To generate a forage crop with increased biomass density that retains forage quality, we have genetically transformed lines of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) expressing antisense constructs targeting two different lignin pathway biosynthetic genes with a construct for down-regulation of a WRKY family transcription factor that acts as a repressor of secondary cell wall formation in pith tissues. P...

Native grasses interact spatially with themselves and their environment and can therefore be thought of as a system of dependent random variables. One method of modeling the spatial dependence of a multi-species population is a Gibbsian pairwise potential model. Since natural selection operates at the level of individual plants, the information obtained from such a model should provide a greate...

The reversible inhibition of DNA repair is a novel approach to maximize genetic diversity within a plant's genome in order to generate offspring exhibiting important de novo output traits. This process is based on the inhibition of the evolutionarily conserved mismatch repair (MMR) system. In this process, a human dominant negative MMR gene allele is introduced into the germline of a target pla...

Heavy metal contamination of minesoils is a widespread problem in China. In Pingle manganese mineland in Guangxi (south China), heavy metal concentrations in soils and dominant plants were determined, and soil contamination was assessed with pollution index (Pi) and index of geoaccumulation (I-geo). Pi showed the minesoil was heavily polluted by Cd and slightly polluted by Cr. I-geo showed a se...

Protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) is a class of ubiquitous and evolutionarily conserved serine/threonine PP involved in stress responses in yeasts, mammals, and plants. Here, I present mutational analysis of two Arabidopsis thaliana PP2Cs, encoded by ABI1 and AtPP2C, involved in the plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) signaling in maize mesophyll protoplasts. Consistent with the crystal struct...

One possible environmental risk related to the utilization of virus-resistant transgenic plants expressing viral sequences is the emergence of new viruses generated by recombination between the viral transgene mRNA and the RNA of an infecting virus. This hypothesis has been tested recently for cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) by comparing the recombinant populations in transgenic and non-transgenic ...

The life cycle of eukaryotic, sexual species is divided into haploid and diploid phases. In multicellular animals and seed plants, the diploid phase is dominant, and the haploid phase is reduced to one, or a very few cells, which are dependent on the diploid form. In other eukaryotic species, however, the haploid phase may dominate or the phases may be equally developed. Even though an alternat...

Soil arsenic (As) pollution in mining areas have seriously affected the surrounding environment and human health. To explore degree of soil As contamination phytoremediation strategies, a study was undertaken to identify suitable native plants for area. Geo-accumulation index potential ecological risk were sed assess degree. content dominant analyzed by enrichment coefficient. The results show ...

The RAR1 and SGT1 proteins function synergistically or antagonistically in plant innate immune responses. Here, we show that the rice orthologs OsRAR1 and OsSGT1 physically interact in vivo and in yeast. They displayed conserved roles in Arabidopsis disease resistance through ectopic expression in the Arabidopsis rar1 and sgt1 mutants. Overexpression of OsRar1 and OsSGT1 in rice significantly i...