Pale Flowers Research Articles

Downregulation of a Phi class glutathione S-transferase gene in transgenic torenia yielded pale flower color.

The members of glutathione S-transferase (GST) belonging to the Phi class of the GST family are known to play a role in anthocyanin transport to the vacuole. We isolated a GST orthologue from the torenia petal cDNA library. Transgenic plants transcribing GST double stranded RNA were generated from a torenia cultivar having blue flowers. These plants exhibited a range of flower colors, from blue to almost white. Quantitative RT-PCR confirmed the downregulation of the GST transcript, accompanied by a decrease in anthocyanin levels in the petals of the transgenic plants, whereas flavone levels remained unchanged. These results suggest that GST is involved in anthocyanin transport in torenia petals, and that anthocyanins and flavones are likely transported to the vacuole through different mechanisms.

"Like a Pale Flower in a Dark Well": Experiences of Women Whose Spouses Have Schizophrenia.

The current qualitative phenomenological study was performed with the aim of determining spousal, marital, and family experiences of women with spouses who have schizophrenia. Eleven women (mean age = 48 years) who were living with a spouse with schizophrenia with a disorder duration of at least 10 years were interviewed. Two main themes and six subthemes were revealed: Dark Well (anger and hate, pity beyond emotion, burnout) and Pale Flower (porter work, prison, destruction of roles). Women living with spouses with schizophrenia felt as though they had fallen into a dark well filled with problems, such as anger, hate, pity, and burnout, while they were living pale lives, which were wearing them out in many ways due to changing roles, carrying heavy burdens, and disrupted marital relationships. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(2), 53-59.].

Floral evolution and pollinator diversification in Hedychium: Revisiting Darwin's predictions using an integrative taxonomic approach.

Hedychium J. Koenig (Zingiberaceae) is endemic to the Indo-Malayan Realm and is known for its colorful and fragrant flowers. Historically, two different pollination syndromes characterize Hedychium: diurnal or bird pollination, and nocturnal or moth pollination. In this study, we aim to understand the evolution of nocturnal and diurnal flowers, and to test its putative association with lineage diversification in Hedychium. A molecular tree of Hedychium was used as a scaffold upon which we estimated ancestral character states, phylogenetic signals, and correlations for certain categorical and continuous floral traits. Furthermore, we used phylomorphospace and trait-dependent diversification rate estimation analyses to understand phenotypic evolution and associated lineage diversification in Hedychium. Although floral color and size lacked any association with specific pollinators, white or pale flowers were most common in the early branching clades when compared to bright-colored flowers, which were more widely represented in the most-derived clade IV. Five categorical and two continuous characters were identified to have informative evolutionary patterns, which also emphasized that ecology may have played a critical role in the diversification of Hedychium. From our phylogenetic analyses and ecological observations, we conclude that specializations in pollinator interactions are rare in the hyperdiverse clade IV, thus challenging the role of both moth-specialization and bird-specialization as central factors in the diversification of Hedychium. However, our results also suggest that clade III (predominantly island clade) may show specializations, and future studies should investigate ecological and pollinator interactions, along with inclusion of new traits such as floral fragrance and anthesis time.

God the Mother Speaks of Xenia

I AM the children sleeping under mylar in a Texas warehouse.I AM the fathers lifting toddlers to their shoulders on our journeyto safety and rest. I'm safety and rest. But I'm mostly the motherswho'd rather not lug the heavy memory of the twelve-year-old boycut to fit in a sack, ditched on the neighbor's steps. I hold his ghost hand,a pale flower. Some call us vermin, an infestation. We're waitingfor recognition's spark, milk of kindness, hoping for something to hope.Even a goddess like me needs birds to perch in the soul. Even Irequire feathers, the tune that never stops. Don't look for me in the guards,or their guns. I'm not in the false borders, the fenced miles or razor wire.Haven't I taught you better? Even the body arrives by crossingover. Sperm into egg. Then uterine guestroom. Then cervical gate.Each life a light-chip, hard & bright, I slip into like second skin. So,I will walk with, as, in them. My names rhyme with exile & asylum.I wear boots, steel-toed. I wear running shoes. I wear these cracked, bloody soles.

