Biocontrol potential of endophytic Pseudomonas strain IALR1619 against two Pythium species in cucumber and hydroponic lettuce.

The use of fungicides to manage disease has led to multiple environmental externalities, including resistance development, pollution, and non-target mortality. Growers have limited options as legacy chemistry is withdrawn from the market. Moreover, fungicides are generally labeled for traditional soil-based production, and not for liquid culture systems.

A Potential Application of IALR632 for Lettuce Growth Promotion in Hydroponics.

Controlled environment agriculture hydroponic systems grow plants year-round without restriction from outside environmental conditions. In order to further improve crop yield, plant growth-promoting bacteria were tested on hydroponically grown lettuce () plants. From our bacterial endophyte library, we found one bacterium, IALR632, that is promising in promoting lettuce growth in multiple hydroponic systems.

Cytokinin vectors mediate marker-free and backbone-free plant transformation.

Conventional Agrobacterium-mediated transformation methods rely on complex and genotype-specific tissue culture media for selection, proliferation, and regeneration of genetically modified cells. Resulting transgenic plants may not only contain selectable marker genes but also carry fragments of the vector backbone. Here, we describe a new method for the production of transgenic plants that lack such foreign DNA.

New construct approaches for efficient gene silencing in plants.

An important component of conventional sense, antisense, and double-strand RNA-based gene silencing constructs is the transcriptional terminator. Here, we show that this regulatory element becomes obsolete when gene fragments are positioned between two oppositely oriented and functionally active promoters. The resulting convergent transcription triggers gene silencing that is at least as effective as unidirectional promoter-to-terminator transcription.