BRYONET: Dr Gabriela Hassesl de Menendez

BRYONET

Dear Bryonetters,

The sad and sudden demise of Dr. Hassesl de Menendez is indeed a great loss for
all the bryologists the world over. But she will continue to be with us through
her invaluable contibutions in the field of bryology, especially the Hepaticae
and Anthocerotae.

May God rest her soul in peace.

D.K. Singh

Dr D.K. Singh
Additional Director
Botanical Survey of India
CGO Complex, 3rd MSO Building
Block F (5th Floor)
Salt Lake Sector I
Kolkata - 700 064 (INDIA)
Ph. : +91 33 23214050

Re: BRYONET: Gabriela_Hassel_de_Menendez

BRYONET

Dear friends,
It is indeed a very sad for the Latin American bryological community the
lost of Dr. Hassesl de Menendez. From our small group of bryologists in
Venezuela we send our simpathy to her family and friends.

Yelitza León
Centro Jardín Botánico
Facltad de Ciencias
Universidad de Los Andes
Venenezuela

Re: BRYONET: mosses - microorganisms

BRYONET

In reply to Carmen Alfayate.

Although there is no scale bar, two pictures seem to show endophytic
bacteria. It is difficult to identify them at genus level, but I think Fig.
1 is Gram-negative bacteria. You can see some engulfing structures on the
cell surface, usually called "pits", which are specific structure formed
when bacteria use macromolecules as nutrient sources.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VSD-4FB66DB-1-1&_c
di=6260&_user=1029205&_orig=search&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2004&_sk=999019993&v
iew=c&wchp=dGLzVlz-zSkWb&md5=803d05dbb6542b4e74b0efd6f45f3767&ie=/sdarticle.
pdf

http://www.springerlink.com/content/t915258272x8x57r/fulltext.pdf

Such structures can be seen widely in Gram-negative bacteria also other than
Sphingomonas species.

Fig2 also seems bacteria. They are not yeast and fungi, because there is no
mitochondria or peroxisomes inside and the cell division system does not
seem ones of Eukaryotes. The nuclei-like structure can be recognized as
endospores. Endospore-forming bacteria are only Firmicutes. Many pictures
are available for Firmicutes endospores on the net. Please try to find
similar one.

Akio TANI
Group of Applied Microbiology
Research Institute for Bioresources, Okayama University Japan

Tel&Fax 086-434-1228

BRYONET: Protonema toxicity

BRYONET

Dear bryonetters,
I have been consulted by a company of bottled water because they have
found moss protonema in some bottles and cases of vomits and sickness
have been reported. I wonder if you have heard of any illness symptom or
toxicity related to moss protonema.
With best wishes,
--
**********************************
Dr. Javier Martinez-Abaigar
Universidad de La Rioja
Complejo Cientifico-Tecnologico
Avda. Madre de Dios 51
26006 Logroño (La Rioja)
(España, Spain)

Tel.: 34+941+299754
Fax: 34+941+299721
http://www.unirioja.es/ecophys/
*********************************

RE: BRYONET: mosses - microorganisms

BRYONET

It's difficult to say what organisms we see without having a scale,
information about the cutting-plane and additional information about what
other structures we see on the photos.

I don't think we see Bacteria, as was suggested by Rod Seppelt in an earlier
e-mail, since the "organisms" are obviously compartimented and seem to have
at least two different membrane systems. So it is much more likely that we
are talking about eucaryotes.
The organisms on the upper picture remind me about a ciliate like Euglena
for example. The organisms on the lower picture have similarities to yeasts.
But my knowledge of single-celled organisms is very basic and somebody else
might have a better idea.

Cheers,
Volker

***************
Dipl.-Biol.
Volker Buchbender
Clara-Viebig-Str. 5
01159 Dresden

RE: BRYONET: mosses - microorganisms [SEC=Unclassified]

BRYONET

In reply to Carmen Alfayate. A fair bet is bacteria. Another candidate
would by fungal associates - but not in this case.

Prof. Rod Seppelt,
Principal Research Scientist,
Australian Antarctic Division,
Channel highway,
Kingston 7050,
Tasmania, Australia
ph: +61 (03) 6232 3438
FAX: +61 (03) 6232 3449

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia

Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
___________________________________________________________________________

BRYONET: mosses - microorganisms

click on image to enlarge
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: mosses-microorganisms
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 16:27:20 +0100
From: Mari Carmen Alfayate ;

We have worked with mosses at ultrastructural level and in our
> observations we have seen micro-organisms both in gametophyte and
> sporophyte. We send you some photos of them (attached) in
> different structures and in different species of mosses and we
> would like, if possible, to help us identify which micro-
> organisms are.
>
> Thank you in advance.
Carmen Alfayate