Publications by authors named "Patricia L Polowick"

Plant genetic engineering offers promising solutions to the increasing demand for efficient, sustainable, and high-yielding crop production as well as changing environmental conditions. The main challenge for gene delivery in plants is the presence of a cell wall that limits the transportation of genes within the cells. Microspores are plant cells that are, under the right conditions, capable of generating embryos, leading to the formation of haploid plants.

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The plant seed is a leading platform amongst plant-based storage systems for the production of recombinant proteins. In this study, we compared the activity of human adenosine deaminase (hADA) expressed in transgenic seeds of three different plant species: pea (Pisum sativum L.), Nicotiana benthamiana L.

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Vaccines against rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) are commercially produced in experimentally infected rabbits. A genetically engineered and manufactured version of the major structural protein of RHDV (VP60) is considered to be an alternative approach for vaccine production. Plants have the potential to become an excellent recombinant production system, but the low expression level and insufficient immunogenic potency of plant-derived VP60 still hamper its practical use.

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Isolated microspores of Brassica napus are developmentally programmed to form gametes; however, microspores can be reprogrammed through stress treatments to undergo appropriate divisions and form embryos. We are interested in the identification and isolation of factors and genes associated with the induction and establishment of embryogenesis in isolated microspores. Standard and normalized cDNA libraries, as well as subtractive cDNA libraries, were constructed from freshly isolated microspores (0 h) and microspores cultured for 3, 5, or 7 d under embryogenesis-inducing conditions.

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To study flower development in the model legume Lotus japonicus, a population of transgenic plants containing a maize transposable element (Ac) in their genome was screened for floral mutants. One mutation named proliferating floral organs (pfo) causes plants to produce a large number of sepal-like organs instead of normal flowers. It segregates as a single recessive Mendelian locus, and causes sterility.

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