Digital Commons Network^™

Living More Than Just Enough For The City: Persistence Of High-Quality Vegetation In Natural Areas In An Urban Setting, Rebecca W. Dolan, Jessica D. Stephens, Marcia E. Moore

Rebecca W. Dolan

Urban environments pose special challenges to flora, including altered disturbance regimes, habitat fragmentation, and increased opportunity for invasion by non-native species. In addition, urban natural area represents most people’s contact with nature, given the majority of the world’s population currently live in cities. We used coefficients of conservatism (C-values), a system that ranks species based on perceived fidelity to remnant native plant communities that retain ecological integrity, to quantify habitat quality of 14 sites covering 850 ha within the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, in the Midwestern United States. All sites contained significant natural area and were inventoried via intensive complete …

Extensive Clonal Spread And Extreme Longevity In Saw Palmetto, A Foundation Clonal Plant, Mizuki K. Takahashi, Liana M. Horner, Toshiro Kubota, Nathan A. Keller, Warren G. Abrahamson Ii

Warren G. Abrahamson, II

The lack of effective tools has hampered our ability to assess the size, growth and ages of clonal plants. With Serenoa repens (saw palmetto) as a model, we introduce a novel analytical frame work that integrates DNA fingerprinting and mathematical modelling to simulate growth and estimate ages of clonal plants. We also demonstrate the application of such life-history information of clonal plants to provide insight into management plans. Serenoa is an ecologically important foundation species in many Southeastern United States ecosystems; yet, many land managers consider Serenoa a troublesome invasive plant. Accordingly, management plans have been developed to reduce or …

Comparative Transcriptome And Metabolite Analysis Of Oil Palm And Date Palm Mesocarp That Differ Dramatically In Carbon Partitioning, Fabienne Bourgis, Aruna Kilaru, Xia Cao, Georges Frank Ngando-Ebongue, Noureddine Drira, John B. Ohlrogge, Vincent Arondel

Aruna Kilaru

Whole-Body And Muscle Protein Metabolism Are Not Affected By Acute Deviations From Habitual Protein Intake In Older Men: The Hormonal Regulators Of Muscle And Metabolism In Aging (Horma) Study, Kevin E. Yarasheski, Carmen Castaneda-Sceppa, Jiaxiu He, Miwa Kawakubo, Shalender Bhasin, Ellen F. Binder, E. Todd Schroeder, Ronenn Roubenoff, Stan P. Azen, Fred R. Sattler

Carmen Castaneda-Sceppa

Background: Acute deviations in protein intake before the quantification of protein kinetics in older humans may explain the controversy over the effects of older age on muscle protein synthesis and proteolysis rates. Objective: We hypothesized that an acute decrease in protein intake from the habitual intake is associated with lower muscle protein synthesis and higher proteolysis rates, whereas an acute increase in protein intake from the habitual intake is associated with higher muscle protein synthesis and lower proteolysis rates. Design: In 112 community-dwelling healthy men aged 65–90 y, we quantified resting whole-body [1,2-13C2]leucine kinetics, muscle mixed protein fractional synthesis rates …

Convergence Of Agriculture And Energy: Iii. Considerations In Biodiesel Production, Jon Van Gerpen, Allan Gray, Brent H. Shanks, Beth Calabotta, Drew Kershen, Alan Weber, Richard Joost, Todd A. Peterson

Drew L. Kershen

Concern about rising prices and unstable sources of petroleum fuels is driving the search for U.S. domestically produced, renewable transportation fuels, such as biodiesel. Federal incentives of up to $1.10 per gallon have been supplemented by additional incentives and mandated biodiesel use in many states. The Renewable Fuel Standard in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires the domestic use of 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel fuel by 2012, most of which likely will be biodiesel. U.S. biodiesel production is primarily from soybean oil, but recent high prices have forced many producers to use lower-cost feedstocks such …

Genetic Diversity Assessment Of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) Genotypes Using Cluster Analysis, Omar Maghawri Ibrahim Hassan

Dr. Omar Maghawri Ibrahim

A set of 40 barley genetic resources consists of 39 foreign and 1 domestic origin were tested in 2007/08 and 2008/09 winter seasons at the Agricultural Experimental Station of National Research Centre, Shalakan, Kalubia Governorate, Egypt, to assess the variability of the genotypes or the genetic diversity based on agronomic parameters using cluster analysis. Barley genotypes were imported from International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Allepo, Syria due to (ITYN, 04/2005), CIMMYT/ICARDA. The results revealed that the genotypes significantly differed from each other in the studied characters. Regarding the plant height, the genotypes no. 107 and 112 …

Nomenclatural Changes For Some Grasses In California. Ii, James Payne Smith Jr., J. Travis Columbus

James Payne Smith

A Preliminary Study Of Heteromeles Arbutifolia Fruit Morphology At Ballona Wetlands And Temescal Canyon, Los Angeles, California, Victor D. Carmona

Victor D. Carmona-Galindo

Heteromeles arbutifolia, or the California holly, is an evergreen shrub native to chaparral habitats of Southern California that fruits from November to January. Fruit species morphology has been shown to be a good indicator of habitat quality among other plants. The variation in fruit morphologies was examined for the native plant at two diverse Southern California sites, a wetland and a canyon. California Holly fruits had a significantly greater volume in Ballona Wetlands than at Temescal Canyon (Z=4.367, P<0.001), as well as a significantly greater variance in Ballona Wetlands than at Temescal Canyon (F=2.357, P=0.02). The production of fruits with larger and more variable volumes in Ballona Wetlands may be a response to the presence of urban influences and environmental contaminants. As the reproductive structure, fruit morphology may be a good indicator of how habitat stress influences reproductive success.

