Photobiological hydrogen production -- the use of photosynthesis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen -- presents an opportunity for efficient and large-scale solar biofuel development. One of the major challenges in this area is competition for reductant between the hydrogen-evolving hydrogenase enzyme and other metabolic pathways. In this work...
Streptococcus gordonii is a bacterial species that naturally colonizes the oral cavity of most healthy humans. It resides in the mouth as an adherent to dental surfaces and, with few exceptions, does not cause disease in individuals it inhabits. It possesses qualities that encourage its use as a vector to...
The production of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) haploids by crossing with
H. bulbosum is a widely used tool in breeding and genetics. Certain barley
genotypes have low seed set in this interspecific cross, a phenomenon known
as partial incompatibility. Haploid production efficiency and gamete sampling
are important issues with the...
The investigations reported are based on two studies; the first
is concerned with the selection practiced for performance in one inbred
Angus and three inbred Hereford lines of cattle, the realized
responses, levels of inbreeding and associated performance, and
heritabilities of the performance traits.
Selection differentials for all performance traits...
Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the causative agent of crown gall
disease, does not readily infect commercial varieties of alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Cloned virulence genes from the megaplasmid pTiBo542 have
been shown to enhance Agrobacterium host range and infectivity on
dicotyledonous plants. To obtain a gene transfer system for commercial
alfalfa cultivars, an...
Stable expression of transgenes is required for commercial uses of genetically engineered trees. To better understand the stability of transgene expression under field conditions, we studied transgene expression and RNA interference (RNAi)-induced transgene suppression in 2,480 transgenic poplars (460 transgene insertion events) over three years. Stability of expression was assessed...
Experiments focusing on plant growth regulators’ concentrations and combination, mineral salt formulations and TDZ pretreatment formations were conducted to optimize in vitro shoot regeneration from leaf and petiole explants of 'Marion' blackberry. Optimum shoot formation was obtained when stock plants were incubated in TDZ pretreatment medium for three weeks before...
We tested a synthetic bacterio-opsin (bO) gene derived from Halobacterium halobium for its effect on disease resistance in transgenic poplar hybrids, and assessed a genetic system for controlling expression of this gene. In tobacco the bO gene caused necrotic lesions similar to an induced hypersensitive response (HR), increased levels of...