Aloe uigensis (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae), a new species from northwestern Angola

A new species of Aloe, A. uigensis (Asphodelaceae subfam. Alooideae), is described from northwestern Angola. It is a non-proliferous, single-stemmed species that bears narrowly elongated, acuminate racemes with orange to pale reddish flowers. Aloe uigensis is compared to some long-known as well as recently described species of Aloe from Angola, but does not have close relatives with which it can be confused in the country.

A Cold War Gamble: Japan and Shinoda Masahiro’s Pale Flower (1964)

A Cold War Gamble: Japan and Shinoda Masahiro’s Pale Flower (1964) Seth Adam Wilder Click for larger view View full resolution An ultra-stylish, pitch-black noir associated with the so-called Japanese “new wave,” Shinoda Masahiro’s1 opaque 1964 drama Kawaita hana (“Pale Flower”) would seem an unlikely site for Cold War history, this despite its director’s insistence to the contrary. After all, it is a film firmly ensconced in the shadowy world of the yakuza. Unlike several roughly contemporaneous Japanese films, Shinoda’s does not foreground the historical forces of that international conflict. Instead, Pale Flower, whose Japanese title translates more faithfully as “withered flower” or “dry flower,” remains fixed on the yakuza’s illicit world, with its illegal gambling dens, simultaneously rigid code and shifting system of allegiances, the ever-present [End Page 32] threat of violence, and orchestrated murder. Still, despite the film’s surface suppression, even effacement, of the looming poles of American and Soviet influence and threat that defined that ideological struggle, Shinoda’s subsequent claim that the film was intended as a Cold War allegory is useful—but not in the form he asserts. On the Criterion release of Pale Flower, Shinoda suggests that the film offers a protagonist standing in for a Japan trapped between yakuza bosses, who stand in for the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. But the allegory critiques the position in which Japan finds itself not in the late 1940s, newly defeated, but in the early 1960s, when the nation’s geopolitical location rendered it an indispensable, if not entirely willing, ally to America, containing the spread of communism in Asia. And the parallels are considerably looser and broader than the term “allegory” usually indicates, accommodating a broader yet more incisive analysis of Japanese culture. That a filmmaker working in the postwar era—particularly a filmmaker as preoccupied with history, including in its unfolding form, and an artist as formally restless and experimental as Shinoda—seized on the Cold War as a moment of crisis for Japan is unsurprising. But the genre vehicle of a yakuza eiga modeled stylistically on American film noir, rather than programmatically modeled on sheer historical narrative, suffuses the critique with a startling pessimism, by which these generic, formal, and tonal elements—hanafuda, yakuza eiga, taiyozoku, gambling, murder, and especially the Bible-black, film noir fatalism that pervades the film—exposes and examines this proud postwar nation as an agentless vehicle buffeted by the opposing forces of communist East and capitalist West. The Narrative Based on a story written by Ishihara Shintaro, the leading figure of the taiyozoku (“sun tribe”) genre, and visually rendered as a widescreen noir in rich black and white, Pale Flower tells the tale of Muraki, a middle-aged yakuza freshly released from prison after serving three years for the killing of a rival. Returning to Tokyo and his employer, he finds that the politics have shifted, with a tenuous alliance formed between the two former rival gangs to prevent a third’s encroachment. Although he is called on occasionally to perform tasks for his employer, Muraki spends most of his time aimlessly, purposelessly marking hours and days. He is a man who gambles by day at the horse track and by night in the illegal dens frequented by yakuza. Near the film’s outset, in one of these nocturnal and otherwise predominately masculine environs, he is introduced to someone who identifies herself as Saeko, a beautiful, implacable, and intense young woman gambling large sums of money. They strike up an unlikely and platonic relationship when she expresses interest in even higher stakes games. He agrees to introduce her to this underworld of high-stakes gambling. As they interact in his apartment, in gambling dens, and one memorable street race in her sports car, it becomes apparent that she is on an escalating and reckless path towards self-destruction, which links her to the historical taiyozoku, the so-called “sun tribe” generation of postwar Japanese youth. The two have a falling out after he spots her at a tony country club where she is on a matchmaking date. He loses contact with her when...

