The decrease in seed germination ofStriga hermonthica in Benin in the course of the rainy season is due to a dying-off process

Germination rate and viability ofStriga hermonthica seeds in the field in the Republic of Benin decreased steadily in the course of the rainy season. The percentage of germinating seeds decreased from 82% on April 13, 1993 to 16% on October 13, 1993. The percentage of viable seeds, according to the tetrazolium colour test, decreased in the same period from 90% to 15%. In the subsequent rainy season these values further decreased and it was concluded that the seeds do not enter a stage of secondary dormancy. This implies that if host plants (including wild hosts) are consistently kept away from infested fields for one or two year periods, this will lead to a dramatic decrease in the number of viableS. hermonthica seeds in the soil.     

Ontogenetic changes in isozyme patterns during seed germination of self-pollinatedSecale species

Summary Six isozymatic systems have been studied comparatively during the first week of germination of seeds of self-pollinatedSecale species (S. silvestre Host. andS. vavilovii Gross.). Isozymatic systems do not change at all, or reach their definitive adult plant pattern early during germination.Acknowledgements. This work was carried out at the Dpto. de Genética, Univ. Complutense, Madrid and supported by grants from the C.A.I.C.Y.T. (1789-82) and the P.F.P.I.     

Mixed life cycles in the transitional zone between voltinisms in the fall webworm,Hyphantria cunea

The fall webworm,Hyphantria cunea Drury, was introduced from North America into Japan at half a century ago. At present, the populations north of 36° N are bivoltine and those south of 36° N are trivoltine. In the present study, the life cycle in the transitional zone between voltinisms was clarified in Tsukuba (36.1° N). When fourth instar larvae of the second generation were collected in the field and maintained in the laboratory, the incidence of pupal diapause increased when the sampling date was delayed from 16 August to 5 September. The fact that some developed without diapause inidcates the occurrence of a trivoltine life cycle in this locality, where a bivoltine life cycle is predominant. The critical photoperiod for diapause induction at 20 and 25°C was 14 h 13 min and 14 h 10 min, respectively. The photoperiodic response may explain the rapid increase in diapause incidence in late summer. In laboratory-reared diapause pupae, the time and period of chilling (5°C) greatly influenced the time required for adult emergence at the final incubation temperature of 25°C. However, diapause pupae chilled for a sufficiently long period developed to adulthood rapidly, irrespective of the conditions before chilling. Therefore, the difference in timing of entering diapause between pupae of the second and third generations would not result in their temporal reproductive isolation in the following spring. It is concluded that the mixed voltinism in Tsukuba is not a result of a mixture of genetically distinct bivoltine and trivoltine populations, but a result of the phenotypic plasticity in a genetically rather homogeneous population.     

Temperature-controlled alternative respiration and outgrowth rate from conidia ofNeurospora crassa

Summary Incubation of conidia of wild typeNeurospora crassa at temperatures ranging from 25 to 46°C modulates their respiratory type. Between 37 and 41°C, the transient activity of the cyanide-insensitive respiratory pathway parallels, with a maximal extrusion of protons into the medium, the optimal rate of germ tube outgrowth.We are grateful to Mrs Arlette Cattaneo for her competent technical assistance.     

Zinc iodide-osmium tetroxide reactive substances in the matrix of granulated vesicles in the rat pineal nerves

Resumen Se demuestra que la reserpina depleciona los componentes de las vesículas sinápticas de los nervios pineales de la rata revelables por la mezcla de yoduro de zinc-tetróxido de osmio a 4°C durante dos horas y a 20°C durante 15 h mientras que lap-CPA sólo depleciona los componentes revelables a 4°C durante 2 h.

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This work has been supported by grants from the Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires, the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas, Argentina and the National Institutes of Health (Nas. 2 ROI NS 06953-07 NEUA), USA.

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We are grateful to MissM. López for her skillful technical assistance.     

