Graphical User Interface Silene is used for generation of input data describing 2D&3D unstructured geometries for neutron transport codes used at CEA. This paper summarizes new capabilities and functionalities of Silene. Silene is designed to deal with unstructured geometries, but can handel regular ones, even they are internally treated as unstructured. Recently the concept of collection of co...

Stem growth and flowering in the long-day plant Silene armeria L. are induced by exposure to a minimum of 3 to 6 long days (LD). Stem growth continues in subsequent short days (SD), albeit at a reduced rate. The growth retardant tetcyclacis inhibited stem elongation induced by LD, but had no effect on flowering. This indicates that photoperiodic control of stem growth in Silene is mediated by g...

Transposable elements often accumulate in nonrecombining regions, such as Y chromosomes. Contrary to this trend, a new Silene retrotransposon described here, has spread recently all over the genome of plant Silene latifolia, except its Y chromosome. This coincided with the latest steps of sex chromosome evolution in this species.

In the plant genus Silene, separate sexes and sex chromosomes are believed to have evolved twice. Silene species that are wholly or largely hermaphroditic are assumed to represent the ancestral state from which dioecy evolved. This assumption is important for choice of outgroup species for inferring the genetic and chromosomal changes involved in the evolution of dioecy, but is mainly based on ...

The Hawaiian endemic Silene are a small group of woody or semiwoody representatives from a large, predominantly herbaceous, species-rich genus. We here investigated the origin and number of introductions of the endemic Hawaiian Silene based on phylogenetic relationships inferred from DNA sequences from both the plastid (the rps16 intron) and the nuclear (ribosomal internal transcribed sequences...

Plants affect the spatial distribution of soil microorganisms, but the influence of the local abiotic context is poorly documented. We investigated the effect of a single plant species, the cushion plant Silene acaulis, on habitat conditions, and microbial community. We collected soil from inside (In) and outside (Out) of the cushions on calcareous and siliceous cliffs in the French Alps along ...

One of the long-standing mysteries in genomic evolution is the observation that much of the genome is composed of repetitive DNA, resulting in inter- and intraspecific variation in nuclear DNA content. Our discovery of a negative correlation between nuclear DNA content and flower size in Silene latifolia has been supported by our subsequent investigation of changes in DNA content as a correlate...

The disproportionately large involvement of the X-chromosome in the isolation of closely related species (the large-X effect) has been reported for many animals, where X-linked genes are mostly hemizygous in the heterogametic sex. The expression of deleterious recessive mutations is thought to drive the frequent involvement of the X-chromosome in hybrid sterility, as well as to reduce interspec...

The kinetics and mechanisms of a number of characteristic reactions of Si1⁄4C and Ge1⁄4C double bonds have been studied in solution, using laser flash photolysis of silaand germacyclobutanes for generation of the silene and germene reactive intermediates under conditions where they can be detected directly. Substituent, solvent, isotope, and temperature effects on the rate constants for reactio...

Species and populations can be categorized by their sexual systems, depending on the spatial distribution of female and male reproductive structures within and among plants. Although a high diversity of sexual systems exists in Silene, their relative frequency at the genus and infrageneric level is unknown. Here, we carried out an extensive literature search for direct or indirect descriptions ...