Pollen diet assessment and flower association in Melipona orbignyi and recommendations on management and conservation of stingless bees in the Chaco dry forest of South America

Management and conservation of wild pollinators in forests of the Chaco region of South America is of great interest nowadays as they are pollen vectors that improve the reproductive success of many forest species which are at risk due mainly to forest patch isolation and degradation by human activities. The assessment of the diet of the stingless bee Melipona orbignyi was carried out by comparing different calculations from palynological data being the index of relative importance (IRI) the most complete, objective, and here recommended. This index showed that the order of the four most important pollen resources was Prosopis (IRI = 3354), Albizia inundata (1999), Cynophalla retusa (921), and Solanum type 2 (693), and the value of importance of species (SI) calculated for honey resources showed that they were type Maytenus (SI = 20.79), Prosopis (18.73), Cynophalla retusa (6.72), and Ziziphus mistol (3.32). Three flower types predominated in pollen and nectar provisions: brush flowers, solanoid flowers with poricidal anthers, and generalized small pale flowers, being the former two associated to buzzing. The abundance of the nectarless Solanum in honey samples is discussed. Good forest management practices for pollinator conservation native to the Chaco forest should include the keeping of undisturbed forest patches for nesting and foraging while the surrounding forest resources are managed in a sustainable way. Furthermore, because some threatened plants important for the M. orbignyi diet require gene flow to maintain healthy populations, short distances among the forest patches are needed, a fact that also helps to avoid genetic drift in Melipona colonies. The rational rearing of Melipona orbignyi would be a good practice to be implemented to promote pollination of threatened tree and shrub individuals isolated by forest fragmentation.

Diversity of flax morphological characters in VIR genetic collection as a result of crop domestication

Background. Almost all described flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) biodiversity is presented in VIR genetic collection(GC).
 Materials and methods. 316 lines from GC belonging to 5 subspecies (indo-abyssinicum, hindustanicum, eurasiaticum, mediterraneum, transitorium) were characterized by morphological traits (MT), for some of them Mendels genetic control was evaluated.
 Results. MT groups, genotypes typical for each of subspecies are revealed, but appearance of other phenotypes cannot be excluded, because subspecies can differ only in frequency of their occurrence. The genetic analysis was carried out. It expanded the list of MT genes. It was shown that many lines have similar mutations of MT regardless of their origin. Many MT genes are promising or already use in breeding for example YSED1 and ysed (yellow seed), pf-ad (pink flower, yellow seeds), dlb3 (pale blue flower), sfbs1 (white deformed flower). Soon lines carrier s1 gene (anthocyanin biosynthesis inhibitor), will be used because mucilage from seeds s1s1 has special polysaccharide compound and with wf1 (white flower) gene which is linked with early flowering. The linkage between the genes controlling dark blue flower (sfc6, sfc10) and yellow seeds (ysed2) was found, which must be taken into account while breeding for yellow seed.
 Conclusion. The old landraces of GC can serve as source for any direction of breeding.

Zephyranthes pseudoconcolor(Amaryllidaceae: Amaryllidoideae), a New Species from Mexico, and Clarification ofZ. concolor

The new species Zephyranthes pseudoconcolor Flagg, G. Lom. Sm. & Garcia-Mend. is described from Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, and Tamaulipas, and figures are included. This species has affinities with Z. concolor (Lindl.) S. Wats. (authorial attribution of that combination, formerly incorrectly attributed to Benth. & Hook. f., is corrected in this paper) but is distinguished by having a smaller, pale lemon-yellow flower (inside and outside) basally increasingly lime with a lime-green perianth tube, shorter stigmatic lobes, and pedicel length greater than perianth length. For most of its taxonomic history, Z. pseudoconcolor has been identified as Habranthus concolor Lindl. or Z. concolor, resulting in H. concolor being redescribed as H. immaculatus Traub & Clint (with white perianth limbs inside and out). The new species and Z. concolor have been treated as distinct species for 60 years but with misapplied specific nomenclature.

Primulina malipoensis (Gesneriaceae), a new species from Sino-Vietnamese border area.

Primulina malipoensis, a new species from limestone areas around the Sino-Vietnamese border, is described and illustrated. This new species is morphologically similar to P. maguanensis and P. lungzhouensis, but obviously differs from the latter two species by its pale greenish-yellow flowers (vs. purple, with different colour patterns). The phylogenetic affinity, illustration and photographs of this new species are provided in this paper.

