Wasteful carotenoid coloration and its effects on territorial behavior in a cichlid fish.

The famously diverse body coloration of cichlid fish serves communicative functions in mating and social interactions including competition for resources. Here, we examined the effects of a color pattern trait-the width of a yellow bar on a black body-on territorial competition in males and females of a color variant ("Ikola") of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid . First, measuring integumentary carotenoid concentrations in the yellow and black body regions, we established that wider yellow bars require more carotenoids allocated to body coloration.

Early-stage sugar beet taproot development is characterized by three distinct physiological phases.

Despite the agronomic importance of sugar beet ( L.), the early-stage development of its taproot has only been poorly investigated. Thus, the mechanisms that determine growth and sugar accumulation in sugar beet are largely unknown.

Regulation of Leaf Starch Degradation by Abscisic Acid Is Important for Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Plants.

Starch serves functions that range over a timescale of minutes to years, according to the cell type from which it is derived. In guard cells, starch is rapidly mobilized by the synergistic action of β-AMYLASE1 (BAM1) and α-AMYLASE3 (AMY3) to promote stomatal opening. In the leaves, starch typically accumulates gradually during the day and is degraded at night by BAM3 to support heterotrophic metabolism.

Antioxidants and photoprotection in a lichen as compared with its isolated symbiotic partners.

Extreme desiccation and irradiation increase the formation of reactive oxygen species in organisms. Lichens are highly resistant to potential damage, but it is not known whether biochemical interaction between their fungal and algal partners is involved in conferring stress tolerance. Here, we show that antioxidant and photoprotective mechanisms in the lichen Cladonia vulcani are more effective by orders of magnitude than those of its isolated partners.

Revival of a resurrection plant correlates with its antioxidant status.

Myrothamnus flabellifolia, a short woody shrub from southern Africa, can survive severe desiccation of its vegetative organs. We studied mechanisms protecting this plant from oxidative damage during desiccation for 2 weeks, 4 and 8 months, and also during subsequent rehydration. This plant retains high concentrations of chlorophyll during desiccation, and these chlorophyll molecules are probably a source for potentially harmful singlet oxygen production.