The Kroonstad soil form, in the Weatherley catchment, Eastern Cape Province consists of an orthic A / E / G horizon sequence, and is a typical gleyed soil of South Africa. The profile has an uncommon diffuse E / G transition. Water contents from weekly neutron water meter readings and redox response as indicated by dissolved Fe 2+ concentration were correlated with daily rainfall data from automated weather stations. Results showed that reducing conditions were more pronounced in the E horizon than in the orthic A or G horizon as indicated by the Fe 2+ concentration. This is contradictory to what is normally expected. Response in soluble iron concentration in the orthic A horizon was largely associated with rainfall events. Responses in the E horizon could not be linked to current rain events. A time lag was found to exist between a response in the A and the E horizon. The G horizon responded to seasonal changes. The inability to relate current rainfall events to redox conditions as indicated by soluble Fe 2+ response in the E horizon could be attributed to water entering the E horizon laterally through interflow. This would also explain the observed time lag. This is typical of perched water tables. The lack of response in the G-horizon is an indication of a year round flow pattern controlled by seasonal changes and is typical of phreatic water tables. It is postulated that the non-abrupt E / G transition is an indication of the dominant role of the phreatic water table during pedogenesis, with upwards and lateral movement of water into the E horizon. It is further postulated that the nature of the E / G transition could serve as a valuable criterion to distinguish between the wetter and drier soils of the Kroonstad form.

Trypanosomatids are the cause of many diseases across the world. Leishmania is a specific trypanosomatid that is the causative agent of Leishmaniasis. Trypanosomes are unique in their tRNA transcription in that, two transcription factors, TFIIIC and TFIIIB, which were believed to be necessary for RNA Pol III recognition, are not found in genomic databases. To find out if there are any tRNA transcription factors that bind to the promoter region of the tRNA gene, we conducted band‐shift assays using nuclear extracts from Leishmania cultures and an oligonucleotide sequence of the promoter region. The assays revealed three distinct protein‐ DNA complexes. By using increasing amounts of NaCl, we found that higher levels of salt (>0.15M) lead to an inhibition of protein binding. We also used competition assays to test the specificity of the complexes using unlabeled duplex and a PCR fragment. We conclude that complex C is the most stable complex and may not be specific to the oligonucleotide sequence. Further assays will need to be conducted to characterize the two remaining complexes.