The Erotic Wounds of War

The Erotic Wounds of War Paisley Rekdal (bio) This loneliness for you is like the wound That keeps the soldier patient in his bed . . . —Dunstan Thompson, "This Loneliness for You Is Like the Wound" Ifirst saw the Dying Gaul when I was eight. The statue, a plaster cast of the original, was tucked away under a back staircase in the Burke Gilman Museum. The Burke Gilman was my favorite place: my mother, who was studying at the University of Washington, took me there frequently, even leaving me (once I got older) on my own while she retrieved books from the library. She must have been trailing behind me the day I found the Dying Gaul, because I know I was too young to have seen, or understood, the statue on my own. I stood for minutes, stunned, at chest height to this life-sized naked man slumped on his marble shield, a sword tossed by his thigh, a trumpet like a whip of sea kelp coiled beneath his propped leg. His head was bowed, his hair wild in tuft-like peaks that looked like waves breaking against shore. His large hand clasped his inner thigh. The day I saw him, sun glowed through the glass windows, turning his flesh a paste of creamy white, as if it had been mashed with milk and paper, not composed of plaster and stone. I moved closer. The broad moustachioed face, contorted in pain. The whorls of his pubic hair like the intricate lines etched on a clamshell. His heavy sex, and the slight slit at his right side that traced the crease of skin under his breast, blood chiseled down his ribs in droplets. I stared. He was massive and yet, folded in upon himself with pain, surprisingly intimate in emotional scale. The white light made him seem alive. I could imagine him bleeding; I could practically feel him dying before me. I stared at the wound, wanting to touch it, knowing that touching art was forbidden. But wasn't looking at a man like this also forbidden? I put my finger to the wound, drawing it across the lips of his peeled-back flesh, the way I'd felt (and imagined) my own self peeled back when, once, I touched myself between the legs. I didn't think the fact he was a soldier was what made this dying so electric, so powerful. I ignored the sword, the shield, focused on his wound. He was real because of this wound. I could look at him, could touch him because of it. And yet I must have understood, instinctively, the statue's connection with violence and sex. I was supposed to pity the Gaul for his beauty and his injury; I [End Page 177] could picture the horror of the battle he'd fought by being moved by its mortal outcome. Reading the poetry of war, I understand that the Dying Gaul is a common elegiac trope: I have come to recognize the complex roles that sex, physical beauty, and the erotic play in our literary imagination of soldiers and war. I understand that the sexualization of the dying soldier is in many ways a natural extension of the poetic elegy itself, in which the charge of death becomes an erotic charge, death and Eros twinned in our imaginations of men who died young. Here is Milton's "Lycidas," an elegy for Milton's drowned childhood friend, Edward King: So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted highThrough the dear might of him that walk'd the waves;Where, other groves and other streams along,With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves,And hears the unexpressive nuptial song,In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. And here is Shelley, writing of Keats, in "Adonaïs": But now, thy youngest, dearest one, has perish'd, The nursling of thy widowhood, who grew, Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherish'd, And fed with true-love tears, instead of dew; Most musical of mourners, weep anew! Thy extreme hope, the loveliest and the last, The bloom, whose petals nipp'd before they blew Died on the promise of...

Time-lapse photography reveals the occurrence of unexpected bee-pollination in Calanthe izuinsularis, an endangered orchid endemic to the Izu archipelago

ABSTRACTCalanthe izuinsularis is a rare, beautiful and fragrant orchid endemic to the Izu archipelago. Although it is known that mainland populations of closely related Calanthe species are pollinated by medium- to large-sized bees, it is likely that C. izuinsularis has been forced to alter its floral biology to attract alternative pollinators, as large-sized bees are rarely found on the Izu Islands. Indeed, the unusual floral characteristics of C. izuinsularis, which produces pale flowers that emit a strong and fragrant scent during the night, are considered the adaptation to a moth-pollinator syndrome. As expected, our time-lapse photography using a digital camera revealed that the inflorescences of C. izuinsularis were most frequently visited by nocturnal moths such as Noctuidae, Geometridae and Crambidae, which accounted for 50% of all insect visits (in terms of both the number of frames with captured visitors and the number of times visited). However, our study could not provide evidence of a pollinator shift towards moths because none of the moth species was observed with pollinaria. On the other hand, our study found that the pollinaria of C. izuinsularis could become attached to the mesothorax of the small-sized sweat bee Lasioglossum occidens. Therefore, our study suggests that C. izuinsularis is still somewhat dependent on bee pollination, while the orchid has changed its floral colouration and scent. The occurrence of bee-pollination in C. izuinsularis would provide an explanation for how the natural hybridisation between C. aristulifera, C. discolor and C. izuinsularis can occur.

