Zephyranthes citrina is an ornamental American bulbous plant used as garden crop for the aesthetic qualities of its yellow perigonium. The objective this work was to characterize species by classical chromosome staining and fluorochrome banding. A sporophytic number 2n=8x=48 chromosomes observed, being karyotypic formula 20 m + 26 sm 2 st. Satellites were detected in short arm metacentric 8, 9,...

A bulbous nasal tip is commonly seen in Asians; its correction represents a significant portion of Asian rhinoplasties. Bulbous tip correction in Caucasians mainly aims at reducing excess lower lateral cartilage and performing suture techniques on well-developed lower lateral cartilage [1-4]. Asians with a bulbous tip have a small, weak lower lateral cartilage and nasal septum [5,6]. Therefore,...

A new quadrannulate Orobdella Oka, 1895 species, Orobdella koikeisp. n., is described on the basis of six specimens collected from Hokkaido, Japan. In addition, an emended description of quadrannulate Orobdella kawakatsuorum Richardson, 1975 is also provided. Orobdella koikei differs from other quadrannulate species of Orobdella in possessing the following combination of characters: color dorsa...

The ejaculatory mechanism involves 2 reflexes: the "glans-vasal," which seems to bring the semen to the posterior urethra (emission phase of ejaculation), and the "urethromuscular" which ejects it to the exterior (ejection phase). This study investigated the mechanism of bulbocavernosus muscle (BCM) contraction, once the seminal fluid reaches the bulbous urethra. The study included 14 healthy m...

Increasing incidences of human disease, crop destruction and ecosystem perturbations are attributable to fungi and threaten socioeconomic progress and food security on a global scale. The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the most devastating pathogen of cultivated rice, but its metabolic requirements in the host are unclear. Here we report that a purine-requiring mutant of M. oryzae could dev...

A new sexannulate species of the genus Orobdella Oka, 1895, Orobdella mononokesp. n., is described on the basis of five specimens collected from Yakushima Island, Japan. Orobdella mononokesp. n. differs from other sexannulate Orobdella species in its possessing the following combination of characters: dorsal surface bicolor in life, I-XIII, XXVII and caudal sucker grayish purple, XIV-XXVI amber...

Conventional propagation of bulbous crops must be supplemented with micropropagation to satisfy the requirements of present-day horticulture with respect to fast production of disease-free, superior starting material. Adequate micropropagation protocols for bulbous crops are therefore a sine qua non. The successive steps in micropropagation of bulbous crops are reviewed: initiation, multiplicat...

BACKGROUND Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is an heritable systemic disorder of connective tissue due to different sequence variants in genes affecting both the synthesis of type I collagen and osteoblast function. Dominant and recessive inheritance is recognized. Approximately 90% of the OI cases are due to mutations in COL1A1/A2 genes. We clinically and radiologically describes an adult male wit...