This paper gives a detailed overview of biotic assemblages recovered from the Deccan trap intercalated sedimentary sequences (infraand intertrappean beds) of peninsular India as a result of extensive research done during the last 20 years. The infraand intertrappean beds contain remnants of Gondwanan forms such as myobatrachinae frogs, pelomedusid turtles, dinosaurs (i.e. titanosaurids and abel...

Many cells exhibit large-scale active circulation of their entire fluid contents, a process termed cytoplasmic streaming. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in plant cells, often presenting strikingly regimented flow patterns. The driving mechanism in such cells is known: myosin-coated organelles entrain cytoplasm as they process along actin filament bundles fixed at the periphery. Still...

The action of the cardiac glycoside ouabain on animal cells was thoroughly studied and its characteristics are well known (see Weatherall 1962): the cells gain sodium and lose potassium, the cell membrane potential decaying. This is commonly interpreted as a rerult of a specific sodium-potassium transport inhibition . The effects of ouabain were also looked for on giant cells of Characeae; some...

Mechano-perception by Chara cells was studied with an emphasis on the role of the nodal complex in transducing pressure signals into electrical signals. Three types of experimental material were used: (1) tandem internodal cells connected by a single layer of nodal cells; (2) single internodal cells, from which either apical or basal nodes were removed by ligation and cutting; (3) single intern...

The -,vay in which the various activities of a cell relate to the level of available energy can conveniently be studied in photosynthetic cells of size large enough to permit measurements on individual cells. Internodal cells of the Characeae approach ideality for such a purpose in that they are, to a good approximation, right circular cylinders of macroscopic dimensions. Moreover, a certain in...

The tremendous diversity of land plants all descended from a single charophyte green alga that colonized the land somewhere between 430 and 470 million years ago. Six orders of charophyte green algae, in addition to embryophytes, comprise the Streptophyta s.l. Previous studies have focused on reconstructing the phylogeny of organisms tied to this key colonization event, but wildly conflicting r...

The green lineage of chlorophyte algae and streptophytes form a large and diverse clade with multiple independent transitions to produce multicellular and/or macroscopically complex organization. In this review, I focus on two of the best-studied multicellular groups of green algae: charophytes and volvocines. Charophyte algae are the closest relatives of land plants and encompass the transitio...

Charophytes (Charales) are benthic algae with a complex morphology. They are vulnerable to ecosystem changes, such as eutrophication, and are red-listed in many countries. Accurate identification of Chara species is critical for understanding their diversity and for documenting changes in species distribution. Species delineation is, however, complicated, because of high phenotypic plasticity. ...

Pollen tubes show active cytoplasmic streaming. We isolated organelles from pollen tubes and tested their ability to slide along actin bundles in characean cell models. Here, we show that sliding of organelles was ATP-dependent and that motility was lost after N-ethylmaleimide or heat treatment of organelles. On the other hand, cytoplasmic streaming in pollen tube was inhibited by either N-ethy...