Systematics And Biogeography Of The Clusioid Clade (Malpighiales), Brad R. Ruhfel

Brad R. Ruhfel

The clusioids are a clade of flowering plants in the diverse rosid order Malpighiales. It includes five families (i.e., Bonnetiaceae, Calophyllaceae, Clusiaceae sensu stricto, Hypericaceae, and Podostemaceae) that form a conspicuous element of tropical forests worldwide and are economically important. Their phylogenetic and biogeographical history has remained uncertain, however, which has hindered our understanding of their evolution. I conducted the first taxon-rich multigene analysis of this important clade to clarify their phylogenetic relationships (Chapter 1). Plastid (cp:matK, ndhF, and rbcL) and mitochondrial (mt: matR) nucleotide sequence data from nearly 200 taxa produced a well-resolved clusioid phylogeny and indicate that several …

Angiosperm Phylogeny: 17 Genes, 640 Taxa, Douglas E. Soltis, Steven A. Smith, Nico Cellinese, Kenneth J. Wurdack, David C. Tank, Samuel F. Brockington, Nancy F. Refulio-Rodriguez, Jay B. Walker, Michael J. Moore, Barbara S. Carlsward, Charles D. Bell, Maribeth Latvis, Sunny Crawley, Chelsea Black, Diaga Diouf, Zhenxiang Xi, Catherine A. Rushworth, Matthew A. Gitzendanner, Kenneth J. Sytsma, Yin-Long Qiu, Khidir W. Hilu, Charles C. Davis, Michael J. Sanderson, Reed S. Beaman, Richard G. Olmstead, Walter S. Judd, Michael S. Donoghue, Pamela S. Soltis

Charles D. Bell

• Premise of the study : Recent analyses employing up to fi ve genes have provided numerous insights into angiosperm phylogeny, but many relationships have remained unresolved or poorly supported. In the hope of improving our understanding of angiosperm phylogeny, we expanded sampling of taxa and genes beyond previous analyses.

• Methods : We conducted two primary analyses based on 640 species representing 330 families. The fi rst included 25 260 aligned base pairs (bp) from 17 genes (representing all three plant genomes, i.e., nucleus, plastid, and mitochondrion). The second included 19 846 aligned bp from 13 genes (representing only …

Phylogeny Of The Clusioid Clade (Malpighiales): Evidence From The Plastid And Mitochonrial Genomes, Brad R. Ruhfel, Volker Bittrich, Claudia A. Bove, Mats H.G. Gustafsson, C. Thomas Philbrick, Rolf Rutsihauser, Zhenxiang Xi, Charles C. Davis

Brad R. Ruhfel

• Premise of the study : The clusioid clade includes five families (i.e., Bonnetiaceae, Calophyllaceae, Clusiaceae s.s., Hypericaceae, and Podostemaceae) represented by 94 genera and ~1900 species. Species in this clade form a conspicuous element of tropical forests worldwide and are important in horticulture, timber production, and pharmacology. We conducted a taxon-rich multigene phylogenetic analysis of the clusioids to clarify phylogenetic relationships in this clade.

• Methods : We analyzed plastid ( matK , ndhF , and rbcL ) and mitochondrial ( matR ) nucleotide sequence data using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian inference. Our combined data set included 194 …

Relationship Between Soil Sodium Concentration And Plant Height In Salicornia Virginica In The Ballona Wetlands In Los Angeles, California, Victor D. Carmona

Victor D. Carmona-Galindo

Previous studies have shown a positive relationship between biomass of the common wetland species of the halophyte, Salicornia virginica, and salinity (Callaway et al. 1998). Our research aims to implement a new technique that is less invasive than measuring total plant biomass which involves uprooting the plant. Instead, we have chosen to study the use of plant height as an indicator of sodium content in surrounding soils. Our hypothesis is that as plant height of S. virginica increases, there will be greater sodium content present in their corresponding soils. We found that plant heights had a significantly greater variation at …

Predicting Flavonoid Ugt Regioselectivity, Arthur R. Jackson, Debra Knisley, Cecilia Mcintosh, Phillip Pfeiffer

Cecilia A. McIntosh

Small Rnas Prevent Transcription-Coupled Erosion Of Histone H3 Lysine 9 Methylation In Arabidopsis Thaliana, Raymond Enke, Z. Dong, J. Bender

Ray Enke Ph.D.

No abstract provided.