Amoebas survive environmental stress by differentiating into encapsulated cysts. As cysts, pathogenic amoebas resist antibiotics, which particularly counteracts treatment of vision-destroying Acanthamoeba keratitis. Limited genetic tractability of amoeba pathogens has left their encystation mechanisms unexplored. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum forms spores in multicellular fruiting ...

In vitro translation systems were prepared with supernatant factors from wheat germ and 80S ribosomes from wheat germ, barley embryos, watermelon cotyledons, pea cotyledons, and castor bean endosperm. Ricin A-chain, which strongly inhibits protein synthesis by mammalian ribosomes, inhibited all of the plant ribosomal systems by 50% when present at 25-45 mug/ml- approximately 23,000 times the co...

Germination timing influences plant fitness, and its sensitivity to temperature may cause it to change as climate shifts. These changes are likely to be complex because temperatures that occur during seed maturation and temperatures that occur post-dispersal interact to define germination timing. We used the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana to determine how flowering time (which defines seed...

Seed germination is a crucial stage in the life history of a species because it represents the pathway from adult to offspring, and it can affect the distribution and abundance of species in communities. In this study, we examined the effects of phylogenetic, life history and environmental factors on seed germination of 134 common species from an alpine/subalpine meadow on the eastern Tibetan P...

Giant foxtail (Setaria faberi) seeds differ in requirements for germination. Variable germinability arises during seed development under the influence of genotype, environment and parent plant. Giant foxtail seed germination has been shown to be regulated by independent asynchronous or dependent synchronous action of seed structures. To gain better insight into the process, germination was divi...

S-Adenosylmethionine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.50) has been purified 500-fold in 30% yield from the extract of etiolated corn seedlings (cv. Golden Crossbantam Bell). This preparation had a molecular weight of approximately 25,000. The K(m) value was 5 micromolar for S-adenosylmethionine. Methylglyoxal bis(guanylhydrazone), hydroxylamine, and sulfhydryl reagents (such as p-hydroxymercuriphenylsul...

(How and why to measure the germination process?). In the last two centuries, papers have been published including measurements of the germination process. High diversity of mathematical expressions has made comparisons between papers and some times the interpretation of results difficult. Thus, in this paper is included a review about measurements of the germination process, with an analysis o...