To understand better the role of genes in controlling ovule development, a female-sterile mutant, aintegumenta (ant), was isolated from Arabidopsis. In ovules of this mutant, integuments do not develop and megasporogenesis is blocked at the tetrad stage. As a pleiotropic effect, narrower floral organs arise in reduced numbers. More complete loss of floral organs occurs when the ant mutant is combined with the floral homeotic mutant apetala2, suggesting that the two genes share functions in initiating floral organ development. The ANT gene was cloned by transposon tagging, and sequence analysis showed that it is a member of the APETALA2-like family of transcription factor genes. The expression pattern of ANT in floral and vegetative tissues indicates that it is involved not only in the initiation of integuments but also in the initiation and early growth of all primorida except roots.

A family of glycerol derivatives, consisting of over sixty 1,3-dialkoxy-2-propanols and 1,2,3-trialkoxypropanes, both symmetrically and unsymmetrically substituted at terminal positions, have been synthesized and the possible role of these glycerol derivatives as substitutive solvents has been evaluated through measurements of their physico-chemical properties. The molecular diversity of the derivatives prepared results in significant variations of polarity properties, facilitating the identification of possible candidates for solvent substitution.

In this work we report the preparation of mixtures of several alkyl glyceryl ethers, as hydrogen bond donor compounds, with two ammonium salts, choline chloride and N,N,N-triethyl-2,3-dihydroxypropan-1-aminium chloride. The stability of the mixtures at different molar ratios and temperatures has been evaluated in order to determine the formation of low melting mixtures. Liquid and stable mixtures have been characterized and their physico-chemical properties such as density, viscosity, refractive index, conductivity and surface tension have been measured in the temperature range of 293.15 K to 343.15 K. Comparison of the mixtures prepared herein with the ones containing glycerol and choline chloride evidences the possibility of tuning the physico-chemical properties by changing the substitution pattern in the hydrogen bond donor compound or in the ammonium salt, thus broadening the scope of application of these mixtures.

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Herein we report a systematic study of the synthesis of symmetric glyceryl diethers from epichlorohydrin and different alcohols. Several inexpensive alkaline hydroxides were tested and total conversions of epichlorohydrin achieved. Although high yields of the desired products were possible, the final selectivity of the reaction depends strongly on the alcohol used. Eleven symmetric glyceryl diethers were prepared employing this synthetic methodology and, in order to determine their usefulness as solvents, their physicochemical properties (density, dielectric permittivity, refractive index, viscosity, surface tension and boiling point) were measured and compared with those for similar conventional solvents. The results obtained prove the utility of these compounds as a green alternative to solvents obtained from non-renewable sources.