Induction of cyst formation by low temperature in the dinoflagellateGonyaulax polyedra Stein: Dependence on circadian phase and requirement of light

Encystment, which at a temperature of 15°C is photoperiodically controlled inGonyaulax polyedra, can also be induced by a decrease of temperature, from 20 to 10 or 8°C in the absence of photoperiodic signals. The cyst-inducing capacity of the decrease in temperature depends on the circadian phase: in constant light, the maximum of sensitivity was found at the beginning of subjective night. In a light/dark cycle, however, cyst formation was reduced during dark phase, indicating that light is required for the process of encystment. A similar light dependence was seen in the effect of the physiologically occurring cyst inducer 5-methoxytryptamine, but not in the encystment response to the protonophores monensin and nigericin.     

Effect of water temperature on the motility ofPelagia noctiluca (Forksal)

Summary Laboratory tests have been performed, on the behavior of the jellyfishPelagia noctiluca as a function of the water temperature. It has been found that the usual contractions of the umbrella are almost completely missing at 6°C; they begin to appear at about 7–8°C and they reach frequencies of about 10 and 40 per min at 11 and 15°C respectively. An ambient temperature of about 11°C appears to be a threshold value below which this kind of medusa ceases to move actively and sinks, while at higher temperatures it gradually begins to shift, showing a positive thermotropism in the presence of temperature gradients greater than about 0.01 °C/cm.This work was supported by grant No. 80.00748.88 from the National Research Coucil of Italy (CNR).     

Temperature acclimatization and protein synthesis in the goldfish mucosa

Resumen La síntesis de proteinas en la mucosa del pez dorado aclimatado a 8 °C, aumenta inmediatamente cuando la temperatura del baño aumenta a 25 °C. Un nuevo aumento en la sintesis de proteinas se observa después de 10 h. Estc ùltimo aumento es inhibido por actinomicinan. La reorganizatión en la síntesis de proteinas parece completarse dentro de las 30 h siguientes al aumento de temperatura. A pesar de que se observan variaciones grandes en diferentes peces la evidencia sugiere que al menos parte del fenómeno de aclimatación en la mucosa del pez dorado está relacionado con la síntesis del RNA mensajero.     

Comparison of wing margin structures ofvestigial and wild-typeDrosophila melanogaster grown at 31°C

Summary The development of the middle row of triple row wing bristles was examined in flies homozygous for thevestigial mutant, grown at 31°C. While bristle number, length and spacing all improved toward the wild-type condition, the mean values for both sexes were only about 10% of those of wild-type, although development in males was significantly more complete than in females. The results suggest an explanation for the apparent lack of regenerative ability in this tissue.     

Heat shock proteins in three relatedDrosophila species belonging to theobscura group

The effect of heat shock on protein synthesis in three relatedDrosophila species belonging to theobscura group was analyzed on SDS-acrylamide gels. Four major heat shock proteins (hsps) were found in these species, in which synthesis reaches a maximum at 34°C. Although the higher molecular weight proteins are conserved, differences in size were found for the small hsps in these species. By means of in situ hybridization usingD. melanogaster probes for the small hsp genes, it was inferred that the small hsp genes of theobscura group species are clustered at the 27A locus in all three species.     

Methyllycaconitine,a naturally occurring insecticide with a high affinity for the insect cholinergic receptor

Summary Studies of extracts ofDelphinium seeds, long known to be insecticidal, revealed that a principal insecticidal toxin was methyllycaconitine, which is shown to be a potent inhibitor of -bungarotoxin binding to housefly heads (K_inh=2.5×10^–10±0.5×10^–10M).Calgary for gifts of MLA, citrate and lycoctonine, and Dr W. Bowers of the University of Arizona for the original extract ofDelphinium seeds. We would also like to acknowledge the able technical support of Ms C. Dushin, Mr E.L. Bowman, Dr C. C. Gagne, Mr R. F. Borysewicz and Dr P. Mowery for his assistance in obtaining and interpreting the carbon-13 NMR spectra.     

Lesions in the substantia nigra of rats induce thermoregulatory deficit in the cold

Summary Rats with either electrolytic or chemical (6-hydroxydopamine) lesions in the substantia nigra displayed decreased metabolism and hypothermia when they were exposed to cold (8 °C T_a), although they showed no deficiency in thermoregulation at both moderate (22 °C) and hot (30 °C) environmental temperatures.This work was supported by grants from the Pjing-Ling Neurological Foundation (Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, China) and the National Science Council (Republic of China). The authors are grateful to Mr C.C. Wei for his generous support.     

