Habitat Suitability and Establishment Limitations of a Problematic Liana.

The US native liana, poison ivy ), responsible for contact dermatitis in humans, is a competitive weed with great potential for expansion in disturbed habitats. To facilitate a better understanding of this threat, we sought to evaluate habitat suitability, population demography, and biotic interactions of poison ivy, using a series of complementary field studies in the two habitats where it most commonly occurs-forest interiors and edges. Of the 2500 seeds planted across both habitats, poison ivy initially colonized forest interiors (32% emergence) at a higher rate than edge habitats (16.

Poison ivy hairy root cultures enable a stable transformation system suitable for detailed investigation of urushiol metabolism.

Poison ivy () is best known for causing exasperating allergenic delayed-contact dermatitis symptoms that last for weeks on persons who have contacted the plant. Urushiols are alkylcatechols produced by poison ivy responsible for causing this dermatitis. While urushiol chemical structures are well known, the metabolic intermediates and genes responsible for their biosynthesis have not been experimentally validated.

Accession-Level Differentiation of Urushiol Levels, and Identification of Cardanols in Nascent Emerged Poison Ivy Seedlings.

Poison ivy ( (L.) Kuntze) shows accession-level differentiation in a variety of morphometric traits, suggesting local adaptation. To investigate whether the presumed defense compound urushiol also demonstrates accession-level accumulation differences, in vitro nascent germinated poison ivy seedlings from geographically isolated populations were germinated in vitro and then assayed for known urushiol congener accumulation levels.

Invasive plants negatively impact native, but not exotic, animals.

Despite our growing understanding of the impacts of invasive plants on ecosystem structure and function, important gaps remain, including whether native and exotic species respond differently to plant invasion. This would elucidate basic ecological interactions and inform management. We performed a meta-analytic review of the effects of invasive plants on native and exotic resident animals.

Patient-Reported Allergies Predict Worse Outcomes After Hip and Knee Arthroplasty: Results From a Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Retrospective analyses have demonstrated correlation between patient-reported allergies and negative outcomes after total joint arthroplasty. We sought to validate these observations in a prospective cohort.

Methods: One hundred forty-four patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty and 302 patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty were prospectively enrolled.