Bioinformatics analysis of plant orthologous introns: identification of an intronic tRNA-like sequence.

Orthologous introns have identical positions relative to the coding sequence in orthologous genes of different species. By analyzing the complete genomes of five plants we generated a database of 40,512 orthologous intron groups of dicotyledonous plants, 28,519 orthologous intron groups of angiosperms, and 15,726 of land plants (moss and angiosperms). Multiple sequence alignments of each orthologous intron group were obtained using the Mafft algorithm.

Soluble silicon modulates expression of Arabidopsis thaliana genes involved in copper stress.

Since soluble silicon (Si) has been shown to alleviate copper (Cu) toxicity in Arabidopsis thaliana, the expression of genes involved in responses to Cu toxicity was examined by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Expression levels of three metallothionein (MT) genes were increased under Cu stress conditions whereas Cu-stressed plants treated with Si either maintained high levels or contained even higher levels of MT RNA. Cu/zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity was induced by Cu toxicity.

Complete nucleotide sequence of the Toledo isolate of turnip ringspot virus.

The complete genomic sequence of the Toledo isolate of the comovirus, turnip ringspot virus (TuRSV), was found to consist of 2 polyadenylated RNAs. RNA 1 is 6082 nucleotides long and encodes a single predicted polypeptide of 1860 amino acids. The predicted RNA 1 polyprotein contains the polypeptides for viral replication and proteolytic processing.

Cauliflower mosaic virus gene VI product N-terminus contains regions involved in resistance-breakage, self-association and interactions with movement protein.

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) gene VI encodes a multifunctional protein (P6) involved in the translation of viral RNA, the formation of inclusion bodies, and the determination of host range. Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Tsu-0 prevents the systemic spread of most CaMV isolates, including CM1841. However, CaMV isolate W260 overcomes this resistance.