Improved techniques for the induction and isolation of polyploids in the genus Fragaria

Summary The sensitivity of Fragaria seedlings to colchicine is dependent on the plant organ that is treated. Complete immersion of seedlings in a 1.5% colchicine solution results in total lethality, whereas the survival rates were more than 75% even at concentrations of 3.0% when only shoot apices were treated. High proportions of polyploids were isolated by treating shoot apices of seedlings with a 2.0% colchicine solution for 24–28 h. The dropper method is preferred to the tube method as it involves a minimum of manipulation and requires simple equipment. A differential response to colchicine was observed within and between different diploid species, diploid and tetraploid hybrids.     

Top Dressing of Feed with Desiccated Chlamydospores of Duddingtonia flagrans for Biological Control of the Pre-Parasitic Stages of Ovine Haemonchus contortus

Feeding trials were conducted with stall-fed sheep parasitized with Haemonchus contortus. For 10 days they were offered 250 g of a concentrate feed that had been top-dressed with desiccated chlamydospores of Duddingtonia flagrans at 1×10⁵, 5×10⁵, 1×10⁶ or 2×10⁶ chlamydospores/kg body weight. Pooled faeces from each group on day 7 of spore feeding were spread on different pasture plots. On day 28 after the start of spore feeding, further pooled faeces from each group were spread on the same plots. The larval burdens on the plots were monitored for 2 months and the larval harvest from in vitro faecal cultures were monitored regularly. The application of 1×10⁶ or more spores/kg body weight virtually eliminated larvae from both the pasture and the faecal cultures. The application of as few as 1×10⁵ spores/kg body weight had a profound impact on larval recovery. The effect persisted while the spores were being fed but not for more than 4 days following discontinuation of spore feeding. Top dressing supplementary feed with dried chlamydospores offers a potential way of using D. flagrans for biological control of the pre-parasitic stages of H. contortus.     

Characterisation of the kappa light chain of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)

Two full length cDNA sequences encoding the kappa light chain of the Australian marsupial, Trichosurus vulpecula, the brushtail possum, were isolated from a mesenteric lymph node cDNA library. The constant regions (Ckappa) of the two light chains were identical, but the variable (Vkappa) and joining (Jkappa) regions were different. At the amino acid level, possum Ckappa was most similar to Ckappa of an American marsupial, Monodelphis domestica (75%), with similarity to eutherian Ckappa ranging from 47 to 63%. The availability of molecular data will enable the development of immunological reagents for studying immune responses and disease in marsupials, thereby aiding conservation strategies and veterinary medicine.     

Evaluation of the intrinsic competitiveness and saprophytic competence of Rhizobium tropici IIB strains

Inoculation of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) with strains of R. tropici IIB and R. etli resulted in the disappearance of the R. tropici IIB stains from the nodule population and their replacement by other (non R. tropici IIB) bean symbionts (Vlassak et al. 1996). Coinoculation studies in monoxenic conditions and in soil core microcosms with plants harvested at two different growth stages indicated that the inoculated R. tropici IIB strains CIAT899 and F98.5 possess a good intrinsic competitiveness which declines, however, at a later plant growth stage and in soil conditions. The poor saprophytic competence of R. tropici IIB strain CIAT899 was further demonstrated by its poor survival in soil core microcosms after bean harvest. Strains were isolated from the field plots with a 3-year bean-planting history, characterized and evaluated for their competitiveness against R. tropici IIB strain CIAT899. Isolates from field plots, which had been repeatedly inoculated with R. tropici IIB strain CIAT899, showed a higher nodule occupancy compared to R. tropici IIB strain CIAT899, and this higher competitiveness exhibited by the field isolates might be an additional reason for the poor performance of R. tropici IIB strain CIAT899 in the field study. Plots with and without a history of bean production revealed after 3-year bean cultivation an almost totally different population that also significantly differed in competitiveness. Received: 12 February 1996     

CONTRAST-ENHANCED COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING OF THE AUDITORY TUBE IN MESATICEPHALIC DOGS

Computed tomography after contrast medium injection was performed in three mesaticephalic canine cadavers to image the auditory tube. Cadavers were positioned in lateral recumbency for imaging. A myringotomy incision was made in the left tympanic membrane of each dog, and contrast medium was infused into the ear canal and middle ear through a balloon-tip catheter. With this method, contrast medium filled the left bulla and auditory tube in all three cadavers. Computed tomography following contrast medium injection was effective for evaluation of the canine auditory tube. Future studies are required to determine the usefulness, as well as the safety, of this procedure in the evaluation of the auditory tube in other breeds of dogs as well as dogs with otitis