Upholding science in health, safety and environmental risk assessments and regulations.

A public appeal has been advanced by a large group of scientists, concerned that science has been misused in attempting to quantify and regulate unmeasurable hazards and risks. The appeal recalls that science is unable to evaluate hazards that cannot be measured, and that science in such cases should not be invoked to justify risk assessments in health, safety and environmental regulations. The appeal also notes that most national and international statutes delineating the discretion of regulators are ambiguous about what rules of evidence ought to apply.

Contrasted microcolinearity and gene evolution within a homoeologous region of wheat and barley species.

We study here the evolution of genes located in the same physical locus using the recently sequenced Ha locus in seven wheat genomes in diploid, tetraploid, and hexaploid species and compared them with barley and rice orthologous regions. We investigated both the conservation of microcolinearity and the molecular evolution of genes, including coding and noncoding sequences. Microcolinearity is restricted to two groups of genes (Unknown gene-2, VAMP, BGGP, Gsp-1, and Unknown gene-8 surrounded by several copies of ATPase), almost conserved in rice and barley, but in a different relative position.

The Triticum aestivum non-specific lipid transfer protein (TaLtp) gene family: comparative promoter activity of six TaLtp genes in transgenic rice.

Plant non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) are encoded by a multigene family and support physiological functions, which remain unclear. We adapted an efficient ligation-mediated polymerase chain reaction (LM-PCR) procedure that enabled isolation of 22 novel Triticum aestivum nsLtp (TaLtp) genes encoding types 1 and 2 nsLTPs. A phylogenetic tree clustered the wheat nsLTPs into ten subfamilies comprising 1-7 members.

The promoter of the wheat puroindoline-a gene (PinA) exhibits a more complex pattern of activity than that of the PinB gene and is induced by wounding and pathogen attack in rice.

Puroindolines form the molecular basis of wheat grain hardness. However, little is known about puroindoline gene regulation. We previously reported that the Triticum aestivum puroindoline-b gene (PinB) promoter directs beta-glucuronidase gene (uidA) seed-specific expression in transgenic rice.

Wheat non-specific lipid transfer protein genes display a complex pattern of expression in developing seeds.

Nine cDNA clones encoding non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) were isolated from Triticum aestivum and Triticum durum cDNA libraries and characterized. One cDNA is predicted to encode a type 2 nsLTP (7 kDa) while others encode type 1 nsLTPs (9 kDa). All encoded proteins contain an N-terminal signal sequence and possess the characteristic features of nsLTPs.

Comparative expression of five Lea Genes during wheat seed development and in response to abiotic stresses by real-time quantitative RT-PCR.

Gene expression profiles of group 2 (dehydrins) and group 4 Late embryogenesis abundant (Lea) genes in developing seeds of Triticum durum and T. aestivum and in coleoptiles and coleorhizae of T. durum seedlings were monitored by real-time quantitative RT-PCR.

Molecular basis of evolutionary events that shaped the hardness locus in diploid and polyploid wheat species (Triticum and Aegilops).

The Hardness (Ha) locus controls grain hardness in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum) and its relatives (Triticum and Aegilops species) and represents a classical example of a trait whose variation arose from gene loss after polyploidization. In this study, we investigated the molecular basis of the evolutionary events observed at this locus by comparing corresponding sequences of diploid, tertraploid, and hexaploid wheat species (Triticum and Aegilops). Genomic rearrangements, such as transposable element insertions, genomic deletions, duplications, and inversions, were shown to constitute the major differences when the same genomes (i.