BACKGROUND This study examined the effects of dietary supplementation with rice bran, sire breed and gender on live animal performance and carcass characteristics in Australian crossbred and purebred Merino lambs. METHODS Forty-eight lambs balanced by sire breed (Dorset, White Suffolk, Merino) and gender (ewe, wether) were randomly allocated into three dietary supplementation groups (Control-...

The analytical method for the residues of a new herbicide propisochlor and its dissipation and residual amounts in soil, water and rice plants in Weld conditions (rice cropping system) were studied. The chloroacetanilide herbicide, propisochlor (72% w/w EC) was applied at two dosages, 108 g a.i. ha¡1 (recommended) and 162 g a.i. ha¡1 (1.5 times of the recommended dosage) seven days after transp...

Absorption of heavy metals and contaminants through a rice-based diet may have serious consequences for human health. The present study determined the levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb) and chromium (Cr) in 71 irrigated and rain-fed rice and assessed dietary (rice) exposure to the heavy metals. The concentration in rice grains were generally higher in the irrigated season which may...

Ser/Arg-rich (SR) proteins play important roles in the constitutive and alternative splicing of pre-mRNA. We isolated 20 rice (Oryza sativa) genes encoding SR proteins, of which six contain plant-specific characteristics. To determine whether SR proteinsmodulate splicing efficiency and alternative splicing of pre-mRNA in rice,we used transient assays in rice protoplasts by cotransformation of S...

Overexpression of Arabidopsis Reversion-To-ethylene Sensitivity1 (RTE1) results in whole-plant ethylene insensitivity dependent on the ethylene receptor gene Ethylene Response1 (ETR1). However, overexpression of the tomato RTE1 homologue Green Ripe (GR) delays fruit ripening but does not confer whole-plant ethylene insensitivity. It was decided to investigate whether aspects of ethylene-induced...

A primary goal of managing invasive aquatic plants is to selectively control the target plant without impacting more desirable plant species. A native plant of concern is wild rice ( Zizania palustris L.). Wild rice provides habitat for fish and wildlife, is a food source for waterfowl, and is utilized by humans as a cereal grain. The objective of this study was to examine the sensitivity of th...

Rice is a typical silicon-accumulating plant. Silicon (Si), deposited as phytoliths during plant growth, has been shown to occlude organic carbon, which may prove to have significant effects on the biogeochemical sequestration of atmospheric CO2. This study evaluated the effects of silicate fertilization on plant Si uptake and carbon bio-sequestration in field trials on China's paddy soils. The...

Ser/Arg-rich (SR) proteins play important roles in the constitutive and alternative splicing of pre-mRNA. We isolated 20 rice (Oryza sativa) genes encoding SR proteins, of which six contain plant-specific characteristics. To determine whether SR proteins modulate splicing efficiency and alternative splicing of pre-mRNA in rice, we used transient assays in rice protoplasts by cotransformation of...

The transgenic rice line (TRS) enriched with amylose and resistant starch (RS) was developed by antisense RNA inhibition of starch-branching enzymes. Cereal starch with high amylose has a great benefit on human health through its resistant starch. In order to evaluate the effect of transgenic rice on rats, the rats were fed diets containing 70% TRS rice flour, its near-isogenic rice flour or th...

Burkholderia kururiensis is a diazotrophic bacterium originally isolated from a polluted aquifer environment and presents a high level of similarity with the rice endophyte "B. brasilensis" species. This work assessed the ability of B. kururiensis to endophytically colonize rice plantlets by monitoring different tissues of root-inoculated plants for the presence of bacterial growth in different...