1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
2.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
3.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
4.
Monocotyledon
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Monocotyledons, commonly referred to as monocots, are flowering plants whose seeds typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. However, molecular research has shown that while the monocots form a monophyletic group or clade. Monocots have almost always recognized as a group, but with various taxonomic ranks. The APG III system of 2009 recognises a clade called monocots, the monocots include about 60,000 species. The largest family in this group by number of species are the orchids, about half as many species belong to the true grasses, which are economically the most important family of monocots. In agriculture the majority of the biomass produced comes from monocots and these include not only major grains, but also forage grasses, sugar cane, and the bamboos. Other economically important monocot crops include various palms, bananas, gingers and their relatives, turmeric and cardamom, asparagus and the onions and garlic family. Additionally most of the bulbs, plants cultivated for their blooms, such as lilies, daffodils, irises, amaryllis, cannas, bluebells. The monocots or monocotyledons have, as the name implies, a single cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, from a diagnostic point of view the number of cotyledons is neither a particularly useful characteristic, nor is it completely reliable. Nevertheless, monocots are sufficiently distinctive that there has rarely been disagreement as to membership of this group, however, morphological features that reliably characterise major clades are rare. Thus monocots are distinguishable from other angiosperms both in terms of their uniformity and diversity, although largely herbaceous, some arboraceous monocots reach great height, length and mass. The latter include agaves, palms, pandans, and bamboos and this creates challenges in water transport that monocots deal with in various ways. Some such as species of Yucca develop anomalous secondary growth, while palm trees, the axis undergoes primary thickening, that progresses from internode to internode, resulting in a typical inverted conical shape of the basal primary axis. The limited conductivity also contributes to limited branching of the stems, despite these limitations a wide variety of adaptive growth forms has resulted from epiphytic orchids and bromeliads to submarine Alismatales and mycotrophic Burmanniaceae and Triuridaceae. Other monocots, particularly Poales have adopted a life form. Leaves The cotyledon, the primordial Angiosperm leaf consists of a proximal leaf base or hypophyll, in moncots the hypophyll tends to be the dominant part in contrast to other angiosperms. Mature monocot leaves are narrow and linear, forming a sheathing around the stem at its base. There is usually only one leaf per node because the leaf base encompasses more than half the circumference, the evolution of this monocot characteristic has been attributed to developmental differences in early zonal differentiation rather than meristem activity
5.
Commelinids
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In plant taxonomy, commelinids is a name used by the APG III system for a clade within the monocots, which in its turn is a clade within the angiosperms. The commelinids are the clade that the APG has informally named within the monocots. The remaining monocots are a paraphyletic unit, also known as the commelinid monocots it forms one of three groupings within the monocots, and the final branch, the other two groups being the alismatid monocots and the lilioid monocots. Members of the clade have cell walls containing UV-fluorescent ferulic acid. The commelinids were first recognized as a group in 1967 by Armen Takhtajan. However, by the release of his 1980 system of classification, the commelinids constitute a well-supported clade within the monocots, and this clade has been recognized in all four APG classification systems. The commelinids of APG II and APG III contain essentially the same plants as the commelinoids of the earlier APG system, in APG IV the family Dasypogonaceae is no longer directly placed under commelinids but instead a family of order Arecales. Media related to Commelinids at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Poales
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The Poales are a large order of flowering plants in the monocotyledons, and includes families of plants such as the grasses, bromeliads, and sedges. Sixteen plant families are recognized by botanists to be part of Poales. The flowers are small, enclosed by bracts, and arranged in inflorescences. The flowers of species are wind pollinated, the seeds usually contain starch. It did not include the Bromeliaceae and Mayaceae, but had the additional families Prioniaceae, Sparganiaceae, the morphology-based Cronquist system did not include an order named Poales, assigning these families to the orders Bromeliales, Cyperales, Hydatellales, Juncales, Restionales and Typhales. The earliest known fossils include pollen and fruits, major lineages within the Poales have been referred to as bromeliad, cyperid, xyrid, graminid, and restiid clades. A phylogenetic analysis resolved most relationships within the order but found support for the monophyly of the cyperid clade. The relationship between Centrolepidaceae and Restoniaceae within the clade remains unclear, the first may actually be embedded in the latter. Within the order, by far the most important family economically is the family of grasses, which includes barley, maize, millet, rice, many Bromeliaceae are used as ornamental plants. Bremer, K. Gondwanan Evolution of the Grass Alliance of Families, judd, W. S. C. S. Campbell, E. A. Kellogg, P. F. Stevens, M. J. Donoghue. Plant Systematics, A Phylogenetic Approach, 2nd edition, linder, H. Peter, Rudall, Paula J. Evolutionary History of the Poales. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, flora of the Southeastern United States,48
7.
Bromeliaceae
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They are among the basal families within the Poales and are unique because they are the only family within the order that has septal nectaries and inferior ovaries. These inferior ovaries characterize the Bromelioideae, a subfamily of the Bromeliaceae, the family includes both epiphytes, such as Spanish moss, and terrestrial species, such as the pineapple. Many bromeliads are able to water in a structure formed by their tightly-overlapping leaf bases. The largest bromeliad is Puya raimondii, which reaches 3–4 m tall in vegetative growth with a flower spike 9–10 m tall, Bromeliads are plants that are adapted to various climates. Foliage takes different shapes, from needle-thin to broad and flat, symmetrical to irregular, the foliage, which usually grows in a rosette, is widely patterned and colored. Leaf colors range from maroon, through shades of green, to gold, varieties may have leaves with red, yellow, white and cream variations. Others may be spotted with purple, red, or cream, while others have different colors on the tops, the inflorescences produced by bromeliads are also regarded as considerably more diverse than any other plant family. Some flower spikes may reach 10 meters tall, while others only measure 2–3 mm across, upright stalks may be branched or simple with spikes retaining their color from two weeks up to 12 months, depending on species. In some species, the flower remains unseen, growing deep in the base of the plants, root systems vary according to plant type. Terrestrial bromeliad species have complex systems that gather water and nutrients, while epiphytic bromeliads only grow hard, wiry roots to attach themselves to trees. Some bromeliads are faintly scented, while others are heavily perfumed, blooms from the species Tillandsia cyanea have a fragrance resembling that of clove spice. One study found 175,000 bromeliads per hectare in one forest, a wide variety of organisms takes advantage of the pools of water trapped by bromeliads. A study of 209 plants from the Ecuadorian lowlands identified 11,219 animals, representing more than 300 distinct species, examples include some species of ostracods, small salamanders about 2.5 cm in length, and tree frogs. Some bromeliads even form homes for other species of bromeliads, plants in the Bromeliaceae are widely represented in their natural climates across the Americas. One species can be found in Africa and they can be found at altitudes from sea level to 4200 meters, from rainforests to deserts. 1814 species are epiphytes, some are lithophytes, and some are terrestrial, Bromeliads often serve as phytotelmata, accumulating water between their leaves. The aquatic habitat created as a result is host to an array of invertebrates. These bromeliad invertebrates benefit their hosts by increasing nitrogen uptake into the plant, Bromeliads are among the more recent plant groups to have emerged
8.
