The dormancy and seed germination of Tamarindus indica (L) was studied. This involved the usage of some dormancy-releasing methods and the influence of oven dry heat treatments on the seeds. The preliminary germination tests on fresh and air-dried seeds showed low percentage germinability (10-20%). The seeds are known to have high socio-economic value most especially in the savanna regions of t...

Seeds from natural populations of fierce thornapple and velvetleaf collected in a corn-growing area in central Spain were incubated at a range of constant temperatures and water potentials to model the progress of germination on the basis of the accumulation of hydrothermal time. Previous to the germination tests, the seeds were treated in two different ways: (1) dark storage under dry conditio...

PURPOSE To examine the incidence of seed migration detected on chest X-ray and to identify the predictors associated with its occurrence. METHODS AND MATERIALS Between May 1998 and April 2000, 102 patients underwent permanent prostate brachytherapy at our institution and 100 were eligible for the study. Chest X-rays obtained at follow-up were examined for the number and location of seeds. The...

BACKGROUND The aim was to determine the incidence of seed migration not only to the chest, but also to the abdomen and pelvis after transperineal interstitial prostate brachytherapy with loose (125)I seeds. METHODS We reviewed the records of 267 patients who underwent prostate brachytherapy with loose (125)I seeds. After seed implantation, orthogonal chest radiographs, an abdominal radiograph...

The Neotropics have many plant species that seem to be adapted for seed dispersal by megafauna that went extinct in the late Pleistocene. Given the crucial importance of seed dispersal for plant persistence, it remains a mystery how these plants have survived more than 10,000 y without their mutualist dispersers. Here we present support for the hypothesis that secondary seed dispersal by scatte...

Seed dormancy in wild Lolium rigidum Gaud (annual ryegrass) populations is highly variable and not well characterized at the biochemical level. To identify some of the determinants of dormancy level in these seeds, the proteomes of subpopulations selected for low and high levels of primary dormancy were compared by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of extracts from mature, dry ...

Phenolic compounds were extracted from three wild grapevine species: Vitis californica, V. riparia and V. amurensis seeds using 80% methanol or 80% acetone. The total content of phenolic compounds was determined utilizing the Folin-Ciocalteu's phenol reagent while the content of tannins was assayed with the vanillin and BSA precipitation methods. Additionally, the DPPH free radical scavenging a...

The Nymphoides peltata (N. peltata) population has shown rapid expansion in Lake Taihu, China, in recent years. The core question is whether N. peltata seeds have contributed to the expansion. To address this, we randomly selected three N. peltata stands to investigate the seed bank characteristics of N. peltata in Lake Taihu. Results showed that N. peltata had high seed production, with a maxi...

Seeds of the common ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) germinate in distinct sub-populations over a time period of more than 4 weeks following imbibition. Distinguishing early (E)- and late (L)-germinating seeds is the expression of a homologue of the transcriptional activator VP1. The deduced amino acid sequence of ice plant VP1 (MVP1) is 39% identical (50% similar) to the sequence of t...

Postdispersal fate of seeds from Ocotea endresiana (Lauraceae), a bird-dispersed Neotropical montane tree, was studied in Costa Rica to determine the influence of seed dispersers, seed predators, and microhabitat characteristics on seedling recruitment. Particular emphasis was placed on finding naturally dispersed seeds in order to study the link between dispersal and postdispersal fate of seed...