Agustín César MÖHLINGER^a, Virginia Paula SIFFREDI^a, Serenela CHULIBERT^a, Adriana PONESSA^b, Rodolfo David NOTARIO^b, Diana Graciela DLUGOVITZKY^a

BIOCELL, Vol.37, No.3, pp. 63-69, 2013, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2013.37.063

Abstract Streptococcus pyogenes (group A Streptococcus) is frequently involved in a wide range of human diseases. Here we evaluated polymorphonuclear neutrophils and mononuclear cells from healthy subjects for their bactericidal function after stimulation with live and inactivated Streptococcus pyogenes (Streptococcus Group A). Mononuclear cells and Neutrophils were isolated from heparinized blood samples (n=18) using a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient and cultured in RPMI 1640 for 18 hours with a suspension of either live or inactivated Streptococcus pyogenes. Both the respiratory burst (flow cytometry) and nitrite, TNF and IL17 production (ELISA) were measured in the cell culture supernatants. An increased respiratory burst More >

Yi ZOU^1*, Timothy C COX²

BIOCELL, Vol.37, No.3, pp. 55-61, 2013, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2013.37.055

Abstract PH (pleckstrin homology) domains are well known to bind membrane phosphoinositides with different specificities and direct PH domain-containing proteins to discrete subcellular compartments with assistances of alternative binding partners. PH domain-containing proteins have been found to be involved in a wide range of cellular events, including signalling, cytoskeleton rearrangement and vesicular trafficking. Here we showed that a novel PH domain-containing protein, PEPP2 (also known as PLEKHA5), displays moderate phosphoinositide binding specificity. Full length PEPP2 was observed to variably associate with both the plasma membrane and microtubules. The membrane-associated PEPP2 nucleated at cell-cell contacts and the More >

Pascualides AL y NS Ateca

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 313-319, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.313

Abstract Crotalaria juncea L. (Fabaceae) is an annual herbaceous species native to India. Their seeds have polymorphism in the seed coat color and different seed sizes. Seeds were grouped according to their seed coat color into uniform (dark gray seeds) and variegated (brown mottled seeds), to evaluate the vigour of C. juncea seed morphotypes. They were also classified into small (< 5mm length) and big seeds (>5 mm length). The 1000 seed weight, germination percentage, length and seedling dry weight, electrical conductivity and field emergence were evaluated. The results showed that uniform seeds had greater weight than those… More >

Tshisikhawe MP, MW Van Rooyen

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 303-311, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.303

Abstract Elaeodendron transvaalense Jacq. is one of the medicinal plant species commonly used by people in the Venda region. The species is known to treat a variety of diseases. It is widely used and important to traditional healers. Because of this, it found its way into the muthi markets, and it is among the seven most commonly traded plant species in the Venda region. This study investigated the impact of bark harvesting on the population structure of this species. The study revealed that although the level of bark harvesting is high, the species is able to resist More >

Astiz V¹, LF Hernández^2,3

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 297-302, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.297

Abstract During microsporogenesis, sunflower florets might be exposed to episodes of day- and night-time temperatures exceeding 30 and 20 °C, respectively, that can affect pollen availability and consequently plant’s yield. The relationship between air temperature and relative humidity during the meiotic phase of microsporogenesis, and the quantity and quality of pollen produced by the flowers, were studied in two sunflower hybrids during two years. The hybrids were grown on irrigated plots in Bahía Blanca (38° 45’ S; 62° 11’ W) in three planting dates (PD) at a density of 5.6 plants/m2. Flowers were consecutively taken as… More >

Argüello JA, L Seisdedos, MC Díaz Goldfarb, EA Fabio, SB Núñez, A Ledesma

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 289-295, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.289

Abstract The objective of this work was to analyze the impact of a vermicompost treatment on anatomical and physiological modifications related to assimilate partitioning and growth in lettuce seedlings. The results showed that vermicompost increased growth, which was most likely due to an increased activity of the ground meristem of the leaf blade. A greater height and number of chlorenchyma layers were observed in the leaf blade. This was related to an increase in the photosynthetic activity, expressed by an increase in the net assimilation rate. Vermicompost also showed an effect at the procambium level, producing More >

Khan A¹, I Ahmad¹, A Shah¹, F Ahmad², A Ghani¹, M Nawaz¹, F Shaheen¹, HU Fatima¹, F Pervaiz¹, S Javed¹, F Hayat¹, H Nawaz¹, R Zubair¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 281-287, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.281

Abstract Salinity adversely affects physiological and biochemical processes in plants. Plants might have different methods to decrease the harmful effects of salinity, such as the accumulation of osmolytes and antioxidant compounds. An experiment was conducted in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Sargodha, Pakistan to determine the effect of different levels of phosphorus (P) on wheat under saline conditions. Data of shoot and root fresh and dry weights, chlorophyll contents, different ion accumulation and yield components of wheat were collected. When different levels of phosphorus were applied on wheat plant under saline conditions, phosphorus reduced More >

Pereira JR¹, AE Duarte², JB Pitombeira³, MAP da Silva², NE de M Beltrão¹, LM Barros²

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 275-279, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.275

Abstract An experiment was conducted in dryland conditions of the Brazilian Northeast to determine the number of viable weed seeds (seedbank) in an upland cotton crop, and its distribution in the soil profile, before and after using various herbicide treatments. A randomized block design in a split-plot block scheme with 6 replications was used, where the main plots were constituted by a factorial (13 treatments and 2 sampling soil depths), and the subplots by 2 sampling dates. The seedbank was determined by germination of the recovered weed seeds obtained from different soil depths. The highest number More >

Miravalles MT¹, MN Fioretti¹, H Mirassón², ML Faraldo², L Möck¹, RE Brevedan¹

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 263-273, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.263

Abstract In the present study the effects of three tillage systems: conventional (CT), vertical (VT) and direct drilling (DD) on three bread wheat varieties of different cycle length, were studied, for yield and yield components. Their influence on grain quality, expressed through thousand kernel weight (TKW, g), test weight (TW, kg/hL), grain protein content (GPC, %) and yellowberry percentage (YBP, %) were also studied. The highest average yield was under CT and DD, while the lowest was under VT. The lowest dry matter accumulation and one third fewer spikes per unit area were determined under VT.… More >

Orona Castro F¹, J Medina Méndez¹, FM Tucuch Cauich¹, JM Soto Rocha¹, IH Almeyda León²

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.82, pp. 255-261, 2013, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2013.82.255

Abstract We conducted a comparative study from 2008 to 2011 to study the adaptability and stability of grain yield of upland rice in two regions of Campeche, Mexico. The individual and combined statistical analysis, showed highly significant differences in grain yield of different genotypes in both regions. The experimental error variance was uniform, both effects of repetition/location and variety/location were highly significant. The results of analysis for grain yield stability parameters showed highly significant effects for 12 treatments, and significant for one. Eighteen genotypes showed a significant variation in the effects of deviation from the regression More >