Ananas
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Ananas is a plant genus of the Bromeliad family, native to South America and Central America which includes the species Ananas comosus, the pineapple. This genus originated in Mesoamerica and was brought to the Caribbean Islands by the Carib natives, the oldest register with the representation of the fruit seems to be included in the Cascajal Block, attributed to the Olmec civilization. In 1493, Christopher Columbus first saw plants of genus in Guadeloupe. It was brought from Brazil to Europe by the Portuguese, and from there was distributed to the Pacific Islands by the Spanish, commercial pineapple plantations were established in Hawaii, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Florida and Cuba. The pineapple has become one of the worlds most popular fruits, the tough leaves grow in large rosettes, arising basally from a crown. These leaves are long and lanceolate with a serrate or thorny margin, the flowers, arising from the heart of the rosette, each have their own sepals. They grow into a head on a short, robust stalk. The sepals become fleshy and juicy and develop into the complex form of the pseudocarp fruit. Ananas species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Batrachedra comosae, the word Ananas is derived from the Guarani name for the pineapple, via Portuguese. In most languages, pineapple is called ananas, pineapples contain both bromelain and papain to which they owe their meat tenderizing properties. The fruit and roots are used by some peoples as anti-inflammatory, proteolytic agent, the biggest producers in 2012 were the US, Thailand and the Philippines. Ananas ananassoides L. B. Smith - from Costa Rica to Paraguay Ananas bracteatus Schultes & Schultes f. B. Sm, - Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, northern Brazil, French Guiana Ananas lucidus Schult
9.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
10.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
11.
Elmer Drew Merrill
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Elmer Drew Merrill was an American botanist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became an authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through the course of his career he authored nearly 500 publications, described approximately 3,000 new plant species, in addition to his scientific work he was an accomplished administrator, college dean, university professor and editor of scientific journals. Merrill and his brother, Dana, were born and raised in the small village of East Auburn. They were the youngest of six children by Daniel C, Merrill showed an early interest in natural history, collecting and identifying plants, birds eggs, rocks, and minerals. He was the valedictorian of his class in 1898 and then stayed on for an additional year working as an assistant in the Department of Natural Science. During his time in college Merrill built an herbarium of almost 2,000 specimens which he eventually donated to the New England Botanical Club. At the USDA he learned the principles of plant taxonomy and became proficient in the development and management of a herbarium and his training was supplemented by fieldwork in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. At the end of the Spanish–American War, the United States Taft Commission established the Insular Bureau of Agriculture in Manila, Merrill was appointed to the post of botanist in the new organization and arrived in 1902 in Manila where he was to work for the next twenty-two years. Merrill was dismayed to discover that the herbarium he was expecting to find had been destroyed during the war, along with the botanical library, nevertheless, starting with just an empty building, he set out to rebuild the herbarium and library. Within a few months his role was expanded to include a joint appointment with the Bureau of Forestry, over the years Merrills responsibilities continued to grow until he became both the Director of the Bureau of Sciences and a Professor of Botany at the University of the Philippines. He collected and studied not only from the Philippines but also from the greater Asia-Pacific region including Indonesia, Malaysia, Indochina, China. Eventually the herbarium grew to over 250,000 specimens and the library was recognized as one of the best in Asia. Merrill published more than 100 taxonomic papers on Philippine flora and several papers on the flora of the region. Many of his papers were published in The Philippine Journal of Science, in 1912 he published a 500-page Flora of Manila covering some 1,000 species. In 1921 he completed a Bibliographic Enumeration of Bornean Plants, a volume of 637 pages and his most ambitious work was the Enumeration of Philippine Flowering Plants published in sections between 1923 and 1926. In 1924 Merrill returned to the United States to join the University of California, there he was appointed Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station. At Berkeley he led a reorganization of the faculty, revised the curriculum, emphasized academic training of staff, added buildings and equipment, and stressed fundamental research
12.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
13.
Multiple fruit
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Multiple fruits, also called collective fruits, are fruiting bodies formed from a cluster of fruiting flowers, the inflorescence. Each flower in the inflorescence produces a fruit, but these mature into a mass in which each flower has produced a true fruit. After flowering the mass is called an infructescence, examples are the fig, pineapple, mulberry, osage-orange, and breadfruit. In languages other than English, the meanings of multiple and aggregate fruit are reversed, in the photograph on the left, stages of flowering and fruit development in the noni or Indian mulberry can be observed on a single branch. First an inflorescence of flowers called a head is produced. After fertilization, each flower develops into a drupe, and as the drupes expand, there are also many dry multiple fruits. This form is called a Syconium Fruits Compound fruit
14.
Berry
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In everyday language, a berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet or sour, common examples are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and red- and blackcurrants. In Britain, soft fruit is a term for such fruits. The scientific usage of the term differs from common usage. In scientific terminology, a berry is a fruit produced from the ovary of a flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion. The definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known as berries, such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, fruits excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, which are aggregate fruits. A plant bearing berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate, while many berries are edible, some are poisonous to humans, such as deadly nightshade and pokeweed. Others, such as the white mulberry, red mulberry, and elderberry, are poisonous when unripe, berries are eaten worldwide and often used in jams, preserves, cakes or pies. The berry industry varies from country to country as do types of cultivated or growing in the wild. Berries have been valuable as a source for humans since before the start of agriculture. They were a staple for early hunter-gatherers for thousands of years. In time, humans learned to store berries so that they could be used in the winter and they may be made into fruit preserves, and among Native Americans, mixed with meat and fats as pemmican. Berries also began to be cultivated in Europe and other countries, in Japan, between the 10th and 18th centuries, the term ichibigo referred to many berry crops. The most widely cultivated berry of modern times, however, is the strawberry, the strawberry was mentioned by ancient Romans, who thought it had medicinal properties, but it was then not a staple of agriculture. Woodland strawberries began to be grown in French gardens in the 14th century, the musky-flavored strawberry began to be grown in European gardens in the late 16th century. Later, the Virginia strawberry was grown in Europe and the United States, the most commonly consumed strawberry, the garden strawberry, is an accidental hybrid of the Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety Fragaria chiloensis. Soon after, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of strawberry. A form of the berry is found in all the Germanic languages, for example, Old English berie compares with Old Saxon and Old High German beri
15.
Plant reproductive morphology
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Plant reproductive morphology is the study of the physical form and structure of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction. Among all living organisms, flowers, which are the structures of angiosperms, are the most varied physically. Plants that are not flowering plants also have complex interplays between morphological adaptation and environmental factors in their sexual reproduction, christian Konrad Sprengel studied the reproduction of flowering plants and for the first time it was understood that the pollination process involved both biotic and abiotic interactions. Charles Darwins theories of natural selection utilized this work to build his theory of evolution, Plants have complex lifecycles involving alternation of generations. One generation, the sporophyte, gives rise to the next generation asexually via spores, spores may be identical isospores or come in different sizes, but strictly speaking, spores and sporophytes are neither male nor female because they do not produce gametes. The alternate generation, the gametophyte, produces gametes, eggs and/or sperm, a gametophyte can be be monoicous, producing both eggs and sperm or dioicous, either female or male. In the bryophytes, the gametophyte is the dominant generation. In ferns and seed plants the sporophyte is the dominant generation, the obvious visible plant, whether a small herb or a large tree, is the sporophyte, and the gametophyte is very small. In seed plants, each female gametophyte, and the spore that gives rise to it, is hidden within the sporophyte and is dependent on it for nutrition. Each male gametophyte consists of from two to four cells enclosed within the protective wall of a pollen grain. The sporophyte of a plant is often described using sexual terms based on the sexuality of the gametophyte it gives rise to. For example, a sporophyte that produces spores that give rise only to male gametophytes may be described as male, even though the sporophyte itself is asexual, producing only spores. Similarly, flowers produced by the sporophyte may be described as unisexual or bisexual, the flower is the characteristic structure concerned with sexual reproduction in flowering plants. Flowers vary enormously in their construction, a complete flower, like that of Ranunculus glaberrimus shown in the figure, has a calyx of outer sepals and a corolla of inner petals. The sepals and petals form the perianth. Next inwards there are numerous stamens, which produce pollen grains, stamens may be called the male parts of a flower and collectively form the androecium. Finally in the middle there are carpels, which at maturity one or more ovules. Carpels may be called the parts of a flower and collectively form the gynoecium
16.
