Many bacteria form metabolically inactive spores to survive harsh conditions. But how do spores decide to germinate when sensing of the environment is hampered by their inactivity? A new study shows how phenotypic variation leads to stochastic germination of spores.

It is well known that modern resting cysts with morphologies matching those of species the fossil genus Spiniferites germinate into motile cells Gonyaulax. Different sp...

Barley flour and barley flour-pomace (tomato, grape) blends were extruded through a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of die temperature, screw speed, and pomace level on water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), degree of starch gelatinization, and in vitro starch digestibility using a response surface methodology. Th...

From about 10000 PCR-based EST markers of barley we chose 1421 EST markers that were demonstrated to be amplified differently by PCR between wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Chinese Spring) and barley (Hordeum vulgare cv. Betzes). We assigned them to the seven barley chromosomes (1H to 7H) by PCR analysis using a set of wheat-barley chromosome addition lines. We successfully assigned 701 (49.3%) ES...

The following study analyzed the role of the gamma-aminobutyric acid transaminase (GABAT) gene in the response of barley plants to drought stress. Expression of GABAT in barley was suppressed using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS). In VIGS, an RNA virus is used to replicate a small portion of the target RNA. In this study, barley stripe mosaic virus (BSMV), that carries a piece of the GABAT ...

This study was undertaken to elucidate the dominant endogenous gibberellins (GA) and the changes in their levels in germinating barley during malting. Also, a method for determining gibberellins in barley and malt by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed. Endogenous gibberellins in germinating Fuji Nijo I I and Betzes barley were sequentially extracted with ethanol...

Salt tolerance of plants depends on HKT transporters (High-affinity K(+) Transporter), which mediate Na(+)-specific transport or Na(+)-K(+) co-transport. Gene sequences closely related to rice HKT genes were isolated from hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) or barley (Hordeum vulgare) for genomic DNA southern hybridization analysis. HKT gene sequences were mapped on chromosomal arms of wh...

Grain protein contents (GPCs) of barley seeds are significantly different between feed and malting barley cultivars. However, there is still no insight into the proteomic analysis of seed proteins between feed and malting barley cultivars. Also, the genetic control of barley GPC is still unclear. GPCs were measured between mature grains of Yangsimai 3 and Naso Nijo. A proteome profiling of diff...