Construction of mismatched inverted repeat (IR) silencing vectors for maximizing IR stability and effective gene silencing in plants.

Inverted repeat (IR) RNA silencing vectors containing homologous fragments of target endogenous plant genes, or pathogen genes, are the most widely used vectors to either study the function of genes involved in biotic stress or silence pathogens to induce plant resistance, respectively. RNA silencing has been exploited to produce transgenic plants with resistance to viral pathogens via posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS). In some cases, this technology is difficult to apply due to the instability of IR constructs during cloning and plant transformation.

Construction of effective inverted repeat silencing constructs using sodium bisulfite treatment coupled with strand-specific PCR.

RNA silencing has been exploited to produce transgenic plants with resistance to viral pathogens via posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS). In some cases, this technology is difficult to apply due to the instability of inverted repeat (IR) constructs during cloning and plant transformation. Although such constructs have been shown to be stabilized with introns and efficiently induce RNA silencing, we found that the Pdk intron did not stabilize South African cassava mosaic virus (SACMV) silencing constructs.

Structure, diversity, and mobility of the Salmonella pathogenicity island 7 family of integrative and conjugative elements within Enterobacteriaceae.

Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) are self-mobile genetic elements found in the genomes of some bacteria. These elements may confer a fitness advantage upon their host bacteria through the cargo genes that they carry. Salmonella pathogenicity island 7 (SPI-7), found within some pathogenic strains of Salmonella enterica, possesses features indicative of an ICE and carries genes implicated in virulence.