Conifer
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The Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae, or commonly as conifers, are a division of vascular land plants containing a single class, Pinopsida. They are gymnosperms, cone-bearing seed plants, all extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs, examples include cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families,68 genera, although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of economic value for softwood lumber and paper production. The earliest conifers in the record date to the late Carboniferous period, possibly arising from Cordaites. Pinophytes, Cycadophytes, and Ginkgophytes all developed at this time, an important adaptation of these gymnosperms was allowing plants to live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere, Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic. They were overtaken by the plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. They were the food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons would have given protection against herbivores. Reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era, Conifer is a Latin word, a compound of conus and ferre, meaning the one that bears cone. A descriptive name in use for the conifers is Coniferae. Alternatively, descriptive botanical names may also be used at any rank above family and this means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae, as an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales. Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, the division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa
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Conifer cone
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A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous, the name cone derives from the fact that the shape in some species resembles a geometric cone. The individual plates of a cone are known as scales, the male cone is structurally similar across all conifers, differing only in small ways from species to species. Extending out from an axis are microsporophylls. Under each microsporophyll is one or several microsporangia, the female cone contains ovules which, when fertilized by pollen, become seeds. The female cone structure varies more markedly between the different conifer families, and is crucial for the identification of many species of conifers. The members of the family have cones that are imbricate. The scales are arranged in fibonacci number ratios. The female cone has two types of scale, the scales, derived from a modified leaf, and the seed scales, one subtended by each bract scale. On the upper-side base of each seed scale are two ovules that develop into seeds after fertilization by pollen grains. The bract scales develop first, and are conspicuous at the time of pollination, the scales open temporarily to receive gametophytes, then close during fertilization and maturation, and then re-open again at maturity to allow the seed to escape. Maturation takes 6–8 months from pollination in most Pinaceae genera, but 12 months in cedars, the cones open either by the seed scales flexing back when they dry out, or by the cones disintegrating with the seed scales falling off. The cones are conic, cylindrical or ovoid, and small to large, from 2–60 cm long. After ripening, the opening of non-serotinous pine cones is associated with their moisture content—cones are open when dry and this assures that the small, wind disseminated seeds will be dispersed during relatively dry weather, and thus, the distance traveled from the parent tree will be enhanced. A pine cone will go through cycles of opening and closing during its life span. This process occurs with older cones while attached to branches and even after the cones have fallen to the forest floor. The condition of fallen pine cones is an indication of the forest floors moisture content. Closed cones indicate damp conditions while open cones indicate the forest floor is dry, members of the Araucariaceae have the bract and seed scales fully fused, and have only one ovule on each scale
18.
Tupian languages
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The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. Rodrigues considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between the Guaporé and Aripuanã rivers, in the Madeira River basin, much of this area corresponds to the modern-day state of Rondônia, Brazil. 5 of the 10 Tupian branches are found in area, as well as some Tupi–Guarani languages, making it the probable urheimat of these languages. Rodrigues believes the Proto-Tupian language dates back to around 5,000 B. P, when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, most natives spoke similar languages. Jesuit missionaries took advantage of similarities, systematizing common standards then named línguas gerais. However, the Tupi family also comprises other languages, today, Guarani has 7 million speakers, and is one of the official languages of Paraguay. The Tupian family also includes several other languages with fewer speakers and these share irregular morphology with the Ge and Carib families, and Ribeiro connects them all as a Je–Tupi–Carib family. Rodrigues & Cabral list 10 branches of Tupian, which cluster into Western Tupian, within Western and Eastern Tupian, the most divergent branches are listed first, followed by the core branches. In Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, Aryon DallIgna Rodrigues, linguas e culturas Tupi, p. 167-203. Swadesh lists of Tupi–Guarani basic vocabulary words
19.
Herbaceous plant
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Herbaceous plants are plants that have no persistent woody stem above ground. Herbaceous plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials, annual herbaceous plants die completely at the end of the growing season or when they have flowered and fruited, and they then grow again from seed. Herbaceous perennial and biennial plants may have stems that die at the end of the growing season, but parts of the plant survive under or close to the ground from season to season. New growth develops from living tissues remaining on or under the ground, including roots, examples of herbaceous biennials include carrot, parsnip and common ragwort, herbaceous perennials include potato, peony, hosta, mint, most ferns and most grasses. Some relatively fast-growing herbaceous plants are pioneers, or early-successional species, others form the main vegetation of many stable habitats, occurring for example in the ground layer of forests, or in naturally open habitats such as meadow, salt marsh or desert. Some herbaceous plants can grow large, such as the Musa genus. The age of some herbaceous plants can be determined by analyzing annual growth rings in the secondary root xylem
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Perennial plant
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A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is widely used to distinguish plants with little or no woody growth from trees and shrubs. Tomato vines, for example, live several years in their natural habitat but are grown as annuals in temperate regions because they dont survive the winter. There is also a class of evergreen, or non-herbaceous, perennials, an intermediate class of plants is known as subshrubs, which retain a vestigial woody structure in winter, e. g. Penstemon. The local climate may dictate whether plants are treated as shrubs or perennials, for instance, many varieties of Fuchsia are shrubs in warm regions, but in colder temperate climates may be cut to the ground every year as a result of winter frosts. The symbol for a plant, based on Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, is. Perennial plants can be short-lived or they can be long-lived, as are some plants like trees. They include an assortment of plant groups from ferns and liverworts to the highly diverse flowering plants like orchids. Plants that flower and fruit only once and then die are termed monocarpic or semelparous, however, most perennials are polycarpic, flowering over many seasons in their lifetime. Perennials typically grow structures that allow them to adapt to living one year to the next through a form of vegetative reproduction rather than seeding. These structures include bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, rhizomes plus others and they might have specialized stems or crowns that allow them to survive periods of dormancy over cold or dry seasons during the year. Many perennials have developed specialized features that allow them to extreme climatic. Some have adapted to hot and dry conditions or cold temperatures. Those plants tend to invest a lot of resource into their adaptations and often do not flower, Many perennials produce relatively large seeds, which can have an advantage, with larger seedlings produced after germination that can better compete with other plants. Some annuals produce many seeds per plant in one season, while some perennials are not under the same pressure to produce large numbers of seeds. In warmer and more favorable climates, perennials grow continuously, in seasonal climates, their growth is limited to the growing season. In some species, perennials retain their foliage all year round, other plants are deciduous perennials, for example, in temperate regions a perennial plant may grow and bloom during the warm part of the year, with the foliage dying back in the winter
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Plant stem
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A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. The stem is divided into nodes and internodes, The nodes hold one or more leaves. Adventitious roots may also be produced from the nodes, the internodes distance one node from another. The term shoots is often confused with stems, shoots generally refers to new plant growth including both stems and other structures like leaves or flowers. In most plants stems are located above the surface but some plants have underground stems. Stems have four main functions which are, Support for and the elevation of leaves, flowers, the stems keep the leaves in the light and provide a place for the plant to keep its flowers and fruits. Transport of fluids between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem Storage of nutrients Production of new living tissue, the normal lifespan of plant cells is one to three years. Stems have cells called meristems that annually generate new living tissue, Stems are often specialized for storage, asexual reproduction, protection or photosynthesis, including the following, Acaulescent – used to describe stems in plants that appear to be stemless. Actually these stems are just extremely short, the leaves appearing to rise out of the ground. Arborescent – tree like with woody stems normally with a single trunk, branched – aerial stems are described as being branched or unbranched Bud – an embryonic shoot with immature stem tip. Bulb – a short underground stem with fleshy storage leaves attached, e. g. onion, daffodil. Bulbs often function in reproduction by splitting to form new bulbs or producing small new bulbs termed bulblets, bulbs are a combination of stem and leaves so may better be considered as leaves because the leaves make up the greater part. Caespitose – when stems grow in a mass or clump or in low growing mats. Cladode – a flattened stem that appears more-or-less leaf like and is specialized for photosynthesis, climbing – stems that cling or wrap around other plants or structures. Corm – a short enlarged underground, storage stem, e. g. taro, decumbent – stems that lie flat on the ground and turn upwards at the ends. Fruticose – stems that grow shrublike with woody like habit, herbaceous – non woody, they die at the end of the growing season. Pedicel – stems that serve as the stalk of a flower in an inflorescence or infrutescence. Peduncle – a stem that supports an inflorescence Prickle – a sharpened extension of the outer layers
22.
