We determined the quantity and chemical composition of cuticular hydrocarbons of different strains, sex and age of buffalo flies, Haematobia exigua. The quantity of cuticular hydrocarbons increased from less than 1 μg/fly for newly-emerged flies to over 11 μg/fly in 13 d-old flies. The hydrocarbon chain length varied from C21 to C29, with unbranched alkanes and monounsaturated alkenes the major...

SHINE (SHN/WIN) clade proteins, transcription factors of the plant-specific APETALA 2/ethylene-responsive element binding factor (AP2/ERF) family, have been proven to be involved in wax and cutin biosynthesis. Glycine max is an important economic crop, but its molecular mechanism of wax biosynthesis is rarely characterized. In this study, 10 homologs of Arabidopsis SHN genes were identified fro...

High-spatial resolution and high-mass resolution techniques are developed and adopted for the mass spectrometric imaging of epicuticular lipids on the surface of Arabidopsis thaliana. Single cell level spatial resolution of approximately 12 mum was achieved by reducing the laser beam size by using an optical fiber with 25 mum core diameter in a vacuum matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization...

The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in 86 street dogs from Sri Lanka was determined. Antibodies to T. gondii were assayed by the modified agglutination test (MAT) and found in 58 (67.4%) of 86 dogs with titers of 1:20 in eight, 1:40 in four, 1:80 in 10, 1:160 in 22, 1:320 in six, 1:640 in five, and 1:1280 or higher in three. Hearts, tongues, and brains (either separately or pooled) of 50 dogs w...

Fatty acid synthesis in plants occurs in plastids, and thus, export for subsequent acyl editing and lipid assembly in the cytosol and endoplasmatic reticulum is required. Yet, the transport mechanism for plastid fatty acids still remains enigmatic. We isolated FAX1 (fatty acid export 1), a novel protein, which inserts into the chloroplast inner envelope by α-helical membrane-spanning domains. D...

The cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs) and morphology of two Ceratitis rosa Karsch (Diptera: Tephritidae) populations, putatively belonging to two cryptic taxa, were analysed. The chemical profiles were characterised by two-dimensional gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. CHs of Ceratitis rosa that originated from the lowlands and highlands of Kenya comprised of n-alkanes, monomethyl...

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; 56 Ma) is considered to be one of the best analogs for future climate change. carbon isotope composition (δ13C) n-alkanes derived from leaf waxes terrestrial plants and marine algae can provide important insights into cycle perturbation during PETM. Here, we present new organic geochemical data compound-specific δ13C sediments recovered an early Cenoz...

The carbon isotopic composition of different carbon-bearing materials, organic and inorganic, is commonly used to reconstruct distributions tropical C4 grasslands. However, no study modern soils has yet combined compositions (δ13C) bulk soil matter (SOM), carbonate (SC), plant wax n-alkanes (alk) n-alkanoic acids (acid) allow for comparison between all four materials. Here, we studied carbonate...