Lichens are extremely resistant organisms that colonize harsh climatic areas, some of them defined as "Mars-analog sites." There still remain many unsolved questions as to how lichens survive under such extreme conditions. Several studies have been performed to test the resistance of various lichen species under space and in simulated Mars-like conditions. The results led to the proposal that C...

We quantitatively studied the hydration and dehydration behaviour of the three astrobiological model lichens Xanthoria elegans, Buellia frigida and Circinaria gyrosa by thermoanalysis and gravimetric isotherm measurements under close-to-Martian environmental conditions in terms of low temperature and low pressure. Additionally, the impact of UVC exposure on the isolated symbionts of B. frigida ...

lichenized mycota of the southern part of Iran including Kerman province has been poorly studied compared to the Northern Iranian provinces such as Azerbaijan, Golestan or Mazandaran. Here we present the first lichen checklist for Kerman province, which comprises 57 species in 30 genera and 14 families. For this purpose, we reviewed both old and recent literature, examined herbarium collections...

We used molecular genetic methods to test two hypotheses, (i) that host plant specificity among ectomycorrhizal fungi would be common in a closed-canopy, mixed Pinus contorta-Picea engelmannii forest in Yellowstone National Park and (ii) that specificity would be more common in the early successional tree species, P. contorta, than in the invader, P. engelmannii. We identified 28 ectomycorrhiza...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Tuberculate ectomycorrhizae are a unique form of ectomycorrhiza where densely packed clusters of mycorrhizal root tips are enveloped by a thick hyphal sheath to form a tubercle. The functional significance of such a unique structure has not previously been established. The purpose of the present study was to investigate and measure the potential nitrogenase activity associat...

The toxicity studies were carried out a 50% aqueous ethanolic extract of Benincasa hispida ( B. hispida )in rodents.The acute toxicity study, B. hispida was found to be well tolerated upto 2000mg/kg, produced neither mortality nor in behavior in mice. In subacute toxicity study, B. hispida at dose level of 200 and 400 mg/kg did not produce any significant difference in their body weight, food a...

Food protein hydrolysates are known to exhibit angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory properties and can be used as a novel functional food for prevention of hypertension. This study evaluated the ACE inhibitory potentials of Actinopyga lecanora proteolysate (ALP) in vivo. The pre-fed rats with ALP at various doses (200, 400, 800 mg/kg body weight) exhibited a significant (p ≤ 0.05) sup...

The effect of a short period of elevated temperature, or heat shock, on protein synthesis was investigated in 2-day-old seedlings of jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.), loblolly pine (P. taeda L.), lodgepole pine (P. contorta Dougl.), black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP), and white spruce (P. glauca (Moench) Voss.). In all species, heat shock led to increased [(35)S]methionine incorporation ...