BACKGROUND The B3 DNA binding domain includes five families: auxin response factor (ARF), abscisic acid-insensitive3 (ABI3), high level expression of sugar inducible (HSI), related to ABI3/VP1 (RAV) and reproductive meristem (REM). The release of the complete genomes of the angiosperm eudicots Arabidopsis thaliana and Populus trichocarpa, the monocot Orysa sativa, the bryophyte Physcomitrella p...

Organisms are constantly subjected to factors that can alter the cellular redox balance and result in the formation of a series of highly reactive molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). As ROS can be damaging to biological structures, cells evolved a series of mechanisms (e.g. cell-cycle arrest, programmed cell death) to respond to high levels of ROS (i.e. oxidative stress). Recently...

Development of a 'gonidialess'/'somatic regenerator' double mutant of Volvox carteri was analyzed with a number of cell-type-specific cDNA probes that had been identified in a previous study. Whereas in wild-type strains somatic cells and gonidia (asexual reproductive cells) constitute two distinct cell lineages, in this mutant all cells first differentiate as somatic cells and then redifferent...

What is Volvox? The name comes from the Latin volvere, to roll, and ox, as in atrox, fierce. Volvox is a spherical multicellular green alga, which contains many small biflagellate somatic cells and a few large, non-motile reproductive cells called gonidia, and swims with a characteristic rolling motion. Ever since van Leeuwenhoek first viewed these algal ‘fierce rollers’ with utter fascination ...

The sulphated glycoprotein SSG 185 is the monomeric precursor of a highly aggregated structural element in the extracellular matrix of the multicellular green alga Volvox carteri. A phosphodiester of arabinose was isolated from a saccharide fragment of SSG 185. The structure of this phosphodiester was investigated by methylation analysis, 13C-NMR, photometric methods and enzymatic assays and id...