0 In this study the potential role of competition in in~uencing the distribution of three displaced native perennial grasses across complex gradients of plant productivity and species composition was investigated in Michigan old!_elds[ To do this plant removal and propagule addition experiments were conducted at nine old!_eld sites to examine the e}ects of living plant neighbours and litter on ...

Pathogens and antibiotics enter the aquatic environment via sewage effluents and may pose a health risk to wild life and humans. The aim of this study was to determine the levels of faecal bacteria, and selected antibiotic residues in raw wastewater and treated sewage effluents from three different sewage treatment plants in the Western Cape, South Africa. Sewage treatment plant 1 and 2 use old...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Plant species that share pollinators are potentially subject to non-adaptive interspecific pollen transfer, resulting in reduced reproductive success. Mechanisms that increase pollination efficiency between conspecific individuals are therefore highly beneficial. Many nocturnally flowering plant species in Thailand are pollinated by the nectar bat Eonycteris spelaea (Pteropo...

Hyphal anastomosis, or vegetative hyphal fusion, establishes the interconnection of individual hyphal strands into an integrated network of a fungal mycelium. In contrast to recent advances in the understanding of the molecular basis for hyphal anastomosis, knowledge of the physiological role of hyphal anastomosis in the natural habitats of filamentous fungi is still very limited. To investigat...

Green leaf volatiles (GLV), a series of saturated and monounsaturated six-carbon aldehydes, alcohols, and esters are emitted by plants upon mechanical damage. Evidence is increasing that intact plants respond to GLV by activating their own defense mechanisms, thus suggesting that they function in plant-plant communication. The present paper demonstrates that exposure of maize plants to naturall...

Fungal endophytes have shown to affect plant growth and to confer stress tolerance to the host; however, effects of endophytes isolated from water plants have been poorly investigated. In this study, fungi isolated from stems (stem-E) and roots (root-E) of Mentha aquatica L. (water mint) were identified, and their morphogenetic properties analysed on in vitro cultured Arabidopsis (L.) Heynh., 1...

Particle bombardment is a powerful and relatively easy method for transient expression of genes of interest in plant cells, especially those that are recalcitrant to other transformation methods. This method has facilitated numerous analyses of subcellular localization of fluorescent fusion protein constructs. Particle bombardment delivers genes to the first layer of plant tissue. In leaves of ...

Pot and field experiments were conducted to evaluate bioavailability of Cu in contaminated paddy soil (PS) and phytoremediation potential by Elsholtzia splendens as affected by soil amendments. The results from pot experiment showed that organic manure (M) applied to the PS not only remarkably raised the H2O exchangeable Cu, which were mainly due to the increased exchangeable and organic fracti...

Six Integrated Gasifi cation Combined-Cycle (IGCC) power plant confi gurations operating on bituminous coal were evaluated and the results are presented in this summary sheet. All cases were analyzed on the same basis, using a consistent set of assumptions and analytical tools. Each gasifi er type was assessed with and without carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The individual confi guratio...

An investigation was carried out to evaluate the insecticidal activity of Allium sativum, Zingiber officinale and Nigella sativa extracts against the larvae of T. granarium under laboratory conditions in the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan during 2009-10. The highest concentration of (6 %) Z. officinale was found to be comparatively more toxic (16.70 %) than those of A. sativum ...