plant tissue culture techniques are used as basic requirement of common plant transformation systems. in most cases of plant transformation, a reproducible regeneration protocol is the limiting step due to long time lasting, specialized facilities and well experienced persons. furthermore, tissue culture procedures induce somaclonal variation among regenerated transgenic plants. therefore, rece...

Plant defensins are recognized for their antifungal properties. However, a few type 1 defensins (PDF1s) were identified for their cellular zinc (Zn) tolerance properties after a study of the metal extremophile Arabidopsis halleri. In order to investigate whether different paralogues would display specialized functions, the A. halleri PDF1 family was characterized at the functional and genomic l...

the sucrose non-fermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 (snrk2) family members are plant unique serine/threonine kinases which play a key role in cellular signaling in response to abiotic stresses. the three snrk2 members including srk2d, srk2i and srk2e are known to phosphorylate major abscisic acid (aba) responsive transcription factors, abf2 and abf4, involved in an aba-dependent stress signal...

the recently published articles in the iranian journal ofbiotechnology inspired us to write this short communication on nitrogen dioxide no2-philic plants (1).to cope with environmental pollution, we thought(still think) that development of methods that mitigatepollution is an urgent issue, and that no2-philic plantsthat can grow with no2 as the sole nitrogen source areinstrumental for the impl...

I selected my favourite image from a paper by Professor Friedrich Laibach, the founder of Arabidopsis research. His paper from 1951 is the first paper dealing with natural variation for flowering time in this species, a topic many scientists including myself, have followed up and has resulted in large steps forward in our understanding of flowering time regulation. How this topic came to be of ...

Background: TRR14 protein is a small member of a multi-gene family in Arabidopsis and is the first ones found during screening of seedlings for their resistant to the trehalose sugar.Objectives: Characterization ofTRR14 over-expressed plants with respect to morphological changes, growth and photosynthesis related parameters.Materials and methods: TRR14gene was isolated from Arabidop...

manipulation of stress related transcription factors to improve plant stress tolerance is a major goal of current biotechnology researches. myc2 gene encodes a key stress-related transcription factor involved in jasmonate (ja) and abscisic acid (aba) signaling pathways in arabidopsis. brassica napus, as a globally important oilseed crop, is a close relative of arabidopsis.  in the present study...

polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) are chlorinated biphenyl rings that due to their properties such as heat resistance and stability were widely used in different industries from 1920s to 1980s. due to their characteristics such as stability, resistance to decomposition and harmful effects on human health, their production was banned in 1980s., worldwide contamination of water and soil with pcbs ...

Plant microRNA (miRNA) is a crucial regulator of gene expression. It has been reported that more than one miRNA/miRNA duplex could be produced from a microRNA precursor (pre-miRNA). In this study, we performed a comprehensive search for the novel miRNA candidates on the pre-miRNAs of Arabidopsis. AGO1 enrichment, co-existence of the miRNA-like coordinates, and unique genome-wide match sites wer...