Experiments with ethylene-insensitive tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and petunia (Petunia x hybrida) plants were conducted to determine if normal or adventitious root formation is affected by ethylene insensitivity. Ethylene-insensitive Never ripe (NR) tomato plants produced more below-ground root mass but fewer above-ground adventitious roots than wild-type Pearson plants. Applied auxin (indole-3-butyric acid) increased adventitious root formation on vegetative stem cuttings of wild-type plants but had little or no effect on rooting of NR plants. Reduced adventitious root formation was also observed in ethylene-insensitive transgenic petunia plants. Applied 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid increased adventitious root formation on vegetative stem cuttings from NR and wild-type plants, but NR cuttings produced fewer adventitious roots than wild-type cuttings. These data suggest that the promotive effect of auxin on adventitious rooting is influenced by ethylene responsiveness. Seedling root growth of tomato in response to mechanical impedance was also influenced by ethylene sensitivity. Ninety-six percent of wild-type seedlings germinated and grown on sand for 7 d grew normal roots into the medium, whereas 47% of NR seedlings displayed elongated tap-roots, shortened hypocotyls, and did not penetrate the medium. These data indicate that ethylene has a critical role in various responses of roots to environmental stimuli.

Focussing on the psychosocial dimensions of poverty, the contention that shame lies at the ‘irreducible absolutist core’ of the idea of poverty is examined through qualitative research with adults and children experiencing poverty in diverse settings in seven countries: rural Uganda and India; urban China; Pakistan; South Korea and United Kingdom; and small town and urban Norway. Accounts of the lived experience of poverty were found to be very similar, despite massive disparities in material circumstances associated with locally defined poverty lines, suggesting that relative notions of poverty are an appropriate basis for international comparisons. Though socially and culturally nuanced, shame was found to be associated with poverty in each location, variably leading to pretence, withdrawal, self-loathing, ‘othering’, despair, depression, thoughts of suicide and generally to reductions in personal efficacy. While internally felt, poverty-related shame was equally imposed by the attitudes and behaviour of those not in poverty, framed by public discourse and influenced by the objectives and implementation of anti-poverty policy. The evidence appears to confirm the negative consequences of shame, implicates it as a factor in increasing the persistence of poverty and suggests important implications for the framing, design and delivery of anti-poverty policies.

SummaryThe CDPK superfamily consists of six types of protein kinases, which differ in the regulatory domains they contain. CDPKs (calcium-dependent protein kinases or calmodulin-like domain protein kinases) are activated by the binding of calcium to their calmodulin-like regulatory domains. The carboxyl terminal domains of CRKs (CDPK-related kinases) have sequence similarity to the regulatory domains of CDPKs, but do not bind calcium. PPCKs (PEP carboxylase kinases) contain only a catalytic domain. PRKs (PPCK-related kinases) have a carboxyl-terminal domain that has no similarity to that of any other member of the superfamily. CCaMKs (calcium and calmodulin regulated kinases) bind both calcium ions and the calcium/calmodulin complex, whereas CaMKs (calmodulin-dependent protein kinases) bind the calcium/ calmodulin complex, but not calcium. Phylogenetic trees constructed from amino acid sequences of catalytic or regulatory domains show that CDPKs and CRKs are closely related and might share a common ancestor. Plant CCaMKs and CaMK form a group more closely related to protozoan, than to plant, CDPKs. Intron analysis of the 42 CDPK, CRK, PPCK, and PRK genes from Arabidopsis supports the structure of the gene trees, the possibility that PPCKs/PRKs belong to the CDPK superfamily, and suggests that several introns have been added during evolution of the family.

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As a part of the border-making process that occurs during the social constructionist interview, realities and various preassumed roles are created by researchers and by their respondents. Arbitrary lines are set between researcher and respondent during the interview as the researcher seeks to better understand and tell the story of his or her interviewee in a clear and controlled manner. The authors do not consider the Romanticist aim of obtaining structure-free experience; rather, they contend with the inevitable border-making process of communication. This article explores the social constructionist interview by examining how to contend with four forms of border making: (a) the borders of control, (b) research agendas as border making, (c) language and discipline as border making, and (d) the border-making influences of roles and socialization. Examples from a multicultural research interview project are used to contextualize the argument.

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A series of experiments on ethylene-insensitive (EI) petunia plants (Petunia ×hybrida Hort. Vilm.-Andr.) generated in two genetic backgrounds were conducted to determine the involvement of ethylene in horticultural performance. Experiments examined various aspects of horticultural performance: days to flower, flower senescence after pollination and without pollination, fruit set and ripening, and adventitious root formation on vegetative stem cuttings. The development of EI plants was altered in several ways. Time from seed sowing to first flower anthesis was decreased by a week for EI plants grown at 26/21 °C. Flower senescence in nonpollinated and self-pollinated flowers was delayed in all EI plants compared to wild-type plants. Fruit set percentage on EI plants was slightly lower than on wild-type plants and fruit ripening on EI plants was delayed by up to 7 days. EI plants produced fewer commercially acceptable rooted cuttings than wild-type plants. There was a basic difference in the horticultural performance of the two EI lines examined due to a difference in the genetic backgrounds used to generate the lines. EI plants displayed better horticultural performance when grown with day/night temperatures of 26/21 °C than 30/24 °C. These results suggest that tissue-specific ethylene insensitivity as well as careful consideration of the genetic background used in transformation procedures and growth conditions of etr1-1 plants will be required to produce commercially viable transgenic floriculture crops. EI petunias provide an ideal model system for studying the role of ethylene in regulating various aspects of plant reproduction.

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