Fibonacci number
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The Fibonacci sequence is named after Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa, known as Fibonacci. His 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics, the sequence described in Liber Abaci began with F1 =1. Fibonacci numbers are related to Lucas numbers L n in that they form a complementary pair of Lucas sequences U n = F n and V n = L n. They are intimately connected with the ratio, for example. Fibonacci numbers appear unexpectedly often in mathematics, so much so that there is a journal dedicated to their study. The Fibonacci sequence appears in Indian mathematics, in connection with Sanskrit prosody, in the Sanskrit tradition of prosody, there was interest in enumerating all patterns of long syllables that are 2 units of duration, and short syllables that are 1 unit of duration. Counting the different patterns of L and S of a given duration results in the Fibonacci numbers, susantha Goonatilake writes that the development of the Fibonacci sequence is attributed in part to Pingala, later being associated with Virahanka, Gopāla, and Hemachandra. He dates Pingala before 450 BC, however, the clearest exposition of the sequence arises in the work of Virahanka, whose own work is lost, but is available in a quotation by Gopala, Variations of two earlier meters. For example, for four, variations of meters of two three being mixed, five happens, in this way, the process should be followed in all mātrā-vṛttas. The sequence is also discussed by Gopala and by the Jain scholar Hemachandra, outside India, the Fibonacci sequence first appears in the book Liber Abaci by Fibonacci. The puzzle that Fibonacci posed was, how many pairs will there be in one year, at the end of the first month, they mate, but there is still only 1 pair. At the end of the month the female produces a new pair. At the end of the month, the original female produces a second pair. At the end of the month, the original female has produced yet another new pair. At the end of the nth month, the number of pairs of rabbits is equal to the number of new pairs plus the number of pairs alive last month and this is the nth Fibonacci number. The name Fibonacci sequence was first used by the 19th-century number theorist Édouard Lucas, the most common such problem is that of counting the number of compositions of 1s and 2s that sum to a given total n, there are Fn+1 ways to do this. For example, if n =5, then Fn+1 = F6 =8 counts the eight compositions, 1+1+1+1+1 = 1+1+1+2 = 1+1+2+1 = 1+2+1+1 = 2+1+1+1 = 2+2+1 = 2+1+2 = 1+2+2, all of which sum to 5. The Fibonacci numbers can be found in different ways among the set of strings, or equivalently
23.
Crassulacean acid metabolism
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Crassulacean acid metabolism, also known as CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions. In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, the pre-collected CO2 is concentrated around the enzyme RuBisCO, increasing photosynthetic efficiency. This metabolism was first studied in plants of the Crassulaceae family, the first time it was studied, Crassula was used as a model organism. The term CAM may have coined by Ranson and Thomas in 1940. It was observed by the botanists Ranson and Thomas, in the Crassulaceae family of succulents and its name refers to acid metabolism in Crassulaceae, not the metabolism of crassulacean acid. CAM is an adaptation for increased efficiency in the use of water, during the night, a plant employing CAM has its stomata open, allowing CO2 to enter and be fixed as organic acids that are stored in vacuoles. During the day the stomata are closed, and the carbon is released to the Calvin cycle so that photosynthesis may take place, the carbon dioxide is fixed in the cytoplasm of mesophyll cells by a PEP reaction similar to that of C4 pathway. But, unlike the C4 mechanism, the organic acids are stored in vacuoles for later use. The latter cannot operate during the night because the reactions that provide it with ATP. The most important benefit of CAM to the plant is the ability to leave most leaf stomata closed during the day, plants employing CAM are most common in arid environments, where water comes at a premium. Plants using only C3 carbon fixation, for example, lose 97% of the water they uptake through the roots to transpiration - a high cost avoided by plants able to employ CAM. The C4 pathway bears resemblance to CAM, both act to concentrate CO2 around RuBisCO, thereby increasing its efficiency, CAM concentrates it temporally, providing CO2 during the day, and not at night, when respiration is the dominant reaction. C4 plants, in contrast, concentrate CO2 spatially, with a RuBisCO reaction centre in a bundle sheath cell being inundated with CO2, at low temperatures, plants using CAM open their stomata, CO2 molecules diffuse into the spongy mesophylls intracellular spaces and then into the cytoplasm. Here, they can meet phosphoenolpyruvate, which is a phosphorylated triose, during this time, the plants are synthesizing a protein called PEP carboxylase kinase, whose expression can be inhibited by high temperatures and the presence of malate. PEP-C kinase phosphorylates its target enzyme PEP carboxylase, phosphorylation dramatically enhances the enzymes capability to catalyze the formation of oxalacetate, which can be subsequently transformed into malate by NAD+ malate dehydrogenase. Malate is then transported via malate shuttles into the vacuole, where it is converted into the storage form malic acid, in contrast to PEP-C kinase, PEP-C is synthesized all the time but almost inhibited at daylight either by dephosphorylation via PEP-C phosphatase or directly by binding malate. The latter is not possible at low temperatures, since malate is efficiently transported into the vacuole, in daylight, plants using CAM close their guard cells and discharge malate that is subsequently transported into chloroplasts. There, depending on plant species, it is cleaved into pyruvate, CO2 is then introduced into the Calvin cycle, a coupled and self-recovering enzyme system, which is used to build branched carbohydrates
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Malic acid
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Malic acid is an organic compound with the molecular formula C4H6O5. It is an acid that is made by all living organisms, contributes to the pleasantly sour taste of fruits. Malic acid has two forms, though only the L-isomer exists naturally. The salts and esters of malic acid are known as malates, the malate anion is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle. L-Malic acid is the naturally occurring form, whereas a mixture of L-, malate plays an important role in biochemistry. In the C4 carbon fixation process, malate is a source of CO2 in the Calvin cycle, in the citric acid cycle, -malate is an intermediate, formed by the addition of an -OH group on the si face of fumarate. It can also be formed from pyruvate via anaplerotic reactions, malate is also synthesized by the carboxylation of phosphoenolpyruvate in the guard cells of plant leaves. Malate, as an anion, often accompanies potassium cations during the uptake of solutes into the guard cells in order to maintain electrical balance in the cell. The accumulation of these solutes within the cell decreases the solute potential, allowing water to enter the cell. Malic acid was first isolated from apple juice by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1785, antoine Lavoisier in 1787 proposed the name acide malique, which is derived from the Latin word for apple, mālum—as is its genus name Malus. In German it is named Äpfelsäure after plural or singular of the fruit apple, Malic acid contributes to the sourness of green apples. It is present in grapes and in most wines with concentrations sometimes as high as 5 g/l and it confers a tart taste to wine, although the amount decreases with increasing fruit ripeness. The taste of malic acid is very clear and pure in rhubarb and it is also a component of some artificial vinegar flavors, such as salt and vinegar flavored potato chips. The process of malolactic fermentation converts malic acid to much milder lactic acid, Malic acid occurs naturally in all fruits and many vegetables, and is generated in fruit metabolism. Malic acid, when added to products, is denoted by E number E296. Malic acid is the source of extreme tartness in United States-produced confectionery and it is also used with or in place of the less sour citric acid in sour sweets. These sweets are sometimes labeled with a warning stating that excessive consumption can cause irritation of the mouth and it is approved for use as a food additive in the EU, US and Australia and New Zealand. Malic acid provides 10 kJ of energy per gram during digestion, racemic malic acid is produced industrially by the double hydration of maleic anhydride
25.