Two new species of Calanthe (Orchidaceae: Epidendroideae) from Korea

Two new species, Calanthe insularis S.H.Oh, H.J.Suh & C.-W.Park and Calanthe rubra S.H.Oh, H.J.Suh & C.-W.Park, are described, illustrated, and compared with closely related species. Calanthe insularis, distributed in the southwestern region of Korea and Tsushima Island in Japan, is morphologically similar to C. aristulifera and C. striata, but it is distinguished from the last two species in its creamy yellow and pale orange-yellow flowers, arcuate spur as long as the lip, pale orange-yellow pedicels, and green ovary with pale green ridges. Calanthe rubra, from Gageodo Island, Korea, is similar to C. striata and C. insularis, but differs from them in its much smaller flowers with purplish red sepals and petals and the white spur.

Allelic variation of soybean flower color gene W4 encoding dihydroflavonol 4-reductase 2

BackgroundFlower color of soybean is primarily controlled by six genes, viz., W1, W2, W3, W4, Wm and Wp. This study was conducted to investigate the genetic and chemical basis of newly-identified flower color variants including two soybean mutant lines, 222-A-3 (near white flower) and E30-D-1 (light purple flower), a near-isogenic line (Clark-w4), flower color variants (T321 and T369) descended from the w4-mutable line and kw4 (near white flower, Glycine soja).ResultsComplementation tests revealed that the flower color of 222-A-3 and kw4 was controlled by the recessive allele (w4) of the W4 locus encoding dihydroflavonol 4-reductase 2 (DFR2). In 222-A-3, a single base was deleted in the first exon resulting in a truncated polypeptide consisting of 24 amino acids. In Clark-w4, base substitution of the first nucleotide of the fourth intron abolished the 5′ splice site, resulting in the retention of the intron. The DFR2 gene of kw4 was not expressed. The above results suggest that complete loss-of-function of DFR2 gene leads to near white flowers. Light purple flower of E30-D-1 was controlled by a new allele at the W4 locus, w4-lp. The gene symbol was approved by the Soybean Genetics Committee. In E30-D-1, a single-base substitution changed an amino acid at position 39 from arginine to histidine. Pale flowers of T369 had higher expression levels of the DFR2 gene. These flower petals contained unique dihydroflavonols that have not yet been reported to occur in soybean and G. soja.ConclusionsComplete loss-of-function of DFR2 gene leads to near white flowers. A new allele of the W4 locus, w4-lp regulates light purple flowers. Single amino acid substitution was associated with light purple flowers. Flower petals of T369 had higher levels of DFR2 gene expression and contained unique dihydroflavonols that are absent in soybean and G. soja. Thus, mutants of the DFR2 gene have unique flavonoid compositions and display a wide variety of flower color patterns in soybean, from near white, light purple, dilute purple to pale.

Hymenopteran pollinators as agents of selection on flower colour in the New Zealand mountains: salient chromatic signals enhance flower discrimination

Flowering plants in New Zealand have often been described as having predominantly small white or pale flowers, possibly due to an absence of social insects as a major pollinating force. However, insect vision is considerably different to human perception, and these hypotheses need to be assessed considering insect perceptual capabilities. We collected spectral reflectance data from flowers of 23 native species in an alpine region of New Zealand at an altitude above 1500 m where 77% of flowers have been reported to possess small white or pale flowers. Our spectral analyses show that these flowers actually have very strong chromatic signals for hymenoptera colour vision. Indeed the spectral signals of these flowers most frequently have inflection points at about 400 and 500 nm, which closely match the region of best spectral discrimination by hymenopteran pollinators with a trichromatic visual system. When the flower spectra are plotted in a colour space designed for hymenoptera, the data reveals that most of the flower colours would be well detected against background foliage, and often reliably discriminated from the other flowers appearing in the same alpine environment. We thus demonstrate that New Zealand alpine flowers are actually well suited for visual detection and discrimination by biologically important hymenopteran pollinators.

