Identification of two QTLs, BPH41 and BPH42, and their respective gene candidates for brown planthopper resistance in rice.

The brown planthopper (BPH) is the leading cause of insect damage to rice plants and BPH infestations have caused profound losses in rice production since the 1970's. There is an urgent need to discover new BPH resistance genes to ensure the successful production of rice. Here, a new BPH resistance source provided by SeedWorks International Pvt.

Plant roots use a patterning mechanism to position lateral root branches toward available water.

The architecture of the branched root system of plants is a major determinant of vigor. Water availability is known to impact root physiology and growth; however, the spatial scale at which this stimulus influences root architecture is poorly understood. Here we reveal that differences in the availability of water across the circumferential axis of the root create spatial cues that determine the position of lateral root branches.

Mutagenesis of barley malting quality QTLs with Ds transposons.

Various functional genomic tools are being used to identify and characterize genes in plants. The Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds) transposon-based approach offers great potential, especially in barley, due to its limited success of genetic transformation and its large genome size. The bias of the Ac/Ds system towards genic regions and its tendency toward localized transpositions can greatly enhance the discovery and tagging of genes linked to Ds.

Efficient, reproducible Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of sorghum using heat treatment of immature embryos.

A number of parameters related to Agrobacterium-mediated infection were tested to optimize transformation frequencies of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.). A plasmid with a selectable marker, phosphomannose isomerase, and an sgfp reporter gene was used.