Summary

We used paddy soil slurries amended with rice straw to identify the microbial populations involved in the methanogenic breakdown of plant polymers. Rice straw greatly stimulated microbial activity over the 28-day incubation period. On day 7, the transient peak concentration of acetate (24 mM) coincided with the onset of increased methane production. Microbial 16S rRNA transcript numbers increased by one to two orders of magnitude, but not the 16S rRNA gene copy numbers. Using metatranscriptomic rRNA, Clostridiaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Veillonellaceae and Pseudomonadaceae were identified to be the most abundant and the most dynamic bacterial groups. Changes in methanogen rRNA and mRNA abundances corresponded well with methanogenic activity. Acetate determined the abundance ratio between Methanosarcinaceae and Methanosaetaceae. Methanocellaceae dominated hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Transcript levels of mRNA families involved in plant polymer breakdown increased slightly with time. Glycosyl hydrolase (GH) transcripts involved in cellulose and chitin breakdown were predominantly expressed by the Firmicutes, whereas those involved in hemicellulose breakdown exhibited more diverse taxonomic sources, including Acidobacteria, Bacteriodetes and Chloroflexi. Taken together, we observed strong population dynamics and the expression of taxonomically diverse GH families, suggesting that not only Firmicutes, but also less abundant groups play a major functional role in the decomposition of rice straw.

Microbial community dynamics during the early stages of plant polymer breakdown in paddy soil.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/125/3249/633.full.pdf

Outer Space in Plants: Some Possible Implications of the Concept.

Many sweet corn hybrids ger mi nate poorly and have low seedling vigor in cold soils. Sources of cold tolerance and an un der stand ing of its inheritance would ben e fi t sweet corn production. Our objective was to de ter mine the genetics of cold tol er ance among open-pollinated progenitors of modern sweet corn. Six open-pollinated sweet corn cul ti vars were used as parents of a diallel. The 15 crosses plus reciprocals, parents, and checks were evaluated in cold chambers. Growing conditions were 14 hours with light at 14 °C, and 10 hours without light at 10 °C. Days to emergence, percent emer gence, shoot dry weight, and root dry weight were recorded. The experiment was re peat ed in the green house under warm con di tions. Variation for cold tolerance was present among the crosses and cultivars. The variation was primarily due to general com bin ing ability (GCA) effects, with spe cifi c combining ability (SCA) effects and re cip ro cal effects being signifi cant for seed ling dry mater. 'Howling Mobʼ had sig nifi cant fa vor able GCAs for all cold tolerance traits and resulted in the most cold-tolerant hybrids. 'Country Gentlemanʼ and 'Stowellʼs Ev er greenʼ were the slowest emerg ing parents. Days to emergence un der cold conditions was not correlated to days to emergence under warm conditions. The correlations between root weight (cold) and root weight (warm) and shoot weight (cold) and shoot weight (warm) were sig nifi cant, positive, and relatively large. In this material it appears that seedling vigor under warm conditions could be used to pre dict seedling size under cold conditions.

/pdf/cold-tolerance-evaluation-in-a-diallel-among-open-pollinated-3m7lzzvmw2.pdf

Cold tolerance evaluation in a diallel among open-pollinated sweet corn cultivars

A simple method for measuring the settling velocity (V
 s) distribution of pollen and spores 30–100 μm in diameter is detailed and evaluated. The method is called the ‘settling tower' and consists in taking sequential pictures of particles falling under gravity in calm air. The scene is illuminated by a cold light source, while a camera takes 15 pictures per second. Between 20,000 and 100,000 images are analysed to obtain the distribution of V
 s for a given set of particles. The method was validated using two standard particles with mean diameters of 68 and 108 μm, respectively, as well as Lycopodium spores, with a mean diameter of 35 μm. For each set of particles, the theoretical V
 s distribution was estimated from the particle diameter distribution and the volumetric mass using a non-Stokian law, as the Reynolds numbers of the particles were large. The mean V
 s was measured with the ‘settling tower' with less than 12% error, while the standard deviation of the V
 s distribution was estimated with less than 51% error. The maximum error on the mean V
 s was 12% for the Lycopodium spores and less than 2% for the two larger particles. The mean V
 s of Lycopodium spores was 4.2 cm s−1, and its standard deviation was 0.7 cm s−1. The reason for the small overestimation of V
 s for Lycopodium spores by the ‘settling tower' method is discussed. Preliminary measurements shows that, the ‘settling tower' could be of great practical interest for measuring the distribution of V
 s of maize pollen as well as other types of pollen or spores.

A method for measuring the settling velocity distribution of large biotic particles

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2256801

Polyploidy, ecology and the british flora

Studies with sweet corn

It is well known that Angiosperm ecology, the grouping of species according to their habitat, has demonstrated the occurrence of ecological communities such as sand, salt-marsh, chalk and heath floras. Yet cyto-ecology, the relation of plant chromosomes and plant ecology, is virtually an unexplored field in studies on plant and soil inter-relationships. This paper considers the concept of a relation between chromosomes and local plant distribution, as compared with the wider interpretation of chromosomes and plant geography already reviewed by Ca i n (1944). It reviews some aspects of diploidy and polyploidy of flowering plant species in relation to their soil acidity preferences and gives special consideration to calcicolous species.

pH tolerance and polyploidy in angiosperms

Seed of four inbred sweet corns and one dent hybrid corn were presoaked in tap water prior to receiving 60°F and 40°F treatment. Pre-soaking did not alter their behaviour to cold treatment, although on transference to the warmth, germination was slightly more rapid after pre-soaking.

Presoaking and cold hardiness in maize

A review is given of diseases and pests attacking North American inbred, hybrid and open-pollinated strains of sweet corn in England. Genetical and environmental influences are considered as problems of adaptation. Cold tolerance, susceptibility to smut, and fungi attacking ripening grain are under genetical control, but modified by environmental conditions. Analysis of these factors helps to control these diseases. Strains differ in resistance to frit fly attacks, and this is modified by sowing time. Frit flies and wireworms, acting independently or together, may limit sweet corn growing in some areas, while aphids also attack some inbred lines. Various methods of insect control are suggested. Mice and birds eat seeds, and bird damage may also limit maize growing. An outline suggests genetical and non-genetical modes of future control for diseases and insect pests when adaptating sweet corn to new climatic and other factors. These include selection for and use of resistant strains, or control by sowing at specific times.

Adaptation of sweet corn to English climatic, edaphic and biotic factors

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Gordon Haskell

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Studies with sweet corn

pH tolerance and polyploidy in angiosperms

Presoaking and cold hardiness in maize

Adaptation of sweet corn to English climatic, edaphic and biotic factors