Jonathan Monroe

Identification and characterization of a phloem-specific beta-amylase.

A monoclonal antibody, RS 5, was raised by injecting sieve elements isolated from tissue cultures of Streptanthus tortuosus (Brassicaceae) into BALB/c mice and screening resultant hybridoma supernatants for the labeling of phloem using immunofluorescence microscopy. The RS 5 monoclonal antibody identifies a 57-kD protein on immunoblots, which is present in phloem-forming tissue cultures of S. tortuosus but is absent in cultures that lack phloem. Purified 57-kD protein of S. tortuosus is demonstrated to be a phloem-specific [beta]-amylase. Partial peptide sequences of the 57-kD protein of S. tortuosus are shown to be 96% identical with the corresponding portions of a deduced sequence reported for a major form of [beta]-amylase in Arabidopsis thaliana. The RS 5 antibody cross-reacts with the major form of A. thaliana [beta]-amylase on immunoblots, and the antibody also binds to the sieve elements of A. thaliana using immunofluorescence microscopy. The results suggest that the major form of A. thaliana [beta]-amylase is a phloem-specific enzyme.

Philosophy, Poetry, Parataxis

At the heart of the relationship between philosophy and poetry, and of the philosophical and the literary tout court, is the relationship between poetry and prose. In the increasingly influential work of Giorgio Agamben, whose impact continues to grow across a wide range of disciplines, the relationship between philosophy and poetry, poetry and prose, receives renewed attention and significance. Situating Agambens philosophical, poetic prose in relation to the legacy of the prose poem from Charles Baudelaire through Walter Benjamin and Rosmarie Waldrop, “Philosophy, Poetry, Parataxis” explores the implications of what Agamben calls “whatever being” or “whatever singularity” for our understanding of the potentialities inherent in the relationship between contemporary writing practices and what Agamben calls The Coming Community. In contributing to the development of innovative, alternative forms of textuality at once “philosophical” and “poetic,” contemporary writers such as Agamben and Waldrop share an understanding of the informing role of parataxis in inflecting philosophy and poetry, poetry and prose, toward what we might call an aesthetics and politics of apposition.