The vast majority of land plants develop gas-exchange tissues with intercellular spaces (ICSs) connected directly to the air. Although the developmental processes of ICS have been described in detail at the morphological and ultrastructural level in diverse land plants, little is known about the molecular mechanism responsible for ICS formation. The liverwort Marchantia polymorpha develops a mu...

Medicago spp. is the most important forage crop in many regions of the world.Annual medics have distinct advantages over perennial Medicago. These species have fastergrowth rate in cultivation year, higher crude protein percentage, tolerance to pests and morevigorous seedlings. Morphological and physical aspects of pod and seeds of annual medicsplay a major role in the tolerance of the plants t...

The genera Mima and Herellea, members of the tribe Mimeae (De Bord, 1942), contain organisms which morphologically resemble the Neisseriae upon primary isolation. Since they are being isolated in increasing numbers from the spinal fluid of patients with acute meningitis, a method for their differentiation from the Neisseriae would be advantageous. Schaub and Hauber (1948) classified a gramnegat...

In eukaryote cells various mechanisms exist that are responsible for the removal of non-functional proteins. Here we show that in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha (H. polymorpha) a peroxisomal Lon protease, Pln, plays a role in degradation of unfolded and non-assembled peroxisomal matrix proteins. In addition, we demonstrate that whole peroxisomes are constitutively degraded by autophagy during n...

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation has not been practical in pteridophytes, bryophytes and algae to date, although it is commonly used in model plants including Arabidopsis and rice. Here we present a rapid Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system for the haploid liverwort Marchantia polymorpha L. using immature thalli developed from spores. Hundreds of hygromycin-resistant plants per sp...

We have studied the role of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) in the in vivo assembly of peroxisomal alcohol oxidase (AO) in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha. In previous studies, using a riboflavin (Rf) autotrophic mutant, an unequivocal judgement could not be made, since Rf-limitation led to a partial block of AO import in this mutant. This resulted in the accumulation of AO precursors in the c...

We have isolated the Hansenula polymorpha CPY gene encoding carboxypeptidase Y (Hp-CPY). The deduced amino acid sequence revealed that Hp-CPY consists of 541 amino acids and has a calculated Mr of 60,793. The protein is highly similar to Saccharomyces cerevisiae CPY (61.8% identity). At the N-terminus of Hp-CPY signals for the entry into the secretory pathway and subsequent sorting to the vacuo...

The type I membrane protein calnexin is a conserved key component of the quality control mechanism in the endoplasmic reticulum. It functions as a molecular chaperone that monitors the folding state of nascent polypeptides entering the endoplasmic reticulum. Calnexin also behaves as a lectin, as its chaperoning activity involves binding of oligosaccharide moieties present on newly imported glyc...