Utricularia gibba is an aquatic carnivorous plant with highly specialized morphology, featuring fibrous floating networks of branches and leaf-like organs, no recognizable roots, and bladder traps that capture and digest prey. We recently described the compressed genome of U. gibba as sufficient to control the development and reproduction of a complex organism. We hypothesized intense deletion ...

Heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are often cocontaminants in industrialized environments, yet little is known about either the extent or mechanisms of their cotoxicity. To address this shortfall, the combined effects of an oxygenated PAH, 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone (1,2-dhATQ), and a heavy metal, Cu2+, on photosynthesis and growth of the duckweed (Lemna gibba) were evalu...

The ability of a commercial (Aldrich Chemical Co.) humic acid (AHA) to ameliorate the photo-induced toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was examined using Lemna gibba L. (G3). Plants were exposed to anthracene and benzo(a)pyrene both with and without AHA and grown under visible light as well as lighting that simulates relative abundances of UV-A and UV-B in natural sunlight (SSR...

When the in vitro synthesized precursor of a light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein (LHCP) from Lemna gibba is imported into barley etiochloroplasts, it is processed to a single form. Both the processed form and the precursor are found in the thylakoid membranes, assembled into the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II. Neither form can be detected in the stromal fraction. The re...

Recent advances in single-cell analysis have revealed the stochasticity and nongenetic heterogeneity inherent to cellular processes. However, our knowledge of the actual cellular behaviors in a living multicellular organism is still limited. By using a single-cell bioluminescence imaging technique on duckweed, Lemna gibba, we demonstrate that, under constant conditions, cells in the intact plan...