BACKGROUND AND AIMS Because plants protect each other from wind, stand density affects both the light climate and the amount of mechanical stress experienced by plants. But the potential interactive effects of mechanical stress and canopy shading on plant growth have rarely been investigated and never in stoloniferous plants which, due to their creeping growth form, can be expected to respond d...

A method for transformation of B.napus is presented in this study. The protocol is based on infection of cotyledonary petioles of 5-day-old and hypocotyl segments of 14-day-old seedlings with an Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA 4404 carrying a disarmed binary vector pBI121. The T-DNA region of this binary vector contains the neomycin phosphotransferase II (NPTII) and glucuronidase (GUS) gen...

Rumex palustris (polygonceae) responds to complete submergence with enhanced elongation of its youngest petioles. This process requires the presence of gibberellin (GA) and is associated with an increase in the concentration of GA1 in elongating petioles. We have examined how GA biosynthesis was regulated in submerged plants. Therefore, cDNAs encoding GA-biosynthetic enzymes GA 20-oxidase and G...

The objectives of this work were to evaluate in vitro response of Iranian alfalfa cultivars and select high regenerative genotypes. Somatic embryogenesis response of leaf and petiole explants from five alfalfa cultivars and landraces was studied using six regeneration protocols. Cultivars and landraces exhibited protocol, and explant-specific response and somatic embryo formation occurred only ...

Populations of oak cork (Quercus suber L.) originated from different areas in Tunisia were analysed based on morphological characters to assess the overall degree of phenotypic variability, to detect similarities between the genotypes and to evaluate significant forest features. One-way ANOVA analysis shows a significant difference between oak cork populations and demonstrates that parameters m...

Expansins are cell-wall-loosening proteins that induce stress relaxation and extension of plant cell walls. To evaluate their hypothesized role in cell growth, we genetically manipulated expansin gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana and assessed the consequent changes in growth and cell-wall properties. Various combinations of promoters were used to drive antisense and sense sequences of AtE...

ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase) is a key regulatory enzyme in starch biosynthesis in higher plants. A 3.2-kb promoter of the large subunit gene of the AGPase from potato has been isolated and its activity analyzed in transgenic potato and tobacco plants using a promoter-beta-glucuronidase fusion system. The promoter was active in various starch-containing cells, including guard cells, tu...

The present study provides an update on the betaxanthin (bx) compositions of red and yellow beetroots, yellow-coloured Swiss chard petioles, and yellow-orange cactus pear. Applying RP-HPLC coupled with positive ion electrospray mass spectrometry and by comparison with UV-vis and mass spectrometric characteristics as well as retention times of semi-synthesized reference compounds, 24 betaxanthin...

Glucosinolates are a large group of plant secondary metabolites found mainly in the order Capparales, which includes a large number of economically important Brassica crops and the model plant Arabidopsis. In the present study, several lines of evidence are provided for phloem transport of glucosinolates in Arabidopsis. When radiolabeled p-hydroxybenzylglucosinolate (p-OHBG) and sucrose were co...

High levels of mRNA for the sucrose-H+ symporter PmSUC2 have been found in the vascular bundles of petioles from Plantago major. The possible role of PmSUC2 in phloem loading was studied with antiserum raised against the recombinant PmSUC2 protein. This antiserum labeled a single 35-kD protein band in detergent extracts of P. major vascular bundles. It showed no cross-reaction with the P. major...