The Romanian hamster Mesocricetus newtoni is endemic to South-Eastern Romania (Dobruja region) and North-Eastern Bulgaria, prefers steppic, arid, uncultivated habitats, but also found in alfalfa fields, less often corn cultures field-protecting vegetation belts. Previous studies provide only limited data regarding the diet of this cryptic species. one family group (one female four pups) was mon...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Sexual reproduction in angiosperms involves a network of signalling and interactions between pollen and pistil. To promote out-breeding, an additional layer of interactions, involving self-incompatibility (SI), is used to prevent self-fertilization. SI is generally controlled by the S-locus, and comprises allelic pollen and pistil S-determinants. This provides the basis of r...

Regulation of pollen tube growth is known to involve alterations in intracellular calcium levels and phosphoinositide signaling, although the mechanisms involved are unclear. However, it appears likely that pollination events involve a complex interplay between signaling pathways and components of the actin cytoskeleton in pollen. In many eukaryotic cells, actin binding proteins function as sti...

1 An experiment was carried out to test the hypotheses that in heterogeneous environments: (i) the size of species’ root systems will be negatively correlated with their ability to place roots precisely in nutrient-rich patches; (ii) precision of root placement will be less affected by distance to nutrient patches in species with large root systems; (iii) species with greater precision in root ...