Hummingbird
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Hummingbirds are birds from the Americas that constitute the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring 7. 5–13 cm, indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm bee hummingbird weighing less than 2.5 g. They are known as hummingbirds because of the sound created by their beating wings which flap at high frequencies audible to humans. They hover in mid-air at rapid wing-flapping rates, typically around 50 times per second, hummingbirds have the highest metabolism of any homeothermic animal. To conserve energy when food is scarce, and nightly when not foraging, they go into torpor, a map of the hummingbird family tree—reconstructed from analysis of 284 of the worlds 338 known species—shows rapid diversification from 22 million years ago. Due to this exceptional evolutionary pattern, as many as 140 hummingbird species can coexist in a specific region, the hummingbird evolutionary tree shows ancestral hummingbirds splitting from insectivorous swifts and treeswifts about 42 million years ago, probably in Eurasia. One key evolutionary factor appears to be an altered taste receptor that enabled hummingbirds to seek nectar, by 22 million years ago the ancestral species of current hummingbirds became established in South America, where environmental conditions stimulated further diversification. The Andes Mountains appear to be a rich environment for hummingbird evolution because diversification occurred simultaneously with mountain uplift over the past 10 million years. Hummingbirds remain in dynamic diversification inhabiting ecological regions across South America, North America, within the same geographic region, hummingbird clades co-evolved with nectar-bearing plant clades, affecting mechanisms of pollination. The same is true for the hummingbird, one of the morphologically most extreme species. Hummingbirds exhibit sexual size dimorphism according to Renschs rule, in males are smaller than females in small species. The extent of sexual size difference varies among clades of hummingbirds. For example, the Mellisugini clade exhibits a large size dimorphism, conversely, the Lophomithini clade displays very little size dimorphism, males and females are similar in size. For males and females of the size, females will tend to have larger beaks. Males tend to be smaller than females, allowing conservation of energy to forage competitively, thus, sexual selection will favor smaller male hummingbirds. Female hummingbirds tend to be larger, requiring energy, with longer beaks that allow for more effective reach into crevices of tall flowers for nectar. Thus females are better at foraging, acquiring flower nectar, directional selection will thus favor the larger hummingbirds in terms of acquiring food. Another evolutionary cause of this sexual dimorphism is that the selective forces from competition for nectar between the sexes of each species are what drive the sexual dimorphism
26.
Bat
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Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, Bats do not flap their entire forelimbs, as birds do, but instead flap their spread-out digits, which are very long and covered with a thin membrane or patagium. About 70% of bat species are insectivores, most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. A few species, such as the bat, feed from animals other than insects, with the vampire bats being hematophagous. Bats are present throughout most of the world, with the exception of cold regions. They perform the vital roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds. Bats are economically important, as they consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides, the smallest bat is the Kittis hog-nosed bat, measuring 29–34 mm in length,15 cm across the wings and 2–2.6 g in mass. It is also arguably the smallest extant species of mammal, with the Etruscan shrew being the other contender. The largest species of bat are a few species of Pteropus, the Mexican free-tailed bat is the fastest flying animal in horizontal flight. An older English name for bats is flittermouse, which matches their name in other Germanic languages, middle English had bakke, most likely cognate with Old Swedish natbakka, which may have undergone a shift from -k- to -t- influenced by Latin blatta, moth, nocturnal insect. They were formerly grouped in the superorder Archonta, along with the treeshrews, colugos, genetic studies have now placed bats in the superorder Laurasiatheria, along with carnivorans, pangolins, odd-toed ungulates, even-toed ungulates, and cetaceans. A recent study by Zhang et al. places Chiroptera as a taxon to the clade Perissodactyla. The phylogenetic relationships of the different groups of bats have been the subject of much debate and this hypothesis recognized differences between microbats and megabats and acknowledged that flight has only evolved once in mammals. Most molecular biological evidence supports the view that bats form a single or monophyletic group, in the 1980s, a hypothesis based on morphological evidence was offered that stated the Megachiroptera evolved flight separately from the Microchiroptera. The so-called flying primate hypothesis proposes that, when adaptations to flight are removed, one example is that the brains of megabats show a number of advanced characteristics that link them to primates. Although recent genetic studies support the monophyly of bats, debate continues as to the meaning of available genetic. Genetic evidence indicates that megabats originated during the early Eocene and should be placed within the four lines of microbats. Consequently, two new suborders based on molecular data have been proposed and these two new suborders are strongly supported by statistical tests
27.
Plant breeding
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Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years, since near the beginning of human civilization, Plant breeding started with sedentary agriculture and particularly the domestication of the first agricultural plants, a practice which is estimated to date back 9,000 to 11,000 years. Gregor Mendels experiments with plant hybridization led to his laws of inheritance. Once this work well known, it formed the basis of the new science of genetics. Modern plant breeding is applied genetics, but its basis is broader, covering molecular biology, cytology, systematics, physiology, pathology, entomology, chemistry. It has also developed its own technology, one major technique of plant breeding is selection, the process of selectively propagating plants with desirable characteristics and eliminating or culling those with less desirable characteristics. Another technique is the interbreeding of closely or distantly related individuals to produce new crop varieties or lines with desirable properties. Plants are crossbred to introduce traits/genes from one variety or line into a new genetic background, for example, a mildew-resistant pea may be crossed with a high-yielding but susceptible pea, the goal of the cross being to introduce mildew resistance without losing the high-yield characteristics. Progeny from the cross would then be crossed with the parent to ensure that the progeny were most like the high-yielding parent. The progeny from that cross would then be tested for yield and mildew resistance, plants may also be crossed with themselves to produce inbred varieties for breeding. Pollinators may be excluded through the use of pollination bags, Classical breeding relies largely on homologous recombination between chromosomes to generate genetic diversity. The firms first introduction was Abundance Oat, one of the first agricultural grain varieties bred from a controlled cross, wheat hybrids were bred to increase the crop production of Italy during the so-called Battle for Grain. Heterosis was explained by George Harrison Shull and it describes the tendency of the progeny of a specific cross to outperform both parents. The detection of the usefulness of heterosis for plant breeding has led to the development of inbred lines that reveal a heterotic yield advantage when they are crossed, maize was the first species where heterosis was widely used to produce hybrids. Statistical methods were developed to analyze gene action and distinguish heritable variation from variation caused by environment. In 1933 another important breeding technique, cytoplasmic male sterility, developed in maize, was described by Marcus Morton Rhoades, CMS is a maternally inherited trait that makes the plant produce sterile pollen. This enables the production of hybrids without the need for labor-intensive detasseling and these early breeding techniques resulted in large yield increase in the United States in the early 20th century. Similar yield increases were not produced elsewhere until after World War II, following World War II a number of techniques were developed that allowed plant breeders to hybridize distantly related species, and artificially induce genetic diversity
28.
