The orchid-bee faunas of the 'Parque Nacional do Pau Brasil' (8,500 ha) and 'RPPN Estação Veracel' (6,000 ha), two Atlantic Forest remnants in the southern state of Bahia, northeastern Brazil, were surveyed. Seventeen chemical compounds were used as scent baits to attract orchid-bee males. Seven hundred and twelve males belonging to 20 species were actively collected with insect nets during 80 ...

An early step in the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Phalaenopsis violacea orchid was investigated to elucidate the plant-bacterium interaction. Directed movement in response to chemical attractants is of crucial importance to Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains. Chemotaxis of A. tumefaciens strains (EHA 101 and 105) towards wounded orchid tissues has been studied by using swarm agar pla...

The co-occurrence pattern of epiphytic lichen communities was evaluated relative to microenvironmental heterogeneity along an edge-interior forest gradient. We collected data on the occurrence of 57 epiphytic lichen species from 452 plots in a Mediterranean forest remnant. We used two realistic null models to test for non-randomness in the structure of epiphytic lichen communities and generaliz...

The East Africa NTD/Trachoma Cross-Border Partnership brings together representatives from the same ‘neighbourhood’ – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda – to share experiences of common interest in the delivery of trachoma and other neglected tropical disease (NTD) programmes. These countries understand that they will never reach their individual elimination targe...

OBJECTIVES A national survey in 1997 demonstrated that trachoma was endemic in Mali. Interventions to control trachoma including mass drug administration (MDA) with azithromycin were launched in the regions of Kayes and Koulikoro in 2003. MDA was discontinued after three annual rounds in 2006, and an impact survey conducted. We resurveyed all districts in Kayes and Koulikoro in 2009 to reassess...

The bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv syringae B728a (PsyB728a) uses a type III secretion system (T3SS) to inject effector proteins into plant cells, a process that modulates the susceptibility of different plants to infection. Analysis of GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN-expressing PsyB728a after spray inoculation without additives under moderate relative humidity conditions permitted (1) a detailed ...

We have identified the primary root fungal endophytes of Dipodium hamiltonianum F.M. Bailey, a species of orchid endangered in Victoria and uncommon in New South Wales and Queensland. Genomic DNA was extracted from whole colonised root portions from four orchid individuals and PCR amplified with ITS1F and ITS4 primers. Cloning and sequencing of the main amplicons produced from the PCR analysis ...

Male orchid bees were collected by chemical baiting in four forest fragments in parks of the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. One thousand three hundred and twenty-five males belonging to 14 species were captured within one year. The capture data were compared through correlation tests. The data suggest that abundance of orchid bees tend to increase with fragment size,...

We have investigated the mycorrhizal associations of two nonphotosynthetic orchids from distant tribes within the Orchidaceae. The two orchids were found to associate exclusively with two distinct clades of ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetous fungi over wide geographic ranges. Yet both orchids retained the internal mycorrhizal structure typical of photosynthetic orchids that do not associate with e...