A shipment of Fults alkaligrass seed (Puccinellia distans) grown in Washington state containing bunted florets was intercepted by quarantine officials at China's Tianjin Entry-Exit Quarantine and Inspection Bureau. The bunted florets were filled with irregularly shaped, reticulately ornamented teliospores that germinated in a manner characteristic of systemically infecting Tilletia spp. on gras...

The grass Puccinellia maritima is an important saltmarsh ecosystem engineer exhibiting wide morphological variation, which is partially genetically determined. Nevertheless, nothing is known about its population genetics or how neutral genetic variation is distributed throughout its geographical range. Here, we describe 12 polymorphic microsatellites pooled into two multiplexes for this octoplo...

Many halophytes and halophilic microorganisms are capable to adapt to the extremities of saline habitats. This study reveals the taxonomic diversity and ecological tolerance of bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere of three different halophytes (Bolboschoenus maritimus, Puccinellia limosa and Aster tripolium) living in the vicinity of Kiskunság soda ponds. Following a sampling in September 201...

Accurate identification of Arctic plant species is critical for understanding potential climate-induced changes in their diversity and distributions. To facilitate rapid identification we generated DNA barcodes for the core plastid barcode loci (rbcL and matK) for 490 vascular plant species, representing nearly half of the Canadian Arctic flora and 93% of the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archip...

The proportion of polyploid plant species increases at higher latitudes, and it has been suggested that original postglacial Arctic immigrants of some large groups, including grasses, were polyploid. We analyzed noncoding nuclear and chloroplast DNA of all North American diploid Puccinellia (Poaceae) and a subset of arctic polyploids to hypothesize evolutionary relationships among diploids and ...

In the current study, a field experiment was conducted to examine effects of litter on seedling emergence and early growth of four dominant weed species from the early successional stages of old field ecosystem and two perennial grassland species in late successional stages. Our results showed that increased litter cover decreased soil temperature and temperature variability over time and impro...

Puccinellia tenuiflora is a typical salt-excluding halophytic grass with excellent salt tolerance. Plasma membrane Na+/H+ transporter SOS1, HKT-type protein and tonoplast Na+/H+ antiporter NHX1 are key Na+ transporters involved in plant salt tolerance. Based on our previous research, we had proposed a function model for these transporters in Na+ homeostasis according to the expression of PtSOS1...