Switching of symbiotic partners pervades most mutualisms, despite mechanisms that appear to enforce partner fidelity. To investigate the interplay of forces binding and dissolving mutualistic pairings, we investigated partner fidelity at the population level in the attine ant-fungal cultivar mutualism. The ants and their cultivars exhibit both broad-scale co-evolution, as well as cultivar switc...

Digestive enzymatic activity and nutritional responses of Autographa gamma (L.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), an important insect pest of sugar beet, on nine sugar beet cultivars (Peritra, Karolina, Paolita, Lenzier, Tiller, Ardabili, Persia, Rozier, and Dorothea) were studied. The highest proteolytic activity of fourth and fifth instar of A. gamma was in larvae fed on cultivar Persia. The highest ...

Investigations of the effects of elevated ozone (O(3)) on the virus-plant system were conducted to inform virus pathogen management strategies better. One susceptible cultivar of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Yongding) and a resistant cultivar (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Vam) to Potato virus Y petiole necrosis strain (PVY(N)) infection were grown in open-top chambers under ambient and elevate...

Cultivars of fungus-growing (attine) ants are vertically transmitted through inheritance from parent to offspring nest, but horizontal cultivar transfer between ant nests occurs occasionally, resulting in cultivar replacement within ant lineages. Two mechanisms could theoretically prevent the invasion of suboptimal cultivar strains and thus stabilize ant–cultivar coevolution: first, partner fee...

A sprouting-resistant and a sprouting-susceptible wheat cultivar were utilized to examine the role of ABA levels and sensitivity responses in wheat embryonic germination. Endogenous embryonic ABA levels were measured in both cultivars throughout grain maturation utilizing a new and sensitive ABA immunoassay. Embryonic ABA levels of each cultivar were similar with the sprouting-susceptible culti...

Safflower is an important, traditional, multipurpose oil crop. This was to investigate the effect of different salinity levels on morphological, physiological, biochemical and antioxidant response of two safflower cultivars (Carthamus tinctorius L. cultivar TSF1 and cultivar SM) differing in salt tolerance. Salinity stress (0.0%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% of NaCl) was induced to safflower plants afte...

*Introgression of cultivar alleles into wild plant populations via crop-wild hybridization is primarily governed by their fitness effects as well as those of linked loci. The fitness of crop-wild hybrids is often dependent on environmental factors, but less is understood about how aspects of the environment affect individual cultivar alleles. *This study investigated the effects of naturally oc...

P. Cilibrizzi, ∗ H. Sigurdsson, 3 T.C.H. Liew, H. Ohadi, A. Askitopoulos, S. Brodbeck, C. Schneider, I. A. Shelykh, 3 S. Höfling, 5 J. Ruostekoski, and P. Lagoudakis School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University 637371, Singa...

To investigate Fe deficiency tolerance in tomato cultivars, quantification of proteins and genes involved in Fe metabolism and antioxidant mechanisms were performed in "Roggusanmaru" and "Super Doterang". Fe deficiency (Moderate, low and -Fe) significantly decreased the biomass, total, and apoplastic Fe concentration of "Roggusanmaru", while a slight variation was observed in "Super Doterang" c...