A new cell line (XTY) from a tumor ofXenopus laevis

A new cell line (XTY) was derived from a tumor of a femaleXenopus laevis. This cell line has been proliferating in standard amphibian culture medium for more than 4 years (470 generations) and has a doubling time of 75.5 h at 25°C. The cells aggregate into large groups, and their stellate morphology and the expression of desmin demonstrated by immunocytochemistry suggest that their origin is not epithelial.     

Effect of hyperthermia upon gamma-ray induced crossing-over in an excision repair deficient maleDrosophila melanogaster

Summary Hyperthermia of 1 h at 38°C did increase gamma-ray induced crossing-over in meiotic cells of male larvae and adults. However, there was considerably less effect of the heat treatment upon radiation induced crossing-over (a chromosome breakage event) in an excision repair mutanty mei-9 ^a.5 January 1987     

Growth ofEchinococcus multilocularis in gerbils exposed to different environmnntal temperature

Summary Gerbils kept at high (35°C) temperature harbored a significantly largerEchinococcus multilocularis cyst biomass than those kept at room (21°C) and low (5°C) temperature. Parasite induced adrenomegaly was observed in all temperature groups.Acknowledgments. I am indebted to Miss Marianne Hardy and Mr Terry Durham for their excellent technical assistance.     

Role of kinetin in the dormancy ofCercis siliquastrum seeds

Summary Studies conducted onCercis siliquastrum seeds treated with kinetin confirm that this hormone does not interrupt dormancy in either whole seeds or those decoated at the radical pole. Seeds totally decoated or decoated at the cotyledon pole only demonstrated atypical germinations linked to cotyledon growth, permitting the embryo to escape the inhibitory action present in the endosperm; this does not occur when the cotyledon surface is experimentally reduced.This investigation was supported by the Italian National Research Council (C.N.R.) Project Biology of Reproduction.     

Environmental temperature and the growth ofTaenia crassiceps cysticerci in mice

Summary Mice kept at low (5±1 °C) and high (35±1 °C) temperature harboured significantly lessTaenia crassiceps cysticerci than controls kept at 21±1 °C. This effect was more pronounced in heat-stressed than in cold-stressed animals and more in males than in females.     

Temperature compensation in an ultradian rhythm of tyrosine aminotransferase activity inEuglena gracilis Klebs

Summary Tyrosine aminotransferase activity ofEuglena oscillates with an ultradian period of approximately 4–5 h. The oscillation frequency in the time series was determined by cosine fitting. Experiments which were performed between 16 and 31.5°C revealed temperature compensation.     

Comparative study of oxalate oxidase in three genotypes ofSorghum vulgare

Summary The presence of an oxalate oxidase (EC 1.2.3.4) has been demonstrated in 15,000×g supernatants prepared from 10-day-old seedlings of three genotypes ofSorghum vulgare: grain sorghum hybrid (CSH-5), grain-cum-forage sorghum (PC-6) and forage sorghum (PC-1). The specific activity of the enzyme in the different tissues of seedlings was found to be present in the order leaves > stems > roots in PC-6 and PC-1, but this order was reversed in CSH-5. A comparison of the different properties of the leaf enzyme of these three genotypes of sorghum revealed that the enzyme has maximum activity in the acidic pH range from 4.0 to 5.0 and in the temperature range from 37°C to 40°C. The enzyme was stimulated by Cu²⁺ and Fe²⁺. The rate of H₂O₂ formation in the enzyme reaction was linear up to 5 min and was stoichiometrically related to oxalate consumption. The enzyme is unaffected by Na⁺ at physiological concentration (0.15 M). The superiority of this enzyme over moss and other plant enzymes for enzymic determination of urinary oxalate is discussed.     

Competition between strains ofDrosophila willistoni andD. pseudoobscura

Resumen El resultado de la competencia entreDrosophila willistoni yD. pseudoobscura depende de la constitución genética de las estirpes que compiten y de la temperatura. A 20 °C las dos especies coexisten, lo cual indica que el principio de exclusión competitiva no es universalmente válido.

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Supported by NSF grant No. GB-1256 (International Biological Program), and PHS Career Development Award No. K3GM37265.