Studying Placozoa WBR in the Simplest Metazoan Animal, Trichoplax adhaerens.

Placozoans are a promising model system to study fundamental regeneration processes in a morphologically and genetically very simple animal. We here provide a brief introduction to the enigmatic Placozoa and summarize the state of the art of animal handling and experimental manipulation possibilities.

Spatial heterogeneity of flesh-cell osmotic potential in sweet cherry affects partitioning of absorbed water.

A fleshy fruit is commonly assumed to resemble a thin-walled pressure vessel containing a homogenous carbohydrate solution. Using sweet cherry ( L.) as a model system, we investigate how local differences in cell water potential affect HO and DO (heavy water) partitioning.

Localized bursting of mesocarp cells triggers catastrophic fruit cracking.

The so-called rain-cracking of sweet cherry fruit severely threatens commercial production. Simple observation tells us that cuticular microcracking (invisible) always precedes skin macrocracking (visible). The objective here was to investigate how a macrocrack develops.