Betacyanins are natural, red-violet betalain pigments which can be found in plenty of plants of the Cactaceae family. The Mammillaria is the widest genus of the Cactaceae family of which fruit was examined for betacyanins contents. As a result of the investigation, a new pigment structure, mammillarinin, was identified. Heretofore, no betacyanins of Mammillaria coronata flowers has been extensi...

Thirty-one species of Mammillaria were selected to study the molecular phylogeny using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. High amount of mucilage (gelling polysaccharides) present in Mammillaria was a major obstacle in isolating good quality genomic DNA. The CTAB (cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide) method was modified to obtain good quality genomic DNA. Twenty-two random decamer pr...

Although neuropathological examination is still required for the definite diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), specialised clinical assessment predicts probable CJD. Here we present a 73-year-old female patient presenting with rapid cognitive decline, visual, acoustic and cerebellar disturbances, ataxia and EEG changes compatible with early CJD stages. MRI revealed hyperintensities wit...

Artificial environmental conditions in the tissue culture influence growth and induce aberration from the characteristic organization pattern. As CAM plants, cacti are particularly susceptible to altered growth environment. In vitro propagated Mammillaria plants spontaneously produce callus which regenerates normal and hyperhydric shoots without the addition of any growth regulator. In order to...

We have recently described a hitherto unsuspected catechyl lignin polymer (C-lignin) in the seed coats of Vanilla orchid and in cacti of one genus, Melocactus (Chen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2012, 109, 1772-1777.). We have now determined the lignin types in the seed coats of 130 different cactus species. Lignin in the vegetative tissues of cacti is of the normal guaiacyl/syringyl (G/S...

Cactus Mammillaria gracillis Pfeiff. (Cactaceae), cultivated in vitro, spontaneously switches from an organised to unorganised way of growth, producing a habituated organogenic callus which regenerates normal and hyperhydric shoots without the addition of any growth regulators. Tumour tissues, induced by A. tumefaciens wild strain B6S3 (tumour TW) and rooty mutant GV3101 (tumour TR), do not exp...