Plant CSR types in the north: comparing the morphological and morpho-physiological approaches.

Unlabelled: Grime's competition-stress-ruderal (CSR) theory is widely used to study plant species' responses to multiple environmental factors. We compared two models to allocate CSR types the global "StrateFy" model (Pierce et al. Funct Ecol, 31:444-457, 2017) and a locally developed morpho-physiological model (Novakovskiy et al.

[Tropisms in underground shoots — stolons and rhizomes].

In the review, the problem of plant movements (photo- and gravitropism) is discussed. The contemporary data on physiological and molecular mechanisms of tropisms in underground shoots and roots are presented. Special attention is paid to diagravitropism phenomenon in underground shoots (stolons and rhizomes) that grow in perpendicular direction to the Earth's gravitational axis.

Traits of Heracleum sosnowskyi Plants in Monostand on Invaded Area.

The ability of giant hogweeds to form monodominant communities and even pure monostands in invaded areas has been well documented. Understanding of the mechanisms leading to monostand formation can aid in determining the limitations of existing community ecology models and establishing an effective management plan for invasive species elimination. The aim of this observational study was to investigate traits of Heracleum sosnowskyi plants (demography, canopy structure, morphology and physiology) of the plants in a pure stand in an invaded area useful for understanding potential monostand formation mechanisms.

Nonreplicative RNA recombination in poliovirus.

Current models of recombination between viral RNAs are based on replicative template-switch mechanisms. The existence of nonreplicative RNA recombination in poliovirus is demonstrated in the present study by the rescue of viable viruses after cotransfections with different pairs of genomic RNA fragments with suppressed translatable and replicating capacities. Approximately 100 distinct recombinant genomes have been identified.

Distinct attenuation phenotypes caused by mutations in the translational starting window of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus.

Upon initiation of translation of picornavirus RNA, the ribosome is believed to bind the internal ribosome entry site of the template and then to form a productive complex with a downstream RNA segment, the starting window. The presence or absence of an AUG triplet within the starting window of the RNA of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (a picornavirus) is known to modulate its neurovirulence. In this study, mutants of this virus in which the starting windows, lying upstream of the viral polyprotein reading frame, had AUGs with different nonoptimal contexts were engineered.