Canning
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Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food contents are processed and sealed in an airtight container. Canning provides a shelf life ranging from one to five years. A freeze-dried canned product, such as canned dried lentils, could last as long as 30 years in an edible state. In 1974, samples of canned food from the wreck of the Bertrand, although appearance, smell and vitamin content had deteriorated, there was no trace of microbial growth and the 109-year-old food was determined to be still safe to eat. The larger armies of the period required increased and regular supplies of quality food, limited food availability was among the factors limiting military campaigns to the summer and autumn months. In 1809, Nicolas Appert, a French confectioner and brewer, observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leaked, Appert was awarded the prize in 1810 by Count Montelivert, a French minister of the interior. The reason for lack of spoilage was unknown at the time, unfortunately for Appert, the factory which he had built with his prize money was razed in 1814 by Allied soldiers when they entered France. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the process was gradually employed in other European countries. Durand did not pursue food canning himself, selling his patent in 1811 to Bryan Donkin and John Hall, Bryan Donkin developed the process of packaging food in sealed airtight cans, made of tinned wrought iron. Initially, the process was slow and labour-intensive, as each large can had to be hand-made. The main market for the food at this stage was the British Army, by 1817 Donkin recorded that he had sold £3000 worth of canned meat in six months. In 1824 Sir William Edward Parry took canned beef and pea soup with him on his voyage to the Arctic in HMS Fury, in 1829, Admiral Sir James Ross also took canned food to the Arctic, as did Sir John Franklin in 1845. Some of his stores were found by the expedition led by Captain Leopold McLintock in 1857. One of these cans was opened in 1939, and was edible and nutritious, throughout the mid-19th century, canned food became a status symbol amongst middle-class households in Europe, being something of a frivolous novelty. Increasing mechanization of the process, coupled with a huge increase in urban populations across Europe. Demand for canned food greatly increased during wars, urban populations in Victorian Britain demanded ever-increasing quantities of cheap, varied, quality food that they could keep at home without having to go shopping daily. In response, companies such as Underwood, Nestlé, Heinz, in particular, Crosse and Blackwell took over the concern of Donkin Hall and Gamble. Shortages of canned food in the British Army in 1917 led to the government issuing cigarettes and amphetamines to soldiers to suppress their appetites, after the war, companies that had supplied military canned food improved the quality of their goods for civilian sale
29.
20th century
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The 20th century was a century that began on January 1,1901 and ended on December 31,2000. It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium and it is distinct from the century known as the 1900s, which began on January 1,1900 and ended on December 31,1999. It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication, the term short twentieth century was coined to represent the events from 1914 to 1991. It took all of history up to 1804 for the worlds population to reach 1 billion, world population reached 2 billion estimates in 1927, by late 1999. Globally approximately 45% of those who were married and able to have children used contraception, 40% of pregnancies were unplanned, the century had the first global-scale total wars between world powers across continents and oceans in World War I and World War II. The century saw a shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, ideology, economics, society, culture, science, technology. The 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization, terms like ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage. It was a century that started with horses, simple automobiles, and freighters but ended with high-speed rail, cruise ships, global commercial air travel and the space shuttle. Horses, Western societys basic form of transportation for thousands of years, were replaced by automobiles and buses within a few decades. Humans explored space for the first time, taking their first footsteps on the Moon, mass media, telecommunications, and information technology made the worlds knowledge more widely available. Advancements in medical technology also improved the health of many people, rapid technological advancements, however, also allowed warfare to reach unprecedented levels of destruction. World War II alone killed over 60 million people, while nuclear weapons gave humankind the means to annihilate itself in a short time, however, these same wars resulted in the destruction of the Imperial system. For the first time in history, empires and their wars of expansion and colonization ceased to be a factor in international affairs, resulting in a far more globalized. The last time major powers clashed openly was in 1945, and since then, technological advancements during World War I changed the way war was fought, as new inventions such as tanks, chemical weapons, and aircraft modified tactics and strategy. After more than four years of warfare in western Europe, and 20 million dead. The regime of Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown during the conflict, Russia became the first communist state, at the beginning of the period, Britain was the worlds most powerful nation, having acted as the worlds policeman for the past century. Meanwhile, Japan had rapidly transformed itself into an advanced industrial power. Its military expansion into eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean culminated in an attack on the United States
30.
Food energy
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Food energy is chemical energy that animals derive from food and molecular oxygen through the process of cellular respiration. Humans and other animals need a minimum intake of energy to sustain their metabolism. Foods are composed chiefly of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, alcohol, water, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, alcohol, and water represent virtually all the weight of food, with vitamins and minerals making up only a small percentage of the weight. Organisms derive food energy from carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as organic acids, polyols. Some diet components that provide little or no energy, such as water, minerals, vitamins, cholesterol. Water, minerals, vitamins, and cholesterol are not broken down, fiber, a type of carbohydrate, cannot be completely digested by the human body. Ruminants can extract energy from the respiration of cellulose because of bacteria in their rumens. Using the International System of Units, researchers measure energy in joules or in its multiples, the kilojoule is most often used for food-related quantities. An older metric system unit of energy, still used in food-related contexts, is the calorie, more precisely. Within the European Union, both the kilocalorie and kilojoule appear on nutrition labels, in many countries, only one of the units is displayed, in the US and Canada labels spell out the unit as calorie or as Calorie. Fats and ethanol have the greatest amount of energy per gram,37 and 29 kJ/g. Proteins and most carbohydrates have about 17 kJ/g, carbohydrates that are not easily absorbed, such as fiber, or lactose in lactose-intolerant individuals, contribute less food energy. Polyols and organic acids contribute 10 kJ/g and 13 kJ/g respectively, the amount of water, fat, and fiber in foods determines those foods energy density. Theoretically, one could measure food energy in different ways, using the Gibbs free energy of combustion, however, the convention is to use the heat of the oxidation reaction, with the water substance produced being in the liquid phase. The American chemist Wilbur Atwater worked these corrections out in the late 19th century, based on the work of Atwater, it became common practice to calculate energy content of foods using 4 kcal/g for carbohydrates and proteins and 9 kcal/g for lipids. The system was improved by Annabel Merrill and Bernice Watt of the USDA. Many governments require food manufacturers to label the energy content of their products, in the European Union, manufacturers of packaged food must label the nutritional energy of their products in both kilocalories and kilojoules, when required. In Australia and New Zealand, the energy must be stated in kilojoules
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Carbohydrate
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A carbohydrate is a biological molecule consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2,1, in other words, with the empirical formula Cmn. This formula holds true for monosaccharides, some exceptions exist, for example, deoxyribose, a sugar component of DNA, has the empirical formula C5H10O4. Carbohydrates are technically hydrates of carbon, structurally it is accurate to view them as polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones. The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide, a group that includes sugars, starch, the saccharides are divided into four chemical groups, monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides, the smallest carbohydrates, are referred to as sugars. The word saccharide comes from the Greek word σάκχαρον, meaning sugar, while the scientific nomenclature of carbohydrates is complex, the names of the monosaccharides and disaccharides very often end in the suffix -ose. For example, grape sugar is the glucose, cane sugar is the disaccharide sucrose. Carbohydrates perform numerous roles in living organisms, polysaccharides serve for the storage of energy and as structural components. The 5-carbon monosaccharide ribose is an important component of coenzymes and the backbone of the genetic molecule known as RNA, the related deoxyribose is a component of DNA. Saccharides and their derivatives include many other important biomolecules that play key roles in the system, fertilization, preventing pathogenesis, blood clotting. In food science and in informal contexts, the term carbohydrate often means any food that is particularly rich in the complex carbohydrate starch or simple carbohydrates. Often in lists of information, such as the USDA National Nutrient Database, the term carbohydrate is used for everything other than water, protein, fat, ash. This will include chemical compounds such as acetic or lactic acid, carbohydrates are found in wide variety of foods. The important sources are cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, fruits, table sugar, bread, milk, starch and sugar are the important carbohydrates in our diet. Starch is abundant in potatoes, maize, rice and other cereals, sugar appears in our diet mainly as sucrose which is added to drinks and many prepared foods such as jam, biscuits and cakes. Glucose and fructose are found naturally in fruits and some vegetables. Glycogen is carbohydrate found in the liver and muscles, cellulose in the cell wall of all plant tissue is a carbohydrate. It is important in our diet as fibre which helps to maintain a healthy digestive system, formerly the name carbohydrate was used in chemistry for any compound with the formula Cm n
