Spectrum and Density of Gamma and X-ray Induced Mutations in a Non-Model Rice Cultivar.

Physical mutagens are a powerful tool used for genetic research and breeding for over eight decades. Yet, when compared to chemical mutagens, data sets on the effect of different mutagens and dosages on the spectrum and density of induced mutations remain lacking. To address this, we investigated the landscape of mutations induced by gamma and X-ray radiation in the most widely cultivated crop species: rice.

Gene-based microsatellites for cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz): prevalence, polymorphisms, and cross-taxa utility.

Background: Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a starchy root crop grown in tropical and subtropical climates, is the sixth most important crop in the world after wheat, rice, maize, potato and barley. The repertoire of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for cassava is limited and warrants a need for a larger number of polymorphic SSRs for germplasm characterization and breeding applications.

Results: A total of 846 putative microsatellites were identified in silico from an 8,577 cassava unigene set with an average density of one SSR every 7 kb.

Characterization of an 18,166 EST dataset for cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) enriched for drought-responsive genes.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food for over 600 million people in the tropics and subtropics and is increasingly used as an industrial crop for starch production. Cassava has a high growth rate under optimal conditions but also performs well in drought-prone areas and on marginal soils. To increase the tools for understanding and manipulating drought tolerance in cassava, we generated expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from normalized cDNA libraries prepared from dehydration-stressed and control well-watered tissues.

Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of the commercially important grapefruit cultivar Rio Red (Citrus paradisi Macf.).

 Transgenic plants of grapefruit cv. Rio Red (Citrus paradisi Macf.) have been obtained by Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated gene transfer using seedling-derived epicotyl segments as explants and kanamycin as the selective agent.

Posttranscriptional gene silencing in transgenic sugarcane. Dissection Of homology-dependent virus resistance in a monocot that has a complex polyploid genome.

RNA-mediated, posttranscriptional gene silencing has been determined as the molecular mechanism underlying transgenic virus resistance in many plant virus-dicot host plant systems. In this paper we show that transgenic virus resistance in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) is based on posttranscriptional gene silencing.

Highly sensitive northern hybridization using a rapid protocol for downward alkaline blotting of RNA.

A simple and fast RNA gel blot procedure is described that uses 50 mM NaOH to simultaneously transfer and fix RNA to a positively charged nylon membrane. The RNA is transferred in a downward direction, and transfer is routinely completed within 2.5 h.

Different 3' end regions strongly influence the level of gene expression in plant cells.

We have investigated the functional role of a 3' end region on the expression of a reporter gene in plant cells. In stably transformed plants, expression of the reporter gene without a plant gene 3' end is variable and depends on the fortuitous presence of polyadenylation signals in the downstream sequences. When the reporter gene is flanked by pBR322 DNA, 3'-processing and polyadenylation occurs at (a) cryptic site(s) within these vector sequences.