Gains and losses of the epiphytic lifestyle in epidendroid orchids: review and new analyses of succulence traits.

Background And Aims: Epiphytism has evolved repeatedly in plants and has resulted in a considerable number of species with original characteristics. Because water supply is generally erratic compared to that in soils, succulent forms in particular are widespread in epiphytic species. However, succulent organs also exist in terrestrial plants, and the question of the concomitant evolution of epiphytism and succulence has received little attention, not even in the epidendroid orchids, which account for 67.

Diagnosis of Infection in a Routine Testing Workflow: Effect of Bacterial Load and Virulence Factors.

Reliable diagnostic methods are mandatory for effective management of infection. Histology and culture are the most common invasive methods in current practice, even if molecular methods are gaining in importance. The performance of these conventional methods varies significantly.

Rapid radiation of angraecoids (Orchidaceae, Angraecinae) in tropical Africa characterised by multiple karyotypic shifts under major environmental instability.

Angraecoid orchids present a remarkable diversity of chromosome numbers, which makes them a highly suitable system for exploring the impact of karyotypic changes on cladogenesis, diversification and morphological differentiation. We compiled an annotated cytotaxonomic checklist for 126 species of Angraecinae, which was utilised to reconstruct chromosomal evolution using a newly-produced, near-comprehensive phylogenetic tree that includes 245 angraecoid taxa. In tandem with this improved phylogenetic framework, using combined Bayesian, maximum likelihood and parsimony approaches on ITS-1 and five plastid markers, we propose a new cladistic nomenclature for the angraecoids, and we estimate a new timeframe for angraecoid radiation based on a secondary calibration, and calculate diversification rates using a Bayesian approach.

Molecular diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection in gastric biopsies: Evaluation of the Amplidiag H. pylori + ClariR assay.

Background: Adapted treatments for Helicobacter pylori infection, guided by determining antimicrobial resistance, are associated with high eradication rates. We evaluated the performance of the Amplidiag H. pylori + ClariR PCR assay (Amplidiag ) for detecting H.