Anomaluroid rodents show interesting biogeographic and macroevolutionary patterns, although their fossil record is meager and knowledge of the natural history of extant members of the clade remains inadequate. Living anomaluroids (Anomaluridae) are confined to equatorial parts of western and central Africa, but the oldest known fossil anomaluroid (Pondaungimys) comes from the late middle Eocene...

Following the flurry of plant exploration in the 1950's, most activity with the plants collected apparently centred on expanding the area of adaptation of perennial grass and annual legume. Many of the subsequently released grass cultivars have been agronomically successful but have not been adopted. Haifa white clover, released by the New South Wales Department of Agriculture 25 years after co...

Proteins are among the major constituents of a healthy and balanced human diet. Legumes have been serving as a human food-source for many centuries (Imsande, 2003). Notably, grain legumes (pulses) are very rich in protein-types and contribute to the human protein requirements as a primary and affordable source of proteins and minerals (Bohra et al., 2014). The United Nations has declared 2016 a...

Physarum polycephalum hemagglutinin I (HA1) is a 104-residue protein that is secreted to extracellular space. The crystal structure of HA1 has a β-sandwich fold found among lectin structures, such as legume lectins and galectins. Interestingly, the β-sandwich of HA1 lacks a jelly roll motif and is essentially composed of two simple up-and-down β-sheets. This up-and-down β-sheet motif is well co...

RNA interference-mediated silencing of the key flavonoid and isoflavone biosynthesis enzyme, respectively, by two different research groups has provided direct genetic evidence for the essential roles that these compounds play in nodulation. Anton Wasson et al. have shown that flavonoids are essential for localized auxin transport inhibition during nodulation in the indeterminate legume Medicag...

Red Clover Transcriptome, Spatial Gene Expression Genomic resources for forage legume red clover are limited. Chakrabarti et al. report the construction of a de novo transcriptome assembly of red clover representing multiple tissue types. The transcriptome assembly was functionally annotated and transcripts encoding putative transcription factors were identified. Gene expression analysis reveal...

The special issue "Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation in Legume Nodules: Metabolism and Regulatory Mechanisms" aims to investigate the physiological and biochemical advances in the symbiotic process with an emphasis on nodule establishment, development and functioning. The original research articles included in this issue provide important information regarding novel aspects of nodule metabolism and v...

Illinois bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) Macmillan) has potential as a grain and forage legume for the American Midwest. Inoculant-quality rhizobia for this legume have been identified but not previously characterized. Rhizobia trapped from 20 soils in the natural range of the Illinois bundleflower had characteristics that placed them overwhelmingly within the species Rhizobium gi...

Measurement of the distribution of the photosynthesis product in the symbiotic association of a legume, a mycorrhizal fungus, and nitrogen-fixing bacteria showed that the fungus incorporated 1 percent of the photosynthesis product and respired 3 percent. The nodules of a 5-week-old plant utilized 7 to 12 percent of the photosynthesis product. The legume compensated in partfor the needs of its m...