Passiflora contracta Vitta (Passifloraceae) is an endemic species of the Atlantic Rainforest, one of the most species-rich ecoregions in the world, although extremely endangered. We have developed an enriched microsatellite library in order to fine-scale studies of the genetic structure of P. contracta. Twelve pairs of microsatellite primers were designed, and seven loci were successfully ampli...

Background Leaf shape among Passiflora species is spectacularly diverse. Underlying this diversity in leaf shape are profound changes in the patterning of the primary vasculature and laminar outgrowth. Each of these aspects of leaf morphology-vasculature and blade-provides different insights into leaf patterning. Results Here, we morphometrically analyze >3300 leaves from 40 different Passifl...

Male, female, pupa, larva and egg of a new genus and species of Gracillariidae (Gracillariinae), Spinivalva gaucha Moreira and Vargas from southern Brazil are described and illustrated with the aid of optical and scanning electron microscopy. A preliminary analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences including members of related lineages is also provided. The immature stages are associated with Pass...

One of the long-standing paradoxes in genomic evolution is the observation that much of the genome is composed of repetitive DNA which has been typically regarded as superfluous to the function of the genome in generating phenotypes. In this work, we used comparative phylogenetic approaches to investigate if the variations in genome sizes (GS) should be considered as adaptive or neutral process...

The Brazilian sharpshooter Tettigoniaincarnata Germar, 1821 was treated as incertae sedis in the most comprehensive and recent monograph of the New World Cicadellini. We have been able to identify male and female specimens of Tettigoniaincarnata from northeastern and southeastern Brazil using high-resolution images of two syntypes deposited in the Museum für Naturkunde, Universität Humboldt, Be...

An increased yield of the crude material with antibacterial and antifungal activity produced by Passiflora species was obtained by aerated bathing of cut rinds of banana passion fruit in water in rotating cylindrical bottles. The crude material was separated into several fractions by thin-layer chromatography with the use of silica gel and ethyl acetate-chloroform (2: 1). The fractions showing ...

The orchid family is the largest in the angiosperms, but little is known about the molecular basis of the significant variation they exhibit. We investigate here the transcriptomic divergence between two European terrestrial orchids, Dactylorhiza incarnata and Dactylorhiza fuchsii, and integrate these results in the context of their distinct ecologies that we also document. Clear signals of lin...

Chrysin, a passion flower extract, may be beneficial because of its potential to attenuate surgical suppression of natural killer (NK) cell activity. We divided 37 male Sprague-Dawley rats into 3 treatment groups: (1) rats undergoing abdominal surgery and administered isoflurane and a 5% solution of dimethyl sulfoxide in saline (vehicle), (2) rats undergoing abdominal surgery and administered i...