The South Texas Sand Sheet, also known as the Coastal Sand Plains and the Llano Mesteño, is a vast region covering more than two million acres at the southern tip of the state, just north of ...the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The landscape’s distinctive feature is the dunes created from sheets of sand blown inland from the shoreline of an ancient sea. Highly diverse native plant communities help make it one of the state’s most cherished ecological regions as well as the premier hunting region in the world for northern bobwhites. The Sand Sheet is a constantly shifting semi-arid landscape, shaped by wind, ranching, energy production, and, increasingly, by growing urban populations surrounding the region. Organized with the nonbotanist or beginning-level botanist in mind, A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet  includes 200 of the most common grasses, flowering plants, vines, cacti, and woody plants of the South Texas Sand Sheet, 56 of which are species endemic to Texas and 15 of which can only be found in this region. Species are grouped by physical appearance, allowing budding naturalists, landowners, and students to find a specific plant without needing to first understand how families and species are grouped scientifically. Each plant entry includes a representative sampling of photos for that species, showing how it might look from a distance, up close, and at different stages of its life cycle. This handy snapshot of plant life in the South Texas Sand Sheet will enable anyone to easily identify Sand Sheet plants, learn more about their uses, and understand their value to the region.
The fossil history of plant life in Antarctica is central to our understanding of the evolution of vegetation through geological time and also plays a key role in reconstructing past configurations ...of the continents and associated climatic conditions. This book provides the only detailed overview of the development of Antarctic vegetation from the Devonian period to the present day, presenting Earth scientists with valuable insights into the break up of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. Details of specific floras and ecosystems are provided within the context of changing geological, geographical and environmental conditions, alongside comparisons with contemporaneous and modern ecosystems. The authors demonstrate how palaeobotany contributes to our understanding of the palaeoenvironmental changes in the southern hemisphere during this period of Earth history. The book is a complete and up-to-date reference for researchers and students in Antarctic palaeobotany and terrestrial palaeoecology.
This book is divided into three sections. Following the "Introduction", the second section, "Sustainable Aquaculture", offers integrated information on rice cultivation and aquaculture that provide ...additional benefits to producers. In addition, the participation of aquaculture in the restoration of the Crassostrea virginica fishery is evaluated. The third section, "Homeopathy and Probiotics", is about highly diluted substances and beneficial microorganisms that have proved their effectiveness in human medicine, agronomy, veterinary and currently in the marine aquaculture field. Also, a study focused on the performance of growth and nutrient utilization of the freshwater shrimp Macrobrachium vollenhovenii fed diets supplemented with Lactobacillus acidophilus is presented. This book can be consulted by students, professors and researchers in the area of biological sciences.
Serpins in plants and green algae Roberts, Thomas H; Hejgaard, Jørn
Functional & integrative genomics,
02/2008, Letnik:
8, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Control of proteolysis is important for plant growth, development, responses to stress, and defence against insects and pathogens. Members of the serpin protein family are likely to play a critical ...role in this control through irreversible inhibition of endogenous and exogenous target proteinases. Serpins have been found in diverse species of the plant kingdom and represent a distinct clade among serpins in multicellular organisms. Serpins are also found in green algae, but the evolutionary relationship between these serpins and those of plants remains unknown. Plant serpins are potent inhibitors of mammalian serine proteinases of the chymotrypsin family in vitro but, intriguingly, plants and green algae lack endogenous members of this proteinase family, the most common targets for animal serpins. An Arabidopsis serpin with a conserved reactive centre is now known to be capable of inhibiting an endogenous cysteine proteinase. Here, knowledge of plant serpins in terms of sequence diversity, inhibitory specificity, gene expression and function is reviewed. This was advanced through a phylogenetic analysis of amino acid sequences of expressed plant serpins, delineation of plant serpin gene structures and prediction of inhibitory specificities based on identification of reactive centres. The review is intended to encourage elucidation of plant serpin functions.
Perth Plants Russell Barrett, Eng Pin Tay
2016, 2016-04-01
eBook
The city of Perth is well known and treasured for its areas of protected bushland in the heart of the city. Kings Park and Bold Park represent a significant part of the natural heritage of the Swan ...Coastal Plain and are an important part of city life. The city is also a gateway to the incredible biodiversity to be found in south-west Western Australia. Perth Plants provides a comprehensive photographic guide to all plants known to occur in the bushlands of Kings Park and Bold Park, both native plants and naturalised weeds. There are 778 species included, representing approximately one-quarter of all the plants in the greater Perth region, and one-tenth of all species known for the south-west of Western Australia. This new edition contains 22 additional species and updated photography throughout. It is an essential reference for anyone interested in the plants of south-west Western Australia, and particularly the Swan Coastal Plain.
he NAP（NAC-Like, Activated by AP3/PI） subfamily is one of the important plant-specific transcription factors, and controls many vital biological processes in plants. In the current study, 197 NAP ...proteins were identified from 31 vascular plants,but no NAP members were found in eight non-vascular plants.All NAP proteins were phylogenetically classified into two groups（NAP I and NAP II）, and the origin time of the NAP I group might be relatively later than that of the NAP II group.Furthermore, species-specific gene duplications, caused by segmental duplication events, resulted in the expansion of the NAP subfamily after species-divergence. Different groups have different expansion rates, and the NAP group preference was found during the expansion in plants. Moreover, the expansion of NAP proteins may be related to the gain and loss of introns.Besides, functional divergence was limited after the gene duplication. Abscisic acid（ABA） might play an important role in leaf senescence, which is regulated by NAP subfamily. These results could lay an important foundation for expansion and evolutionary analysis of NAP subfamily in plants.
The 73 class III peroxidase genes in Arabidopsis thaliana were used for surveying the evolutionary relationships among peroxidases in the plant kingdom. In Arabidopsis, the 73 genes were clustered in ...robust similarity groups. Comparison to peroxidases from other angiosperms showed that the diversity observed in Arabidopsis preceded the radiation of dicots, whereas some clusters were absent from grasses. Grasses contained some unique peroxidase clusters not seen in dicot plants. We found peroxidases in other major groups of land plants but not in algae. This might indicate that the class III peroxidase gene family appeared with the colonization of land by plants. The present survey may be used as a rational basis for further investigating the functional roles of class III peroxidases.
Southwestern Australia is unique as it contains the world`s most nutrient-impoverished soils, experiences a prolonged-summer period and the vegetation is extremely fire-prone. It is also ...world-renowned for its relative high level of flora biodiversity. This book focuses on the diverse range of morphological and physiological adaptations evolved by the flora to survive in the harsh Mediterranean-type climate.