Selection for a floral trait is not mediated by pollen receipt even though seed set in the population is pollen‐limited

SummarySeed production in natural populations is often limited by quantity of pollen received. This pollen limitation has the potential to generate natural selection through female function favouring certain floral traits (hereafter ‘pollen‐mediated’ selection). Floral traits can, however, also be under selection via other mechanisms, and the influence of a particular trait on pollen limitation of individuals is rarely quantified.We took a trait‐based approach to pollen limitation by adding a quantitative trait to a previously published model. The modified model predicted impacts of both pollen supplementation and pollen reduction in seed production when the trait influences pollen receipt, and when the trait influences other model parameters. We then manipulated pollen availability in a population of the alpine New Zealand herbWahlenbergia albomarginatavarying in petal colour to test a long‐standing hypothesis that pale flower colour in that habitat is selected for via pollinators.Under pollen‐mediated selection, supplementing pollination should eliminate fitness dependence on a trait, while reducing pollination could exacerbate it. In contrast, if selection through female function on a floral trait is not solely pollen‐mediated, seed production should change with the trait value even when excess pollen is added. Furthermore, if the effect is on maximum seed production, the trait effect should increase with higher pollen availability as greater resources can be used for filling seeds from more fertilised ovules.InWahlenbergia albomarginata, average seed production was strongly pollen‐limited, with supplemental pollen increasing seeds by 43%. Selection through female function also favoured whiter flowers as quantified with reflectance spectrometry. This selection on flower colour was stronger when supplemental pollen was added, consistent with an effect of the trait on asymptotic seed production rather than an effect on pollen receipt.These results, along with previous behavioural studies of pollinators, show that pale flower colour, common in the habitat and often attributed to pollinator behaviour, is not maintained by pollen‐mediated selection but instead through another mechanism. This study illustrates the value of combining experimental pollen supplements and reductions with trait variation to study selection of floral traits, especially in species where compatible pollen receipt is difficult to measure.

The Cape genus <i>Micranthus</i> (Iridaceae: Crocoideae), nomenclature and taxonomy

The genus Micranthus (Pers.) Eckl., has traditionally been treated as comprising three species, all with virtually identical, bilaterally symmetric, deep or pale blue to white flowers arranged in crowded, 2-ranked spikes and with divided style branches, but differing in their foliage. Examination of plants in the field and herbarium shows that there are four additional species. M. filifolius Goldblatt J.C.Manning, from the Caledon District of the southwestern Western Cape, has up to six, filiform leaves, the blades of at least the lowermost terete and cross-shaped in section, and usually pale blue-mauve flowers. M. simplex Goldblatt J.C.Manning from high elevations on Zebrakop, Piketberg, has the smallest flowers in the genus, white but tinged lilac as they age, linear leaves up to 1.5 mm wide, and undivided style branches. M. cruciatus Goldblatt J.C.Manning, from the northern Cedarberg and Bokkeveld Mtns, has up to four leaves, the lower with linear or terete blades with heavily thickened margins and central vein and relatively large flowers, unusual in having the style dividing at the mouth of the perianth tube into particularly long branches, these deeply divided as is typical of the genus. M. thereianthoides Goldblatt J.C.Manning, from the Paardeberg south of Malmesbury, is unique in the genus in having flowers with an elongate perianth tube. We also document the occurrence of large populations of putative hybrids at some sites. We provide a complete revision of Micranthus with original observations on leaf anatomy, pollen morphology and reproductive biology and discuss its confused taxonomic and nomenclatural history and that of the three common species of the genus, known for over 150 years. In so doing, we neotypify Gladiolus alopecuroides L. (1756) [= Micranthus alopecuroides (L.) Eckl. (1827)], type of the genus, and choose lectotypes for M. plantagineus Eckl. var. junceus Baker (1892) and Gladiolus fistulosus Jacq. Now with seven species, Micranthus remains endemic to the Cape flora region, extending from its extreme northern limit in the Bokkeveld Mtns south-eastwards to Port Elizabeth. We also deal with the genera Paulomagnusia Kuntze and Beilia Kuntze with which Micranthus has sometimes been associated, although both are nomenclatural synonyms of Thereianthus G.J.Lewis, a genus close allied to Micranthus.

