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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Fire Effects On Three Trophic Levels In A Central Arkansas Grassland, Laura Skelton, Amy Polk, Brenna C. Fitzgerald, Matthew D. Moran Jan 2002

Fire Effects On Three Trophic Levels In A Central Arkansas Grassland, Laura Skelton, Amy Polk, Brenna C. Fitzgerald, Matthew D. Moran

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We studied the effect of a late growing-season fire on the plant and foliar arthropod communities in a naturally occurring grassland. In central Arkansas, these grasslands are common on south-facing slopes where shallow soils and hot/dry weather conditions during the summer cannot support the growth of a forest community. Patches of grassland were burned in the autumn (4 November, late growing season), often the time of natural fires in Arkansas, and compared to unburned areas. Fire increased the biomass of forbs and decreased the biomass of grasses, although overall biomass was not different between treatments. Among the foliar arthropods, herbivores …


Expression Patterns Of Novel Wound-Inducible Plant Genes In Medicago Truncatula, Mandy M. Cox, Kenneth L. Korth Jan 2002

Expression Patterns Of Novel Wound-Inducible Plant Genes In Medicago Truncatula, Mandy M. Cox, Kenneth L. Korth

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Terpenoids are an important class of defensive compounds that can accumulate in plants after pathogen infection or injury by chewing insects. Clones encoding putative terpene synthases and an oxidosqualene synthase, isolated from insect-damaged Medicagotruncatula leaves, were selected from an expressed sequence tag (EST) database. The cDNA clones were used as radiolabeled probes to analyze gene expression in leaves treated by known factors that can trigger a defense response in plants. Transcript levels for all of the genes examined increased in response to artificial wounding, insect herbivory, and methyl jasmonate (meJA) treatments, whereas salicylic acid (SA) and glucose oxidase (GOX) had …


Characterization Of Wound-Inducible Genes Encoding Enzymes For Terpenoid Biosynthesis In Medicago Truncatula, Mandy M. Cox Jan 2002

Characterization Of Wound-Inducible Genes Encoding Enzymes For Terpenoid Biosynthesis In Medicago Truncatula, Mandy M. Cox

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

In addition to having numerous applications as food flavorings and pharmaceuticals, terpenoids are an important class of defensive compounds that can accumulate in plants after pathogen infection or injury by insects. Sequences of DNA encoding putative terpene synthases and an oxidosqualene synthase, isolated from insect-damaged Medicago truncatula leaves, were selected from an expressed sequence tag (EST) database. The eDNA clones were used as radiolabeled probes to analyze gene expression in leaves treated with factors known to trigger a defense response in plants. Transcript levels for all of the genes examined increased in response to artificial wounding, insect herbivory, and methyl …