Coconut water and BAP successfully replaced zeatin in olive (Olea europaea L.) micropropagation

The data presented report on trials conducted during 24 months using the Portuguese olive cultivar ‘Galega vulgar’. The effectiveness of coconut water, BAP, or kinetin, as possible zeatin substitutes in olive micropropagation protocols, was investigated. In all stages of the micropropagation process, the mineral and vitamin formulation of Olive Medium (OM) was used. Regarding culture establishment the best results were achieved when 50 ml l-1 coconut water and 2.22 µM BAP were used as medium supplements. For the in vitro multiplication stage, the highest proliferation rates with an average of 3.4 new explants on each thirty days were achieved maintaining the coconut water concentration at 50 ml l-1 and increasing BAP up to 8.87 µM. The effects of IBA and activated charcoal on the in vitro root induction were also studied. Rooting rates of over 85 percent were obtained by basal immersion of the explants in IBA solution at 3 g l-1 for 10 seconds, followed by inoculation in the OM culture medium, added with 2 g l-1 of activated charcoal and without growth regulators. All in vitro rooted plants were transferred into jiffy-pots filled with vermiculite-perlite 3/1 (v/v) substrate. Those were subsequently wetted with the OM mineral solution, placed into polystyrene plates each one with 100 jiffy-pots capacity, which were transferred to traditional rooting mist benches, on a water-cooling equipped greenhouse. Such a simple acclimatization procedure allowed for 95 percent of plants survival

Elongation, rooting and acclimatization of micropropagated shoots from mature material of hybrid larch

Factors were defined for elongation, rooting and acclimatization of micropropagated shoots of Larix x eurolepis Henry initiated from short shoot buds of plagiotropic stecklings serially propagated for 9 years from an 8-year-old tree. Initiation and multiplication were on Schenk and Hildebrandt (SH) medium supplemented with 5 μM 6-benzyladenine (BA) and 1 μM indole-butyric acid (IBA). Stem elongation was obtained in 36% of the shoots on SH medium containing 0.5 μM BA and 63% of the remaining non-elongated shoots initiated stem elongation after transfer on SH medium devoid of growth regulators. Rooting involved 2 steps: root induction on Campbell and Durzan mineral salts and Murashige and Skoog organic elements, both half-strength (CD-MS/2), supplemented with 1 μM of both naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and IBA, and root elongation following transfer to CD-MS/2 medium devoid of growth regulators. Repeating this 2-step sequence yielded up to 67% rooted shoots. Acclimatization of plantlets ranged from 83% to 100%. Over 300 plants were transferred to the greenhouse; some showed plagiotropic growth

Wildcard dimensions, coding theory and fault-tolerant meshes and hypercubes

Hypercubes, meshes and tori are well known interconnection networks for parallel computers. The sets of edges in those graphs can be partitioned to dimensions. It is well known that the hypercube can be extended by adding a wildcard dimension resulting in a folded hypercube that has better fault-tolerant and communication capabilities. First we prove that the folded hypercube is optimal in the sense that only a single wildcard dimension can be added to the hypercube. We then investigate the idea of adding wildcard dimensions to d-dimensional meshes and tori. Using techniques from error correcting codes we construct d-dimensional meshes and tori with wildcard dimensions. Finally, we show how these constructions can be used to tolerate edge and node faults in mesh and torus networks

On the Role of Hadamard Gates in Quantum Circuits

We study a reduced quantum circuit computation paradigm in which the only allowable gates either permute the computational basis states or else apply a "global Hadamard operation", i.e. apply a Hadamard operation to every qubit simultaneously. In this model, we discuss complexity bounds (lower-bounding the number of global Hadamard operations) for common quantum algorithms : we illustrate upper bounds for Shor's Algorithm, and prove lower bounds for Grover's Algorithm. We also use our formalism to display a gate that is neither quantum-universal nor classically simulable, on the assumption that Integer Factoring is not in BPP.Comment: 16 pages, last section clarified, typos corrected, references added, minor rewordin

