The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv Ailsa Craig) polygalacturonase genes TAPG1 (LYCes;Pga1;2) and TAPG4 (LYCes;Pga1;5) are abundantly expressed in both abscission zones and the pistils of mature flowers. To further investigate the spatial and temporal expression patterns for these genes, the TAPG gene promoters were ligated to beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter genes and transformed into toma...

Commercial cultivation of the mushroom fungus, Agaricus bisporus, utilizes a substrate consisting of a lower layer of compost and upper layer of peat. Typically, the two layers are seeded with individual mycelial inoculants representing a single genotype of A. bisporus. Studies aimed at examining the potential of this fungal species as a heterologous protein expression system have revealed unex...

A genetic complementation system was developed in which tobacco etch virus (TEV) polymerase (NIb)-expressing transgenic plants or protoplasts were inoculated with NIb-defective TEV mutants. A beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene integrated into the genomes of parental and four mutant viruses was used to assay RNA amplification. Two mutants (termed VNN and EDE) contained substitutions affectin...

A large fraction of the genes in plants can be considered essential in the sense that when absent the plant fails to develop past the first few cell divisions. The fact that angiosperms pass through a haploid gametophyte stage can make it challenging to propagate such mutants even in the heterozygous condition. Here we describe a tissue-specific RNAi method that allows us to visualize cell divi...

BACKGROUND Glycosylation of natural compounds increases the diversity of secondary metabolites. Glycosylation steps are implicated not only in plant growth and development, but also in plant defense responses. Although the activities of uridine-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) have long been recognized, and genes encoding them in several higher plants have been identified, the specific fun...

Transgenic Phytophthora palmivora strains that produce green fluorescent protein (GFP) or beta-glucuronidase (GUS) constitutively were obtained after stable DNA integration using a polyethylene-glycol and CaCl2-based transformation protocol. GFP and GUS production were monitored during several stages of the life cycle of P. palmivora to evaluate their use in molecular and physiological studies....

A novel sequence that functions as a promoter element for moderate constitutive expression of transgenes, designated as the PtMCP promoter, was isolated from the woody perennial Populus tomentosa. The PtMCP promoter was fused to the GUS reporter gene to characterize its expression pattern in different species. In stable Arabidopsis transformants, transcripts of the GUS reporter gene could be de...