Cancer-preventive peptide lunasin from Solanum nigrum L. inhibits acetylation of core histones H3 and H4 and phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein (Rb).

Lunasin, a unique 43 amino acid, 4.8 kDa cancer-chemopreventive peptide initially reported in soybean and now found in barley and wheat, has been shown to be cancer-chemopreventive in mammalian cells and in a skin cancer mouse model against oncogenes and chemical carcinogens. To identify bioactive components in traditional herbal medicines and in search for new sources of lunasin, we report here the properties of lunasin from Solanum nigrum L.

A bHLH regulatory gene in the common morning glory, Ipomoea purpurea, controls anthocyanin biosynthesis in flowers, proanthocyanidin and phytomelanin pigmentation in seeds, and seed trichome formation.

The transcriptional regulators for anthocyanin pigmentation include proteins containing R2R3-MYB domains, bHLH domains and conserved WD40 repeats, and their interactions determine the set of genes to be expressed. Spontaneous ivory seed (ivs) mutants of Ipomoea purpurea displaying pale pigmented flowers and ivory seeds are caused by insertions of DNA transposons into the bHLH2 gene that encodes a bHLH transcriptional regulator. A partial reduction in the expression of all structural genes encoding enzymes for anthocyanin biosynthesis was observed in the young flower buds of these ivs mutants.

Spontaneous mutations caused by a Helitron transposon, Hel-It1, in morning glory, Ipomoea tricolor.

Helitrons are newcomers among eukaryotic DNA transposons and have originally been identified by computational analysis in the genomes of Arabidopsis, rice and nematode. They are distinguished from other transposons in their structural features, and their proposed transposition mechanisms are involved in rolling circle replication. Computer-predicted autonomous Helitrons with conserved terminal sequences 5'-TC and CTRR-3' are presumed to encode a putative transposase, Rep/Hel-TPase, which contains a characteristic nuclease/ligase domain for the replication-initiation protein (Rep) and a DNA helicase domain (Hel).

Genetics and epigenetics in flower pigmentation associated with transposable elements in morning glories.

Among the genus Ipomoea, three morning glories, I. nil (the Japanese morning glory), I. purpurea (the common morning glory), and I.

Genetics and epigenetics in flower pigmentation associated with transposable elements in morning glories.

Among the genus Ipomoea, three morning glories, I. nil the Japanese morning glory), I. purpurea (the common morning glory), and I.

An intragenic tandem duplication in a transcriptional regulatory gene for anthocyanin biosynthesis confers pale-colored flowers and seeds with fine spots in Ipomoea tricolor.

While the wild-type morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor) displays bright-blue flowers and dark-brown seeds, its spontaneous mutant, Blue Star, carrying the mutable ivory seed-variegated (ivs-v) allele, exhibits pale-blue flowers with a few fine blue spots and ivory seeds with tiny dark-brown spots. The mutable allele is caused by an intragenic tandem duplication of 3.3 kbp within a gene for transcriptional activator containing a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) DNA-binding motif.

Spontaneous mutations of the flavonoid 3'-hydroxylase gene conferring reddish flowers in the three morning glory species.

Among the Ipomoea plants, both Ipomoea nil and Ipomoea tricolor display bright blue flowers, and Ipomoea purpurea exhibits dark purple flowers. While all of these flowers contain cyanidin-based anthocyanin pigments, the mutants of I. nil, I.