Development of Sterilisation Procedures and in Vitro Studies of Nymphaea lotus

Water lilies (Nymphaea sp.) are one of the most valuable aquatic ornamental plants which have a bright potential to be a multimillion-dollar commodity in the floriculture trade. They could be exploited as cut flowers (Master, 1974), ornamental plants for water garden, urban landscape for aquascaping and restoration projects (Kane and Philman, 1992) and sources for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products (Perry, 1987). Water lily family consists of approximately 50-60 species found in tropical to cold temperate region (Halijah, 2000). Flowers of water lilies are available in many colours including red, pink, yellow and white. Water lilies are not only beautiful but they are also useful in creating a balanced environment in ponds or lakes as well as improving the water quality. They function as surface vegetation in controlling the amount of direct sunlight that penetrates the water surface, thus, stabilising the water temperature particularly during dry season, and also control the algal growth from over blooming which causes the green water problem (Dawes, 1989). In Putrajaya Wetland Garden in Malaysia, water lilies are planted in open water as ornamental plants (Radiah, 2000). Many years ago, Europeans, Asians and Africans consumed the seeds and tubers of water lilies as food in time of emergency. Nymphaea alba at one time was used by the French in the preparation of beer, while Irish and Scottish highlanders used it as a source of dye for dyeing wool (Perry, 1971). During the Egyptian civilization (approximately 4000 B.C), water lilies were used in religious ceremonies (Perry, 1987). Conventionally, water lilies are propagated vegetatively through tuber production or from new plants sprouting from the underground rhizomatous stem. However, such propagation methods are restricted due to the slow and limited number of plants produced, diseases, large propagation space needed and an extended period to produce saleable plants. These factors contribute to a high production cost (Kelly and Fret, 1986) and often prevent an efficient and rapid production of planting materials to meet the market demand (Kane, 1991)

Propagation, pollen storage, and in vitro lemmatoxin production of endod (Phytolacca dodecandra L.)

1991 Spring.Covers not scanned.Includes bibliographical references.Protocols for macropropagation and micropropagation of endod are described. High levels on IBA (19.7 and 39.4 mM) resulted in the greatest number of roots of semi-hardwood cuttings. Combinations of IBA and NAA did not improve rooting. Cuttings taken from the apical and medial regions of stem branches rooted faster than the basal ones, but there was no difference in rooting percentage at six weeks. Scarification of seeds resulted in faster germination. Over 71% seed germination was obtained under aseptic condition in the control, gibberellic acid treated and scarified seeds. MS medium containing 0.44 μM BA induced 3.1 shoots per explant in vitro using shoot tips. Nodal explants produced up to 4.7 shoots per explant. Vertical and diagonal placement of nodal explants resulted in greater shoot proliferation than horizontal placement in strains 3 and 17. IBA at 0.49 μM induced 90% rooting of in vitro shoots with low callus production. Successful rooting was obtained at 1/2 and 1/4 MS basal salt concentrations with 0.49 μM IBA. Preculturing shoot tips in an MS medium containing IBA and transferring to medium without hormones did not reduce callus production at the explant base. Nodal explants gave 80 - 85% rooting with a low frequency of callus formation (7.5%). In vitro rooted plantlets grew normally and flowered in a greenhouse. Over 70% pollen germination was achieved on a medium containing 10% sucrose and 161.8 μM H3B03. Pollen stored at 1±1°C and -175°C maintained viability for six months, whereas pollen stored at 24±2°C lost viability within one month. Pollen stored at -175°C for three months when used in pollination set normal fruits and seeds. The greatest amount of callus was produced from shoot tip explants using IBA and 2iP. Flower bud and pericarp explants produced the least amount of callus. A hemolysis assay was found to be effective in analyzing saponin content of samples. No hemolytic activity was evident in the callus samples tested. Extracts from callus samples tested negatively for molluscicidal potency. Highest hemolytic activity of plant samples was recorded in the fully · enlarged green berry stage. Seeds were found to be essential for hemolytic activity