The testing and release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)—in particular GM plants—is tightly regulated internationally to prevent any negative effects on the environment or human health. However, these regulations are based on transgenic organisms and do not discriminate between transgenic plants and cisgenic plants, although we believe that they are fundamentally different (see sidebar)...

Chronic undersampling of the marine environment, including both biological and physical components, has been and remains a major block to understanding how marine ecosystems function and how they respond to changes, whether natural or anthropogenic. Consequently, data-based models that accurately predict local variations in the abundance of plant and animal life in the sea are rare or do not ex...

fungal conidia and spores are among various organisms found in the air, causing different types of mycoses. in this study (from february 1994 until march 1995) fungal spores and conidia were collected by their settlement on to petri - dishes from 33 locations in babol city during 4 seasons. plates of sabouraud dextrose agar were laid 1.5 m. from the ground and then sent to mycology laboratory w...

a new system is presented for the generation ofrecombinant bacillus subtilis strains without antibioticmarkers. this system is based on two plasmids constructed in escherichia coli. the first plasmid phm30contains an incomplete hisi gene, the last gene in thehistidine biosynthesis operon of b. subtilis and part ofthe genes yvca and yvcb of unkown function flankinghisi at the 3´-end. the spectin...

persistent organic pollutants (pops) have widely aroused public concern due to their ubiquity,environmental persistence, long-range transportability, bioaccumulation capacities and potentially adverse effectson living organisms. dakar is located in the industrial zone of senegal (80% of industrial activities) and inhabits25% of senegalese population leading to an ideal sink of these persistent ...

Drugs from the sea? Darwin may not have considered this concept when he was thinking about mechanisms that drove diversification of life on earth. In recognition of his 200th year, and celebration of the publication in 1859 of his "On the origin of species", we review the global status of marine biodiscovery in medicinal fields, with a focus on the South Pacific. Furthermore, in the Darwinian s...

Background: Early-onset sepsis is a common cause of neonatal mortality and mainly occurs due to the colonized microorganisms in the maternal recto-vaginal area. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of maternal risk factors on recto-vaginal colonization and transmission rate of micro-flora from mothers to infants. Methods: Upon admission, two samples were obtained from the distal thi...

On June 2013 a workshop at the University of Siena (Italy) was organized to review current knowledge and to clarify what is known, and what remains to be investigated, concerning plastic litter in the sea. The content of the workshop was designed to contribute further to the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) following an inaugural workshop in 2012. Here we report a number of s...