Plants of the family Lamiaceae as a source of therapeutic agents against Acanthamoeba infections.

Background: Acanthamoebae are causative agents of severe and complicated human infections without a standard effective therapy to date. Therefore, the research is focused on the development of new amoebicidal drugs based on the natural products. Plants of the family Lamiaceae are typical with several phenolic secondary metabolites that make them interesting in medical point of view.

Frequent gene flow blurred taxonomic boundaries of sections in Lilium L. (Liliaceae).

Gene flow between species may last a long time in plants. Reticulation inevitably causes difficulties in phylogenetic reconstruction. In this study, we looked into the genetic divergence and phylogeny of 20 Lilium species based on multilocus analyses of 8 genes of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), the internally transcribed nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrITS) spacer and 20 loci extracted from the expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries of L.

Potential bud bank responses to apical meristem damage and environmental variables: matching or complementing axillary meristems?

Soil nutrients, dormant axillary meristem availability, and competition can influence plant tolerance to damage. However, the role of potential bud banks (adventitious meristems initiated only after injury) is not known. Examining Central European field populations of 22 species of short-lived monocarpic herbs exposed to various sources of damage, we hypothesized that: (1) with increasing injury severity, the number of axillary branches would decrease, due to axillary meristem limitation, whereas the number of adventitious shoots (typically induced by severe injury) would increase; (2) favorable environmental conditions would allow intact plants to branch more, resulting in stronger axillary meristem limitation than in unfavorable conditions; and (3) consequently, adventitious sprouting would be better enabled in favorable than unfavorable conditions.

[Subtilisin like protease secreted in Bacillus pumilus KMM 62 on different growth stages].

A protease secreted in Bacillus pumilus KMM 62 culture liquid on different growth stages was isolated using ion-exchange chromatography. On the basis of pattern of specific chromogenic substrates hydrolysis and inhibitory analysis the protease was classified as subtilisin like serine protease. The molecular weight ofprotease is 31 kDa.