xButyagrus nabonnandii (Prosch.) Vorster (Arecaceae): a sterile and rare palm with variable morphology?

×Butyagrus nabonnandii (Prosch.) Vorster is known as mule palm due to sterility, but recently, its pollen has been successfully used in backcrosses. It was first described as an artificial cross between Syagrus romanzoffiana (Cham.) Glassman and Butia odorata (Barb.Rodr.) Noblick in 1890. It has been considered rare in nature, and its morphology has been little studied. Thus, we aimed to verify if ×B. nabonnandii is sterile by studying its morphology and seed germination from different natural populations. The hybrid was sampled in four municipalities and is new to three of these. In one of the visited cities, 20 specimens were counted. The vegetative morphology showed less variation than the reproductive. However, part of the vegetative characters differed from previous descriptions relying solely on cultivated specimens. Contrary to previous reports, our data indicate that ×Butyagrus nabonnandii is neither rare nor infertile. Seed germination rates of ×B. nabonnandii are low due to seed predation by beetle larvae and seedless fruit production, which is also observed in the genera of the parental species. Furthermore, as in its parents, the morphology of the hybrid is complex, and future anatomical and molecular approaches are important for a better delimitation and understanding of the biology of ×B. nabonnandii.

Chromosome banding in Amphibia. XII. Restriction endonuclease banding.

Fixed metaphase chromosomes of several species of Amphibia were treated with various restriction endonucleases and subsequently stained with Giemsa. Metaphases of man and chicken were examined in parallel under the same experimental conditions for comparison. The restriction enzymes always induce subsets of the C-banding patterns present in the amphibian karyotypes. The heterochromatic regions can be either resistant or sensitive to the restriction enzyme. The modified C-banding patterns revealed by different restriction endonucleases in the karyotype of the same species can be either extremely dissimilar or almost completely congruent. Correspondingly, the action of the same restriction enzyme on the karyotypes of different species may vary greatly. There is only rarely a correlation between the type of C-banding patterns produced by different restriction endonucleases and their specific base pair recognition sequences. In contrast to mammalian and avian chromosomes, restriction enzymes induce no multiple G-banding patterns in amphibian chromosomes. This is attributed to the difference in organization of the DNA in the genomes of poikilothermic vertebrates. The possible mechanisms of restriction endonuclease banding and the various uses of this technique for amphibian chromosomes are discussed.

Using genomic slot blot hybridization to assess intergeneric Saccharum x Erianthus hybrids (Andropogoneae - Saccharinae).

The use of genomic slot blot hybridization enabled the differentiation of hybrids from selfs in Saccharum x Erianthus intergeneric crosses in which Saccharum was used as the female parent. Based on the genomic in situ hybridization technique, slot blots of DNA from the parents and the progeny were blocked with the Saccharum parent DNA and hybridized with the labelled male Erianthus genomic DNA. This technique allowed a rapid screening for hybrids and was sensitive enough to detect a 1/20 dilution of Erianthus in Saccharum DNA, which should enable the detection of most partial hybrids. The genomic slot blot hybridization technique was shown to be potentially useful for assessing crosses involving Saccharum species with either Old World Erianthus section Ripidium or North American Erianthus (= Saccharum) species. The effectiveness of the technique was assessed on 144 progeny of a Saccharum officinarum x Erianthus arundinaceus cross, revealing that 43% of the progeny were selfs. The importance of this test as a tool to support intergeneric breeding programs is discussed.

Karyotype and chromosome banding in the reed frog Hyperolius viridiflavus ommatostictus (Amphibia, Anura, Hyperoliidae).

C-banding and mithramycin staining were used to characterize the karyotypes of 10 specimens of the African reed frog Hyperolius viridiflavus ommatostictus from Tanzania. The diploid chromosome number is 2n = 24. Although no heteromorphic sex chromosomes were present in the mitotic karyotypes, in many diakineses of male meiosis one or two bivalents exhibited an end-to-end arrangement. In the laboratory 7 out of 24 females changed sex spontaneously. This indicates that an XY/XX system of sex determination operates in H. viridiflavus ommatostictus.

Anastomose porto-cava em ratos: tecnica e resultado. / Portocaval anastomosis in rats: technic and results

Neste trabalho apresenta-se uma adaptacao da tecnica de anastomose porto-cava termino-lateral em ratos, originalmente descrita por Lee e Fisher. Salientam-se os detalhes, que sao minuciosamente explicados, com o objetivo de evidenciar a exequibilidade do modelo experimental com emprego de material extremamente simples e sem a utilizacao de lupa. Ressalta-se tambem que a cirurgia pode ser realizada por paramedicos ou tecnicos suficientemente treinados