BACKGROUND AND AIMS The florist's gloxinia is a familiar houseplant in the Gesneriaceae, the botanical family that includes the African violet (Saintpaulia) and other ornamental species. The gloxinia's wild progenitor is Sinningia speciosa (Lodd.) Hiern, a Brazilian endemic. Although it has been cultivated for almost 200 years, little is known about the genetic diversity in S. speciosa, how the...

The main virulence factors of the phytopathogenic bacterium Erwinia chrysanthemi are pectinases that cleave pectin, a major constituent of the plant cell wall. Although physiological studies suggested that pectinase production in Erwinia species is subjected to catabolite repression, the direct implication of the cyclic AMP receptor protein (CRP) in this regulation has never been demonstrated. ...

Plant biotechnology has emerged as a powerful tool of crop improvement and has aroused a great deal of interest in many countries because of its application to agriculture and horticulture. We report here the application of a number of in vitro plant breeding techniques such as micropropagation, in vitro flowering, in vitro pollination and fertilisation, anther culture, somatic embryogenesis, a...

Light-cone quantization of gauge theories is discussed from two perspectives: as a calculational tool for representing hadrons as QCD bound-states of relativistic quarks and gluons, and as a novel method for simulating quantum field theory on a computer. A general non-perturbative method for numerically solving quantum field theories, ‘discretized light-cone quantization’, is outlined. Both the...

Trichomes are hair-like structure that originated from aerial epidermis cells and are found in most plant species, trichomes exposed to various adverse conditions including gamma radiations and ultra violet radiations and herbivore attack insects and pests. Trichome initiation, formation, and development is regulated by some specific group of gene, transcription factors, promoters and cis-regul...

Guzmania lingulata (L.) Mez. ‘Cherry’ plants were grown in coconut husk chips. All plants were given 8 mM nitrogen (N), 2 mM phosphorus (P), 4 mM calcium (Ca), and 1 mM magnesium (Mg) at each irrigation with potassium (K) concentration at 0, 2, 4, or 6 mM. After 9 months, K concentration did not alter the number of new leaves, and shoot and root dry weights. Increasing K concentration did not a...