Phytoplasma infection may affect morphology,regeneration and pyrethrin content in pyrethrum shoot culture

The aim of the work was to infect pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium (Trevir.) Schultz-Bip.), an important secondary metabolite pyrethrin producing plant, with MA phytoplasma (16S rRNA group III, subgroup B) to initiate tissue culture of phytoplasma-infected plants, and to examine possible effects of infection on pyrethrin content, morphology, and regenerative capacity in shoot culture.     

High density NOAA time series of ET in the Gediz Basin, Turkey

An evapotranspiration method comparison was carried out by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, Sri Lanka), at two locations in the Gediz Basin, Turkey, in the period from May to September 1998. In the IWMI study a number of ground-based techniques were compared with results obtained by remote sensing methods. Recently, a search of the satellite active archive yielded over 70 high quality level 1b images from NOAA/AVHRR over the same time period. The processing of these images with the SEBAL algorithm enabled us to build up a detailed time series of sensible and latent heat fluxes for a period of 120 days. In this paper a comparison is made between the sensible and latent heat fluxes determined from the present series of NOAA-14/AVHRR images and the results obtained earlier from various other prediction methods applied during the 1998 IWMI project. Specifically, the NOAA/SEBAL results are assessed against the scintillometer and temperature fluctuation methods. The results show that the NOAA derived evapotranspiration values follow the seasonal irrigation cycle quite well and correspond closely to the Landsat derived values, although they are lower than the results obtained with the traditional crop factor and Penman–Monteith methods.     

Biological Activities of Ethanolic Extracts from Deep-Sea Antarctic Marine Sponges

We report on the screening of ethanolic extracts from 33 deep-sea Antarctic marine sponges for different biological activities. We monitored hemolysis, inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, cytotoxicity towards normal and transformed cells and growth inhibition of laboratory, commensal and clinically and ecologically relevant bacteria. The most prominent activities were associated with the extracts from sponges belonging to the genus Latrunculia, which show all of these activities. While most of these activities are associated to already known secondary metabolites, the extremely strong acetylcholinesterase inhibitory potential appears to be related to a compound unknown to date. Extracts from Tetilla leptoderma, Bathydorus cf. spinosus, Xestospongia sp., Rossella sp., Rossella cf. racovitzae and Halichondria osculum were hemolytic, with the last two also showing moderate cytotoxic potential. The antibacterial tests showed significantly greater activities of the extracts of these Antarctic sponges towards ecologically relevant bacteria from sea water and from Arctic ice. This indicates their ecological relevance for inhibition of bacterial microfouling.