Australian desert tree, Acacia victoriae. The presence of two alpha,beta unsaturated carbonyl groups (Michael reaction sites) in the side chain of the avicin molecule prompted us to study its effects on NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a redox-regulated transcription factor that controls the expression of a b...

The parasitic nature of viruses is a source of intense interest owing to the wide variety of potential hosts, which include humans, livestock, fungi, agricultural crops, as well as many others [1]. Viruses are differentiated by variations in properties such as size, capsid morphology, genomic composition, replication strategy, and host target [1, 2]. The family Totiviridae of dsRNA viruses is c...

Triterpenoid saponins, which are present in leguminous plants and some marine animals, possess a broad range of biological actions. We have earlier reported the extraction of avicins, a family of triterpenoid saponins obtained from the Australian desert tree Acacia victoriae (Leguminosae: Mimosoideae) that inhibit tumor cell growth and induce apoptosis, in part, by perturbing mitochondrial func...

The enigma of the transmissible disease of Helminthosporium victoriae has almost been resolved. Diseased isolates are doubly infected with two distinct viruses, the victorivirus Helminthosporium victoriae virus 190S and the chrysovirus HvV145S. Mixed infection, however, is not required for disease development. DNA transformation experiments and transfection assays using purified HvV190S virions...