Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the main plant biotechnology gene transfer tool with host range which can be extended to non-plant eukaryotic organisms under laboratory conditions. Known medical cases of Agrobacterium species isolation from bloodstream infections necessitate the assessment of biosafety-related risks of A. tumefaciens encounters with mammalian organisms. Here, we studied the surviv...

We describe a system for gene expression in plants based on the regulation mechanism of the yeast metallothionein (MT) gene. The system consists of two elements: (i) the yeast ace1 (activating copper-MT expression) gene encoding a transcription factor under control of the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S RNA promoter, and (ii) a gene of interest under control of a chimeric promoter consistin...

Many insect and fungal pathogens posing agronomically important threats specifically target the roots in strawberry. The use of a root-specific promoter to confer expressionof resistancegenes in a targetedmanner has the potential appreciably to benefit the genetic improvement of commercial strawberry varieties. A novel gene, FaRB7, was isolated from strawberry (Fragaria3 ananassa Duch.) and fou...

In leaves of most C(4) plants, the biochemistry of photosynthesis is partitioned between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. In addition, their cell biology and development also differs from that in C(3) plants. We have a poor understanding of the mechanisms that generate the cell-specific accumulation of proteins used in the C(4) pathway, and there are few genes that have been shown to be impor...

Full-length biologically active cDNAs of brome mosaic virus genomic RNAs 1, 2 and 3 were constructed by joining cDNA fragments. The cDNAs were constructed so that, at the 5' ends, unique SnaBI sites were present at the site of initiation of transcription. The cDNAs were inserted between a modified cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S RNA promoter and terminator regions derived from CaMV DNA, and...

A novel transgene silencing phenomenon was found in the ornamental plant, gentian (Gentiana triflora x G. scabra), in which the introduced Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S promoter region was strictly methylated, irrespective of the transgene copy number and integrated loci. Transgenic tobacco having the same vector did not show the silencing behavior. Not only unmodified, but also modified ...

Salinity and drought severely affect both plant growth and productivity, making the isolation and characterization of salinity- or drought-inducible promoters suitable for genetic improvement of crop resistance highly desirable. In this study, a 1468-bp sequence upstream of the translation initiation codon ATG of the promoter for ZmGAPP (maize Type-II H+-pyrophosphatase gene) was cloned. Nine 5...

Many insect and fungal pathogens posing agronomically important threats specifically target the roots in strawberry. The use of a root-specific promoter to confer expression of resistance genes in a targeted manner has the potential appreciably to benefit the genetic improvement of commercial strawberry varieties. A novel gene, FaRB7, was isolated from strawberry (Fragariaxananassa Duch.) and f...

The long-term persistence and activity of a naked plasmid DNA (pGL3-35S) containing a luc gene (reporter gene) controlled by a plant 35S CaMV promoter was studied in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) after injection. Atlantic salmon (mean weight 70 grams) were injected intramuscularly with 100 μg of plasmid DNA. Blood, different tissues and organs were sampled at different time points up to day ...