The sterol 14a-demethylase (CYP51) is the most widely distributed cytochrome P450 gene family being found in all biological kingdoms. It catalyzes the first step following cyclization in sterol biosynthesis, leading to the formation of precursors of steroid hormones, including brassinosteroids, in plants. Most enzymes involved in the plant sterol biosynthesis pathway have been characterized bio...

The use of high energy x-ray fluorescence as a trace metal probe offers scientists an innovative tool for research. One application is the study of heavy metal accumulation in plant systems. The test species Thlaspi caerulescens has the ability to accumulate massive amounts of zinc, cadmium, and lead from contaminated soils as a form of bioremediation. In order to understand the efficiency of t...

Sixty nine pearlmillet germplasm entries of diverse origin were evaluated for seven quantitative characters and three qualitative characters for their per se performance, variability and genetic divergence. Wider variability was observed for fodder yield and its associating characters along with crude protein content. The GCV estimates were observed to be high for number of leaves per plant, nu...

Living systems, whether organs or entire organisms, display various forms of morphological invariance. Why? These phenomena are studied here from the Proto-Cognitive perspective, according to which evolution proceeds by processing information about the environment. The evolution of constancy, uniformity and symmetry is studied in detail. The study later focuses on the invariances of the plant's...

We consider the arguments of Berkeley against the thinkability of realism. We show that in fact Berkeley’s assumptions do not merely lead to the conclusion that realism is unthinkable, but that in fact Berkeley’s argument implies that idealism is also unthinkable, and leaves only a weak version of solipsism remains as a thinkable ontological position. From this, we argue that it is not possible...

We prove some general results about the relation between the 1-cocycles of an arbitrary Lie algebroid A over M and the leaves of the Lie algebroid foliation on M associated with A. Using these results, we show that a E1(M)-Dirac structure L induces on every leaf F of its characteristic foliation a E1(F )-Dirac structure LF , which comes from a precontact structure or from a locally conformal pr...

Foliar chemicals are variable within a plant and this may affect herbivore feeding preference. This study was carried out to quantify concentrations of primary (nitrogen, water, and total nonstructural carbohydrates) and secondary substances (sinigrin) in young and old leaves of Raphanus sativus L. and to evaluate performance and survival of a generalist herbivore Spodoptera litura F. feeding o...