Cell disruption is an essential step in the release of cellular contents but mechanical cell disruption processes are highly energy intensive. This energy requirement may become a critical issue for the sustainability of low valued commodities such as microalgal biofuels derived from extracted lipids. By the use of an atomic force microscope (AFM), this study evaluated the force and energy requ...

Angiosperm flowers are usually determinate structures that may produce seeds. In some species, flowers can revert from committed flower development back to an earlier developmental phase in a process called floral reversion. The allopolyploid Arabidopsis suecica displays photoperiod-dependent floral reversion in a subset of its flowers, yet little is known about the environmental conditions enh...

The evolutionary history of the common chloroplast (cp) genome of the allotetraploid Arabidopsis suecica and its maternal parent A. thaliana was investigated by sequencing 50 fragments of cpDNA, resulting in 98 polymorphic sites. The variation in the A. suecica sample was small, in contrast to that of the A. thaliana sample. The time to the most recent common ancestor (T(MRCA)) of the A. suecic...

A coalescent-based method was used to investigate the origins of the allotetraploid Arabidopsis suecica, using 52 nuclear microsatellite loci typed in eight individuals of A. suecica and 14 individuals of its maternal parent Arabidopsis thaliana, and four short fragments of genomic DNA sequenced in a sample of four individuals of A. suecica and in both its parental species A. thaliana and Arabi...

This study tested the growth of three algal species (Chlorella sp., Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, and Tetraselmis suecica) using flue gas (generated by natural gas combustion). All the cultures showed poor biomass growth if they were exposed to continuous flue gas. To optimize the flue gas utilization in algal photo-bioreactors, we performed both model simulations and experimental analysis. First...

The taxonomic composition of phytoplankton responsible for primary production on continental shelves has changed episodically through Earth history. Geological correlations suggest that major changes in phytoplankton composition correspond in time to changes in grazing and seawater chemistry. Testing hypotheses that arise from these correlations requires experimentation, and so we carried out a...

Phaeobacter gallaeciensis can antagonize fish-pathogenic bacteria in vitro, and the purpose of this study was to evaluate the organism as a probiont for marine fish larvae and their feed cultures. An in vivo mechanism of action of the antagonistic probiotic bacterium is suggested using a non-antagonistic mutant. P. gallaeciensis was readily established in axenic cultures of the two microalgae T...

Live algae carrying hydrophobic xenobiotics can be an effective vector candidate for the chemical translocation to filter feeders in the laboratory toxicity test, but information on their application is lacking. Time-course uptake and elimination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (0, 50, 100, and 500 ng g(-1) by two key algal foods, Isochrysis galbana and Tetraselmis suecica, were measured. B...