BACKGROUND More fish have been afforded US Endangered Species Act protection than any other vertebrate taxonomic group, and none has been designated as recovered. Shortnose sturgeon (Acipenser brevirostrum) occupy large rivers and estuaries along the Atlantic coast of North America, and the species has been protected by the US Endangered Species Act since its enactment. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL ...

Pitaya, pitahaya or dragon fruit, grow on a veining epiphytic cactus (Hylocereus sp.) native to the tropical forest regions of Mexico and Central and South America (Mizrahi et al., 1997). The plants grow up tree trunks and are anchored by aerial roots. The fruits have red or pink thornless skins, while the juicy flesh can range from white to magenta. The skin is covered with bracts or "scales",...

Original meiotic or mitotic chromosome counts are presented for 17 species in 12 families of angiosperms from Iran. Chromosome counts for Amberboa nana, n=16 (Asteraceae) and Camelina rumelica subsp. transcapica, n=13 (Brassicaceae) are repoted for the first time. Chromosome numbers for six species including: Rhagadiolus stellatus (n=5), Campanula raponcoloides (n=34), Campanula trachelium (n=1...

Two hydrolysates were obtained from dried Mastocarpus stellatus using alcalase. The phenolic content was partially removed from one of them. The phenolic-partially-removed hydrolysate (H) was found to be a potent angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. However, the phenolic-containing hydrolysate (Hp) showed a higher Folin-reactive substance content and antioxidant capacity (reducing p...

Molecular phylogenetic relationships among 12 species of Aphanomyces de Bary (Oomycetes) were analyzed based on 108 ITS sequences of nuclear rDNA. Sequences used in the analyses belonged to the major species currently available in pure culture and GenBank. Bayesian, maximum likelihood, and maximum parsimony analyses support that Aphanomyces constitutes a monophyletic group. Three independent li...

Marine macrophytes contain a variety of biologically active compounds, some reported to have antiprotozoal activity in vitro. As a part of a screening program to search for new natural antiprotozoals, we screened hydroalcoholic and ethyl acetate extracts of 20 species of seaweeds from three phyla (Rhodophyta, Heterokontophyta and Chlorophyta), sampled along the Normandy (France) coast. We teste...

Relationships between hepatic lesions and chemical contaminant concentrations in sediments, stomach contents, liver tissue, and bile were statistically evaluated in three species of bottomfish, English sole (Pleuronectes vetulus), starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus), and white croaker (Genyonemus lineatus), captured from 27 urban and nonurban sites on the Pacific Coast from Alaska to southe...