Seed germination in response to diurnal fluctuations of temperature

Diurnal fluctuations in temperature may initiate or accelerate germination in certain flowering plants, and the effectiveness of the stimulus varies according to the amplitude of fluctuation and the presence or absence of light. Attempts to assess the adaptive significance of the phenomenon, however, have been limited by the scarcity of data for species of contrasted ecology. We report here an investigation of germination responses to fluctuating temperatures, conducted on seeds of herbaceous species collected from native populations near Sheffield. The results suggest that requirements for diurnal fluctuations in temperature are characteristic of the germination of species from particular types of habitat and provide mechanisms which cause seeds to germinate at times and in places favourable for seedling establishment.     

Anthropologist fired: Stanford plays its China card

The ethical obligations of Western anthropologists working in the People's Republic of China became an issue recently when Stanford University's anthropology department unanimously decided to dismiss doctoral candidate Steven Mosher because of his conduct while in an unnamed Chinese village. Mosher maintains that the dismissal was in retaliation for his publishing an article in a Taiwanese weekly about the practices of forced third trimester abortion and infanticide in the village. Neither Stanford nor Mosher has revealed the specific reasons for the dismissal.     

Expected change: U.S. recombinant DNA guidelines

Continuing the trend towards relaxing controls on recombinant DNA research, the National Institutes of Health published revised guidelines in the Federal Register of 21 April 1982. Although the existing system of mandatory controls and institutional biosafety committees is retained, no class of experiments will be totally prohibited, and the guidelines dealing with containment levels have been greatly simplified.     

Nuclear pores in the spermatozoon of the rat

Summary The paper describes a hexagonal array of nuclear pores in a non-redundant region of the nuclear envelope underlying the basal surface of the rat spermatozoon head. It is concluded that intranuclear material protruding through these pores is the cause of the characteristic rows of circular bumps found in surface replicas of this region.     

Ecdysone 20-hydroxylase from the midgut of the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta L.)

Summary An ecdysone 20-hydroxylase enzyme system that converts -ecdysone to 20-hydroxyecdysone was prepared from the midgut of the tobacco hornworm prepupa. This partially purified enzyme is NADPH dependent and is localized in the mitochondrial fraction of the midgut tissue.