Recent research has revealed that trace metals, particularly transition metals, play important roles in marine productivity. Most of the work has been on iron, which shows a nutrient-depleted profile in the upper ocean. Marine organisms have a variety of means for acquiring iron and other transition metal ions that differ from those of terrestrial organisms.

Once a biological novelty known for their role in bioluminescence, fluorescent proteins (FPs) from marine invertebrates have revolutionized the life sciences. Organisms from all kingdoms have been transformed with the Aequorea victoria green fluorescent protein (GFP), and biotechnology has been advanced by the use of FPs. This article reviews the current uses of FPs in whole transgenic organism...

Using stable isotope dilution, we determined the bioavailability of soilborne lead (Pb) in human adult volunteers. Soil from a residential yard at a mining-impacted federal Superfund site that had negligible amounts of other priority pollutants was dried and screened through a 25-micron mesh sieve. The < 250-micron fraction, which likely represents that ingested via hand-to-mouth activity, was ...

ABSTRACT Pseudomonas spp. are ubiquitous bacteria in agricultural soils and have many traits that make them well suited as biocontrol agents of soilborne pathogens. Tremendous progress has been made in characterizing the process of root colonization by pseudomonads, the biotic and abiotic factors affecting colonization, bacterial traits and genes contributing to rhizosphere competence, and the ...

dna barcoding is a new term introduced in to scientific literatures by hebert and coworkers almost a decade ago. the concept of barcoding alone is well-known to the public: a series of black bars printed on many commercial products (universal product code), which are used to distinguish different products. advances made in molecular biology and molecular techniques late 20th century e.g. sequen...

shahrechay dam is located at 12th km of shahrechay river in urmia. this study was conducted for a year (spring to fall, 2007) to identify different species of benthic organisms in the dam. considering the relevant topographic status like the local depth and water speed, 6 sampling stations were chosen and sampling was done in shallow locations of the river by means of superficial method. in thi...

the most modern techniques in biotechnology owe their existence to the discovery of dna cloning and the genetic manipulation of organisms. however biotechnology is not new science in fact, many applications represent old practices with new methodologies. human have been used organisms for their benefit in many processes for several thousand years. therefore, one way of thinking about biotechnol...