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There is a policy commitment within the EU and the UK to improve the environmental performance of business. Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) comprise over 90% of businesses and their activities significantly affect the environment, yet they are notoriously difficult to reach and to influence. A study was carried out in Avon in late 1994 to mid‐1995 to assess the environmental performance training needs of SMEs and to make recommendations for a programme to improve performance. The research had two phases: firstly, areas of training needs and attitudes to training were established using questionnaires and interviews with SMEs and, secondly, an assessment of existing training provision, both for general business skills and for environmental performance, was carried out. The recommended programme focuses on the role of Training and Enterprise Councils and similar providers, such as local authorities, which may be in the process of implementing plans to promote sustainable activity in the business community.

Comparisons of the growth of Pasteuria penetrans in adult root-knot nematode females infected with P. penetrans dissected from the roots of tomato plants were undertaken using bright-field and scanning electron microscopy. Samples of infected females were nutritionally compromised by maintaining them in sterile saline at 30 degrees C for different periods of time following their removal from the root system. Observations of these females maintained in saline revealed a series of growth stages of Pasteuria hitherto not documented, consisting of rhizoids, rod-like bacilli and granular masses. A new life-cycle for Pasteuria is described consisting of three phases: Phase I: attachment and germination; Phase II: rhizoid production and exponential growth; and Phase III: sporogenesis. These newly observed stages of the life cycle show a high degree of similarity to the developmental stages seen in other Bacillus spp

We sequenced the entire coding region of the mitochondrial genome of Heterodera glycines. The sequence obtained comprised 14.9 kb, with PCR evidence indicating that the entire genome comprised a single, circular molecule of approximately 21-22 kb. The genome is the most T-rich nematode mitochondrial genome reported to date, with T representing over half of all nucleotides on the coding strand. The genome also contains the highest number of poly(T) tracts so far reported (to our knowledge), with 60 poly(T) tracts ≥ 12 Ts. All genes are transcribed from the same mitochondrial strand. The organization of the mitochondrial genome of H. glycines shows a number of similarities compared with Radopholus similis, but fewer similarities when compared with Meloidogyne javanica. Very few gene boundaries are shared with Globodera pallida or Globodera rostochiensis. Partial mitochondrial genome sequences were also obtained for Heterodera cardiolata (5.3 kb) and Punctodera chalcoensis (6.8 kb), and these had identical organizations compared with H. glycines. We found PCR evidence of a minicircular mitochondrial genome in P. chalcoensis, but at low levels and lacking a noncoding region. Such circularised genome fragments may be present at low levels in a range of nematodes, with multipartite mitochondrial genomes representing a shift to a condition in which these subgenomic circles predominate.