Karrabina gen. nov. (Cunoniaceae), for the Australian species previously placed in Geissois, and a synopsis of genera in the tribe Geissoieae

Comparison of the four species groups comprising the tribe Geissoieae (Lamanonia in South America, Geissois sensu stricto from islands in the south-western Pacific, and Pseudoweinmannia and Geissois in Australia) showed differences in the stipules, inflorescences and flowers. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggested that Geissois sensu lato is paraphyletic, with Australian Geissois being closer to Pseudoweinmannia than to New Caledonian Geissois. The name Karrabina is published to accommodate the Australian species formerly placed in Geissois, namely K. benthamiana Rozefelds & H.C.Hopkins and K. biagiana Rozefelds & H.C.Hopkins. Distinguishing characters for Karrabina are: four lateral stipules per node that vary from free to largely fused between and sometimes across the petioles; inflorescences with a variable number of metamers and racemes, with both median and lateral modules that always lack a median raceme; and pale flowers with five or six calyx lobes and shortly exserted stamens. Geissois s.s. differs in having: two intrapetiolar stipules per node; inflorescences consisting of few metamers and few racemes, with the modules being always lateral and possessing a median raceme; flowers with four red calyx lobes and prominently exserted stamens. The generic limits of Lamanonia and Pseudoweinmannia remain unchanged.

Isolation and characterization of GtMYBP3 and GtMYBP4, orthologues of R2R3-MYB transcription factors that regulate early flavonoid biosynthesis, in gentian flowers.

Flavonoids are one of the major plant pigments for flower colour. Not only coloured anthocyanins, but also co-pigment flavones or flavonols, accumulate in flowers. To study the regulation of early flavonoid biosynthesis, two R2R3-MYB transcription factors, GtMYBP3 and GtMYBP4, were identified from the petals of Japanese gentian (Gentiana triflora). Phylogenetic analysis showed that these two proteins belong to the subgroup 7 clade (flavonol-specific MYB), which includes Arabidopsis AtMYB12, grapevine VvMYBF1, and tomato SlMYB12. Gt MYBP3 and Gt MYBP4 transcripts were detected specifically in young petals and correlated with the profiles of flavone accumulation. Transient expression assays showed that GtMYBP3 and GtMYBP4 enhanced the promoter activities of early biosynthetic genes, including flavone synthase II (FNSII) and flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′H), but not the late biosynthetic gene, flavonoid 3′,5′-hydroxylase (F3′5′H). GtMYBP3 also enhanced the promoter activity of the chalcone synthase (CHS) gene. In transgenic Arabidopsis, overexpression of Gt MYBP3 and Gt MYBP4 activated the expression of endogenous flavonol biosynthesis genes and led to increased flavonol accumulation in seedlings. In transgenic tobacco petals, overexpression of Gt MYBP3 and Gt MYBP4 caused decreased anthocyanin levels, resulting in pale flower colours. Gt MYBP4-expressing transgenic tobacco flowers also showed increased flavonols. As far as is known, this is the first functional characterization of R2R3-MYB transcription factors regulating early flavonoid biosynthesis in petals.

Shinoda's Pale Flower as a Japanese film noir

ABSTRACTShinoda Masahiro's Kawaita hana/Pale Flower, a key film of the Japanese ‘New Wave’ of the 1960s, is poised between the conventional ‘genre’ cinema of the Japanese studios and two prominent strains of international narrative cinema: the European art film and the American film noir. Released in 1964, Shinoda's film is at once a contribution to, and a unique hybridization of, these several distinct, and culturally specific, traditions. This article addresses the multivalent influences of European art cinema and film noir on Pale Flower, addressing, in particular, on what grounds we might convincingly speak of this film as a Japanese ‘film noir’. Through formal analysis, and discussion of the film's representation of character and subjectivity, Pale Flower is shown to be a recognizable and self-conscious exercise in noir stylization on the American model, while also incorporating formal innovations of the European art cinema.