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Sugar
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Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
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Dietary fiber
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Dietary fiber or roughage is the indigestible portion of food derived from plants. It has two components, Soluble fiber, which dissolves in water, is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts. It delays gastric emptying which in turn can cause a feeling of fullness. Insoluble fiber, which does not dissolve in water, is inert and provides bulking, or it can be prebiotic. Bulking fibers absorb water as they move through the digestive system, Dietary fibers can act by changing the nature of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and by changing how other nutrients and chemicals are absorbed. Some types of soluble fiber absorb water to become a gelatinous, viscous substance which is fermented by bacteria in the digestive tract, some types of insoluble fiber have bulking action and are not fermented. Lignin, a major dietary insoluble fiber source, may alter the rate, other types of insoluble fiber, notably resistant starch, are fully fermented. A novel position has been adopted by the US Department of Agriculture to include functional fibers as isolated fiber sources that may be included in the diet, the term fiber is something of a misnomer, since many types of so-called dietary fiber are not actually fibrous. Food sources of fiber are often divided according to whether they provide soluble or insoluble fiber. Plant foods contain both types of fiber in varying degrees, according to the plants characteristics, a disadvantage of a diet high in fiber is the potential for significant intestinal gas production and bloating. Originally, fiber was defined to be the components of plants that resist human digestive enzymes, the definition was later changed to also include resistant starch, along with inulin and other oligosaccharides. Official definition of dietary fiber differs a little among different institutions, Dietary fibers are found in fruits, vegetables, the exact amount of fiber contained in the food can be seen in the following table of expected fiber in USDA food groups/subgroups Dietary fiber is found in plants. While all plants contain some fiber, plants with high concentrations are generally the most practical source. Fiber-rich plants can be eaten directly, or, alternatively, they can be used to make supplements and fiber-rich processed foods. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly the American Dietetic Association, some plants contain significant amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber. For example, plums and prunes have a thick skin covering a juicy pulp, the skin is a source of insoluble fiber, whereas soluble fiber is in the pulp. Grapes also contain an amount of fiber. The root of the plant, or glucomannan, produces results similar to fiber
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Fat
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Fat is one of the three main macronutrients, along with carbohydrate and protein. Fats, also known as triglycerides, are esters of three fatty acid chains and the alcohol glycerol, the terms oil, fat, and lipid are often confused. Oil normally refers to a fat with short or unsaturated fatty acid chains that is liquid at room temperature, lipid is the general term, as a lipid is not necessarily a triglyceride. Fats, like lipids, are generally hydrophobic, and are soluble in organic solvents. Fat is an important foodstuff for many forms of life, and they are a necessary part of the diet of most heterotrophs. Some fatty acids that are set free by the digestion of fats are called essential because they cannot be synthesized in the body from simpler constituents, there are two essential fatty acids in human nutrition, alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. Other lipids needed by the body can be synthesized from these, fats and other lipids are broken down in the body by enzymes called lipases produced in the pancreas. Fats and oils are categorized according to the number and bonding of the atoms in the aliphatic chain. Fats that are saturated fats have no double bonds between the carbons in the chain, unsaturated fats have one or more double bonded carbons in the chain. The nomenclature is based on the end of the chain. This end is called the end or the n-end. Thus alpha-linolenic acid is called an omega-3 fatty acid because the 3rd carbon from that end is the first double bonded carbon in the counting from that end. Some oils and fats have double bonds and are therefore called polyunsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats can be divided into cis fats, which are the most common in nature, and trans fats. Unsaturated fats can be altered by reaction with hydrogen effected by a catalyst and this action, called hydrogenation, tends to break all the double bonds and makes a fully saturated fat. However, trans fats are generated during hydrogenation as contaminants created by a side reaction on the catalyst during partial hydrogenation. Saturated fats can stack themselves in a closely packed arrangement, so they can easily and are typically solid at room temperature. For example, animal fats tallow and lard are high in saturated fatty acid content and are solids, olive and linseed oils on the other hand are unsaturated and liquid
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Protein (nutrient)
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Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. They are one of the blocks of body tissue. As a fuel, proteins provide as much energy density as carbohydrates,4 kcal per gram, in contrast, the most important aspect and defining characteristic of protein from a nutritional standpoint is its amino acid composition. Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds, during human digestion, proteins are broken down in the stomach to smaller polypeptide chains via hydrochloric acid and protease actions. This is crucial for the synthesis of the amino acids that cannot be biosynthesized by the body. There are nine amino acids which humans must obtain from their diet in order to prevent protein-energy malnutrition. They are phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, there are five dispensable amino acids which humans are able to synthesize in the body. These five are alanine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid and these six are arginine, cysteine, glycine, glutamine, proline and tyrosine. Humans need the essential amino acids in certain ratios, some protein sources contain amino acids in a more or less complete sense. This has given rise to various ranking systems for protein sources, Dietary sources of protein include both animals and plants, meats, dairy products, fish and eggs as well as grains, legumes and nuts. Vegetarians and vegans can get enough essential amino acids by eating a variety of plant proteins and it is commonly believed that athletes should consume a higher-than-normal protein intake to maintain optimal physical performance. Protein is a nutrient needed by the body for growth. Aside from water, proteins are the most abundant kind of molecules in the body, Protein can be found in all cells of the body and is the major structural component of all cells in the body, especially muscle. This also includes body organs, hair and skin, proteins are also used in membranes, such as glycoproteins. When broken down into amino acids, they are used as precursors to acid, co-enzymes, hormones, immune response, cellular repair. Additionally, protein is needed to form blood cells, proteins are believed to increase performance in terms of athletics. Amino acids, the blocks of proteins, are used for building muscle tissue. Protein is only used as fuel when carbohydrates are low
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Vitamin
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A vitamin is an organic compound and a vital nutrient that an organism requires in limited amounts. For example, ascorbic acid is a vitamin for humans, supplementation is important for the treatment of certain health problems, but there is little evidence of nutritional benefit when used by otherwise healthy people. Thirteen vitamins are universally recognized at present, Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, not their structure. Thus, each vitamin refers to a number of compounds that all show the biological activity associated with a particular vitamin. Such a set of chemicals is grouped under an alphabetized vitamin generic descriptor title, such as vitamin A, which includes the compounds retinal, retinol, and four known carotenoids. Vitamers by definition are convertible to the form of the vitamin in the body. Some, such as vitamin D, have hormone-like functions as regulators of mineral metabolism, or regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation. The largest number of vitamins, the B complex vitamins, function as cofactors or the precursors for them. In this role, vitamins may be bound to enzymes as part of prosthetic groups, For example. They may also be less tightly bound to enzyme catalysts as coenzymes, for example, folic acid may carry methyl, formyl, and methylene groups in the cell. Although these roles in assisting enzyme-substrate reactions are vitamins best-known function, study of structural activity, function and their role in maintaining health is called vitaminology. Each vitamin is typically used in reactions, and therefore most have multiple functions. Vitamins are essential for the growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop from the nutrients it absorbs and it requires certain vitamins and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, if there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent damage, for the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume, examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan. In those who are healthy, there is little evidence that supplements have any benefits with respect to cancer or heart disease
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Folate
