Molecular analysis of grassland rhizosphere soil has demonstrated complex and diverse bacterial communities, with resultant difficulties in detecting links between plant and bacterial communities. These studies have, however, analyzed "bulk" rhizosphere soil, rather than rhizoplane communities, which interact most closely with plants through utilization of root exudates. The aim of this study w...

Both chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron and nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences highly confirmed the monophyly of the tribes of the Gentianaceae defined by the recent classification, and revealed the tribe Exaceae as a basal clade just next to the basal-most lineage, the tribe Saccifolieae. Within the tribe Exaceae, Sebaea (except Sebaea madagascariensis) appeared as the most basal clade as the sister g...

Short-sequence fragments ('DNA barcodes') used widely for plant identification and inventorying remain to be applied to complex biological problems. Host-herbivore interactions are fundamental to coevolutionary relationships of a large proportion of species on the Earth, but their study is frequently hampered by limited or unreliable host records. Here we demonstrate that DNA barcodes can great...

Self-splicing group I introns in tRNA anticodon loops have been found in diverse groups of bacteria (alpha, beta purple bacteria and cyanobacteria). In particular, the cyanobacterial tRNA(Leu)(UAA) group I introns have attracted considerable attention because of their presumed ancient origin and immobility. In this work, however, we identified tRNA(Leu)(UAA) group I introns in six out of 16 clo...

Phylogenetic relationships of Juncaceae and related families of Cyperales were investigated using DNA sequence data from the plastid rps16 intron, trnL intron, and trnL–F intergenic spacer. Results using parsimony analysis of the aligned matrices find Juncaceae and Cyperaceae to be monophyletic families, which form a clade sister to a monophyletic Thurniaceae that includes Prionium (Prioniaceae...

An overview on legal regulation, taxonomy, and botanical and chemical methods of analysis of marijuana are provided. Emphases are placed on the applications of the recently developed molecular biology methods to the identification and characterization of marijuana samples. Procedures for the extraction of plant DNA, DNA amplification, restriction analysis, and sequence analysis are reviewed. Th...

Relationships within the subfamily Lobelioideae in Campanulaceae are inferred from DNA sequence variation in the rbcL and ndhF genes, and the trnL-F region including the trnL intron and the trnL-F intergenic spacer. Results derived from Bayesian and parsimony analyses provide evidence for the long-suspected paraphyly of the genus Lobelia, comprising over 400 species as presently circumscribed. ...

In order to investigate interfamilial relationships of Liliales we analyzed a combined matrix of plastid rbcL, trnL intron, trnL-F intergenic spacer, rnatK, and ndhF, and mitochondrial atpl DNA sequences. The results are generally congruent with previous broad analyses and provide higher bootstrap support for many relationships. Important changes relative to previous studies are the recognition...