Abstract: The possibility of creating a standardized nomenclature for plant mitochondrial and nuclear genes encoding mitochondrial proteins and RNAs was discussed at the conference on 'Higher Plant Mitochondrial DNA' held at Airlie House, Virginia, USA, in October 1986. The consensus of that meeting and of a number of interested individuals who responded to the circulars is outlined. It is hoped that these proposals will provide a basis for generally accepted nomenclature for mitochondrial genes. An overriding aim was to retain, wherever possible, the current commonly used gene designations and to follow the general principles of chloroplast gene nomenclature as proposed by Hallick and Bottomley (1983).

Abstract: Haploid and diploid strains of Schizosaccharomyces pombe were used to show that a method of determining ploidy developed for plant cells and based on the integration of DAPI nuclear fluorescence could be applied to a fungal system. The fluorescence of nuclei stained with DAPI was quantified using a computer controlled imaging system and found to correlate precisely with ploidy. The method has potentially wide applications for ploidy determination in less well characterised fungal species involved in plant infection and industrial processes.