Biotechnology approaches can supplement conventional breeding efforts for turfgrass improvement. The objective of this study was to develop reliable transformation and selection schemes for elite turf-type tall fescue cultivars. Transgenic tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) plants were obtained by microprojectile bombardment of embryogenic suspension cells of two elite turf-type cultivar...

Deposition of secondary cell wall in the xylem elements is controlled by a subgroup of NAC (NAM, ATAF, CUC) family, known as vascular-related NAC transcription factors (VNDs). In the present study, we analyzed the 5' upstream regulatory region of two banana NAC transcription factors (MusaVND6 and MusaVND7) for tissue specific expression and presence of 19-bp secondary-wall NAC binding element (...

Monilinia fructicola is a devastating pathogen on stone fruits, causing blossom blight and fruit rot. Little is known about pathogenic mechanisms in M. fructicola and related Monilinia species. In this study, five endopolygalacturonase (endo-PG) genes were cloned and functionally characterized in M. fructicola. Quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) revealed that the five MfPG genes a...

With the introduction of real-time, fluorescence-based 5′ nuclease PCR (3,4) and instruments such as the ABI PRISM 7700 (TaqMan) sequence detector (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA), quantitative RT-PCR is now a widely accepted method for measuring gene expression levels. Quantitative RTPCR is a sensitive technique and is particularly useful for the analysis of samples containing limi...

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an economically important cucurbit crop. Its pulp rich in antioxidant carotenoids, which confer a variety of flesh colors. ClPsy1 (Phytoene Synthase) the rate-limiting enzyme for carotenoid synthesis; however, promoter activity still unknown. In present study, sequences were isolated from four watermelon accessions: Cream Saskatchewan pale yellow (COS), canary ...

Chimeric mice were produced by aggregating 2 embryos, each of which was homozygous for a different structural allele of the enzyme /?-glucuronidase. The two alleles used were Gus, the 'wild-type' allele, and Gus, an allele whose gene product shows decreased activity in all tissues as well as decreased heat stability. Staining of untreated adult chimeric livers for glucuronidase activity reveale...

OBJECTIVE Our aims were to measure the level of expression of Abelson (ABL1), β-glucuronidase (GUS) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) genes in exfoliated urine cells from healthy and transrectal ultrasound biopsy patients with elevated prostate-specific antigen levels and/or abnormal digital rectal examinations or urinary symptoms indicative of prostate problems, as well as in archiv...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS During seed fill in cereals, nutrients are symplasmically unloaded to vascular parenchyma in ovules, but thereafter nutrient transport is less certain. In Zea mays, two mechanisms of nutrient passage through the chalaza and nucellus have been hypothesized, apoplasmic and symplasmic. In a recent study, nutrients first passed non-selectively to the chalazal apoplasm and were t...