Photosynthesis occurs in mesophyll cells of specialized organs such as leaves. The rigid cell wall encapsulating photosynthetic cells controls the expansion and distribution of cells within photosynthetic tissues. The relationship between photosynthesis and plant growth is affected by leaf area. However, the underlying genetic mechanisms affecting carbon partitioning to different aspects of lea...

Bienertia sinuspersici performs C(4) photosynthesis in individual chlorenchyma cells by the development of two cytoplasmic domains (peripheral and central) with dimorphic chloroplasts, an arrangement that spatially separates the fixation of atmospheric CO(2) into C(4) acids and the donation of CO(2) from C(4) acids to Rubisco in the C(3) cycle. In association with the formation of these cytopla...

Suaeda monoica Forssk. ex J. F. Gmel was found to possess the C(4) pathway of photosynthesis. The succulent leaves of Suaeda lack a green bundle sheath formation but have a layer of chlorenchyma, containing large and centripetally arranged chloroplasts, which surrounds the water tissue. We suggest that the proximity of a chlorenchymatous cell layer to the vascular bundles is not necessary for t...

The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a particularly important model organism for the study of photosynthesis since this alga can grow heterotrophically, and mutants in photosynthesis are therefore conditional rather than lethal. The recently developed tools for genomic analyses of this organism have allowed us to identify most of the genes required for chlorophyll and caroten...

Seed oil content is an important agronomic trait in oilseed rape. However, the molecular mechanism of oil accumulation in rapeseeds is unclear so far. In this report, RNA sequencing technique (RNA-Seq) was performed to explore differentially expressed genes in siliques of two Brassica napus lines (HFA and LFA which contain high and low oil contents in seeds, respectively) at 15 and 25 days afte...

We have developed a new method for prediction of cis-regulatory binding sites and applied it to predicting NtcA regulated genes in cyanobacteria. The algorithm rigorously utilizes concurrence information of multiple binding sites in the upstream region of a gene and that in the upstream regions of its orthologues in related genomes. A probabilistic model was developed for the evaluation of pred...

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is a serious pathogen that jeopardises the world's most important food-security crop. Ten common Malaysian rice varieties were examined for their morphological, physiological and genomic responses to this rice blast pathogen. qPCR quantification was used to assess the growth of the pathogen population in resistant and susceptible rice varieties. The chlo...

Leaves of C4 crops usually have higher radiation, water and nitrogen use efficiencies compared to the C3 species. Engineering C4 traits into C3 crops has been proposed as one of the most promising ways to repeal the biomass yield ceiling. To better understand the function of C4 photosynthesis, and to identify candidate genes that are associated with the C4 pathways, a comparative transcription ...

The cryptomonads are a group of unicellular algae that acquired photosynthesis through the engulfment of a red algal cell, a process called secondary endosymbiosis. Here, we present the complete plastid genome sequence of the secondarily nonphotosynthetic species Cryptomonas paramecium CCAP977/2a. The approximately 78 kilobase pair (Kbp) C. paramecium genome contains 82 predicted protein genes,...