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Folic acid, another form of which is known as folate, is one of the B vitamins. The recommended daily level of folate is 400 micrograms from foods or dietary supplements. Folic acid is used to treat anemia caused by folic acid deficiency and it is also used as a supplement by women during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects in the baby. Low levels in early pregnancy are believed to be the cause of more than half of babies born with neural tube defects, more than 50 countries use fortification of certain foods with folic acid as a measure to decrease the rate of NTDs in the population. Long term supplementation is also associated with reductions in the risk of stroke. It may be taken by mouth or by injection, there are no common side effects. It is not known whether high doses over a period of time are of concern. There are concerns that large amounts of folic acid might hide vitamin B12 deficiency, folic acid is essential for the body to make DNA, RNA, and metabolise amino acids which are required for cell division. As humans cannot make folic acid, it is required from the diet, not consuming enough folate can lead to folate deficiency. This may result in a type of anemia in which low numbers of red blood cells occur. Symptoms may include feeling tired, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, open sores on the tongue, deficiency in children may develop within a month of poor dietary intake. In adults normal total body folate is between 10, 000–30,000 micrograms with blood levels of greater than 7 nmol/L, folic acid was discovered between 1931 and 1943. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines, the wholesale cost of supplements in the developing world is between 0.001 and 0.005 USD per dose as of 2014. The term folic is from the Latin word folium, which means leaf, folates occur naturally in many foods especially dark green leafy vegetables and liver. Other names include vitamin B9, vitamin Bc, vitamin M, folacin, folic acid intake during pregnancy has been linked to a lessened risk of neural tube defects. Likewise, a meta-analysis of folic acid supplementation during pregnancy reported a 28% lower risk of congenital heart defects. The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends folic acid supplementation for all able to become pregnant. Prenatal supplementation did not appear to reduce the risk of pre-term births, and there does not appear to be a correlation between maternal folic acid supplementation and an increased risk for asthma in the child
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Choline
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Choline is a water-soluble vitamin-like essential nutrient. The term cholines refers to the class of quaternary ammonium salts containing the N, N, the cation appears in the head groups of phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin, two classes of phospholipid that are abundant in cell membranes. Choline is the molecule for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is involved in many functions including memory. Some animals cannot produce choline, but must consume it through their diet to remain healthy, humans make choline in the liver. Whether dietary or supplemental choline is beneficial or harmful to humans is undefined, possible dangers include increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, while possible benefits include reducing the risk of neural tube defects and fatty liver disease. According to the US Institute of Medicine, there is not enough evidence to establish a Recommended Daily Intake for choline. The Australian and New Zealand national nutrition bodies note that while deficiency has been seen during experiments, all three have published an Adequate Intake value, discussed below. The European Unions food safety authority says there are no Recommended Daily Intakes in the EU, methionine and folate are known to interact with choline while homocysteine is undergoing methylation to produce methionine. Recent studies have shown that choline deficiency may have effects, even when sufficient amounts of methionine. Choline was first isolated by Adolph Strecker from pig and ox bile in 1862, when it was first chemically synthesized by Oscar Liebreich in 1865, it was known as neurine until 1898 when it was shown to be chemically identical to choline. In 1998, choline was classified as an essential nutrient by the Food, Choline is a quaternary ammonium salt with the chemical formula 3N+2OHX−, where X− is a counterion such as chloride, hydroxide or tartrate. Choline chloride can form a deep eutectic solvent mixture with urea with unusual properties. The salicylate salt is used topically for pain relief of aphthous ulcers, Choline hydroxide is one of the class of phase transfer catalysts that are used to carry the hydroxide ion into organic systems, and, therefore, is considered a strong base. It is the phase transfer catalyst, and is used as an effective method of stripping photoresists in circuit boards. Choline hydroxide is not completely stable, and it breaks down into trimethylamine. Choline is a precursor to trimethylamine, which some persons are not able to break due to a genetic disorder called trimethylaminuria. Persons suffering from this disorder may suffer from a strong fishy or otherwise unpleasant body odor, a body odor will occur even on a normal diet – i. e. one that is not particularly high in choline. Persons with trimethylaminuria are advised to restrict the intake of foods high in choline, the following are choline values for a selection of foods in quantities that people may consume in a day
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Vitamin C
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Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid and L-ascorbic acid, is a vitamin found in food and used as a dietary supplement. As a supplement it is used to treat and prevent scurvy, evidence does not support use in the general population for the prevention of the common cold. It may be taken by mouth or by injection, large doses may cause gastrointestinal discomfort, headache, trouble sleeping, and flushing of the skin. Normal doses are safe during pregnancy, Vitamin C is an essential nutrient involved in the repair of tissue. Foods that contain vitamin C include citrus fruit, tomatoes, Vitamin C was discovered in 1912, isolated in 1928, and first made in 1933. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines, Vitamin C is available as a generic medication and over the counter. In 2015, the wholesale cost in the world was about 0.003 to 0.007 USD per tablet. In some countries, ascorbic acid may be added to such as breakfast cereal. A2012 Cochrane review found no effect of vitamin C supplementation on overall mortality, although rare in modern times, scurvy and its associated destabilization of collagen, connective tissue, and bone can be prevented by adequate vitamin C intake. A2014 review found that, Currently, the use of high-dose IV vitamin C cannot be recommended outside of a clinical trial, a 2013 Cochrane review found no evidence that vitamin C supplementation reduces the risk of lung cancer in healthy or high risk people. A2014 meta-analysis found that vitamin C intake might protect against lung cancer risk, a second meta-analysis found no effect on the risk of prostate cancer. Two meta-analyses evaluated the effect of vitamin C supplementation on the risk of colorectal cancer, one found a weak association between vitamin C consumption and reduced risk, and the other found no effect of supplementation. A2013 meta-analysis found no evidence that vitamin C supplementation reduces the risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiovascular mortality, however, a second analysis found an inverse relationship between circulating vitamin C levels or dietary vitamin C and the risk of stroke. A meta-analysis of 44 clinical trials has shown a significant positive effect of vitamin C on endothelial function when taken at doses greater than 500 mg per day. The researchers noted that the effect of vitamin C supplementation appeared to be dependent on health status, a 2010 review found no role for vitamin C supplementation in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Studies examining the effects of vitamin C intake on the risk of Alzheimers disease have reached conflicting conclusions, maintaining a healthy dietary intake is probably more important than supplementation for achieving any potential benefit. Vitamin C supplementation above the RDA has been used in trials to study a potential effect on preventing and slowing the progression of age-related cataract, however, no significant effects were found from the research. Vitamin Cs effect on the cold has been extensively researched
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Calcium in biology
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Calcium ions play a vital role in the physiology and biochemistry of organisms and the cell. Many enzymes require calcium ions as a cofactor, those of the blood-clotting cascade being notable examples, extracellular calcium is also important for maintaining the potential difference across excitable cell membranes, as well as proper bone formation. Calcium levels in mammals are tightly regulated, with acting as the major mineral storage site. Calcium ions, Ca2+, are released from bone into the bloodstream under controlled conditions, calcium is transported through the bloodstream as dissolved ions or bound to proteins such as serum albumin. Calcitriol, the form of vitamin D3, promotes absorption of calcium from the intestines. Calcitonin secreted from the cells of the thyroid gland also affects calcium levels by opposing parathyroid hormone, however. Calcium storages are intracellular organelles, that constantly accumulate Ca2+ ions, intracellular Ca2+ storages include mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum. Characteristic concentrations of calcium in model organisms are, in E. coli 3mM, 100nM, in budding yeast 2mM, in mammalian cell 10-100nM and this is evidenced by human plasma calcium, which is one of the most closely regulated physiological variables in the human body. Normal plasma levels vary between 1 and 2% over any given time, different tissues contain calcium in different concentrations. For instance, Ca2+ is the most important element of bone, in humans, the total body content of calcium is present mostly in the form of bone mineral. In this state, it is unavailable for exchange/bioavailability. The way to overcome this is through the process of bone resorption, the remainder of calcium is present within the extracellular and intracellular fluids. Within a typical cell, the concentration of ionized calcium is roughly 100 nM. The intracellular calcium level is relatively low with respect to the extracellular fluid, by an approximate magnitude of 12. This gradient is maintained through various plasma membrane calcium pumps that utilize ATP for energy, in electrically excitable cells, such as skeletal and cardiac muscles and neurons, membrane depolarization leads to a Ca2+ transient with cytosolic Ca2+ concentration reaching 400 nM and above. Mitochondria are capable of sequestering and storing some of that Ca2+ and it has been estimated that mitochondrial matrix free calcium concentration rises to the tens of micromolar levels in situ during neuronal activity. The effects of calcium on human cells are specific, meaning that different types of cells respond in different ways, however, in certain circumstances, its action may be more general. Ca2+ ions are one of the most widespread second messengers used in signal transduction, levels of intracellular calcium are regulated by transport proteins that remove it from the cell
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