Interspecific hybridization is widespread among plants; nevertheless, pre- and post-zygotic isolating mechanisms may maintain species integrity for interfertile species in sympatry despite some gene flow. Interspecific hybridization and potential isolating barriers were evaluated between co-flowering Silene asclepiadea and Silene yunnanensis in an alpine community in southwest China. We investi...

In an ongoing effort to trace the evolution of the sex chromosomes of Silene latifolia, we have searched for the existence of repetitive sequences specific to these chromosomes in the genome of this species by direct isolation from low-melting agarose gels of satellite DNA bands generated by digestion with restriction enzymes. Five monomeric units belonging to a highly repetitive family isolate...

Tris(trimethylsilyl)silylmagnesium bromide, (Me^SiX^SiMgBr, reacts with 2.5-diisopropylbenzaldehyde to give 2,5-diisopropylphenyl-tris(trimethylsilyl)silylmethanol (1). With sodium hydride in THF compound 1 undergoes a rearrangement through 1,3-Si,O-trimethylsilyl mi­ gration affording bis(trimethylsilyl)silyl-(2,5-diisopropylphenyl)-trimethylsiloxy-methane (4). The deprotonation of 1 with orga...

An RFLP genomic subtraction was used to isolate male-specific sequences in the species Silene latifolia. One isolated fragment, SLP2, shares similarity to a portion of the Activator (Ac) transposase from Zea mays and to related proteins from other plant species. Southern blot analysis of male and female S. latifolia genomic DNA shows that SLP2 belongs to a low-copy-number repeat family with two...

Records of double-flowered Silene dioica date from the late sixteenth century and four named varieties are grown today, as previously, for their horticultural interest. Although double-flowered mutants have been characterized in several plants, their study in dioecious species is of particular interest due to influences of the homeotic mutation on the different floral whorl configurations in ma...