‘Flavescence dorée’ is a serious phytoplasma disease affecting grapevine in several European countries. We are currently studying the interaction of ‘flavescence dorée’ phytoplasma with its natural plant host, by monitoring the effects of infection on the protein expression profile. The red-berried V. vinifera cv. Nebbiolo and Barbera were the source of plant material, as they are widely grown ...

Despite the common use of the blooming metaphor, its floral inspiration remains poorly understood. Here we study the physical process of blooming in the asiatic lily Lilium casablanca. Our observations show that the edges of the petals wrinkle as the flower opens, suggesting that differential growth drives the deployment of these laminar shell-like structures. We use a combination of surgical m...

The paper deals with pharmacognosy of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban, including its morphological, anatomical, chemical constituents and powder analysis. Stomata are mostly anisotricytic, isotricytic and few tetracytic. Sphaero-crystals of calcium oxalate are observed in palisade, spongy and ground parenchyma of leaf lamina, petiole and rhizome and absent in roots. Uniseriate flagellate conical h...

The study presents comparative morpho-anatomical information of 10 common cultivars of Piper betle species available in India. The ten cultivars show some structural similarities. Four layered upper and two layered lower epidermis was observed in all the varities of P. betle studied. Crystals and oil reserves were found in the epidermal cells. The Kapoori Tuni variety has more stomatal and tric...

Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes are important regulators of development in plants. SbbHLH1, a Sorghum bicolor bHLH sequence, was isolated from a suppression subtractive hybridization library constructed using 13 independent brown midrib (bmr) mutants as the tester and wild-type sorghum as the driver. The gene was upregulated in at least five of the mutants at the five- to seven-leaf stage. ...

The effects of defoliation on leaf and propagule production, and leaf chemistry of the mangrove Kandelia candel (L.) Druce were evaluated in a manipulative experiment in Hong Kong. Artificial defoliation of leaf lamina at 50% of the length of midrib resulted in significant reduction in leaf, twig and propagule production, and size of the latter. Through the negative effects on propagule number ...