植物学技术

Recent high-throughput methods for the analysis of biological samples are raising the possibility of data integration between investigators and even across technology platforms. In plant biology, integration of data can be problematic, since heterogeneity of plant growth cond ...

Plants accumulate a very large number of small molecules (phytochemicals) with important functions in the ecology of plants and in the protection against biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Little is known on how phytochemical biosynthetic pathways are regulated, which is a key step to ...

Progress in the understanding of how cells perceive signals and how the perception of specific signals leads to cellular responses has been dramatic over the last decade. One of the many new aspects of cell signaling that has emerged is that several types of lipids play key roles in the transfer of info ...

Substantial evidence implicates important roles for both protein phosphorylation and protein degradation in regulation of plant defense responses. Therefore, interest is growing in applying proteomics techniques to investigate these posttranscriptional changes. We ...

Massively parallel signature sequencing is a sequencing-based method that provides quantitative gene expression data for nearly all transcripts in a particular ribonucleic acid sample. Although the sequencing technology is practiced as a service by a California-based compa ...

Identification of important transcripts from fungal pathogens and host plants is indispensable for full understanding the molecular events occurring during fungal-plant interactions. Recently, we developed an improved LongSAGE method called robust-long serial analys ...

Microarray analysis is a technology that allows simultaneous measurement of the messenger RNA levels of thousands of genes. There are several different technology platforms in use, including oligo arrays synthesized directly on the underlying substrate, and spotted arrays prod ...

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a powerful RNA-silencing based technology adapted for the study of host-gene function. VIGS functions through the expression of a host gene from a virus vector. Both the virus-encoded host sequence and the homologous host target messenger RNA are des ...

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) has been used as a quick and easy tool to assess gene function in plants. The virus, carrying a portion of an endogenous gene, triggers a homology-based defense mechanism when introduced into plants. Infection with the modified virus results in gene-specif ...

The RNA inference (RNAi) technique is a powerful tool to suppress gene expression and has been widely used for functional discovery of eukaryotic genes. To dissect defense-signaling pathways in rice, it is important to generate a series of rice mutant lines deficient in or insensitive to major s ...

The development of genetically engineered resistance to plant viruses is a result of efforts to understand the plant-virus interactions involved in “crossprotection,” a phenomenon observed with several plant virus diseases. Historically, expression of the coat protein gene of T ...

The use of plant protoplast transient expression system has facilitated the discovery and dissection of many signal transduction pathways in response to hormones, metabolites, and stresses. Recently, Arabidopsis protoplasts also have been used successfully to study plant inna ...

Many Gram-negative plant and animal pathogens share a common virulence strategy that relies on the specialized type III secretion system. This apparatus is used to secrete virulence factors, called effectors, into the extracellular host environment and directly into the cytoplasm of ...

This chapter describes methods for targeted knockouts using marker exchange mutagenesis and complementation of the Gram-negative bacteria Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. We have used these methods to demonstrate that type I secretion and modification systems are involved in avr ...

Each plant hormone elicits a set of characteristic physiological and biochemical responses. The primary stimulus initiating the sequence of events leading to such responses is the interaction of the hormone with its receptor protein. In general, receptors may be either membrane-ass ...

Gibberellins (GAs) are involved in a wide range of plant developmental processes. The biosynthetic pathway is discussed in Chapter 1 but it should be noted here that of all the plant hormones the GAs represent perhaps the most diverse group, with currently 125 different structures known. This di ...

The hydrocarbon ethylene (C2H4) is a plant hormone that plays an important role in the regulation of many environmentally and developmentally induced processes, such as stress resistance, seed germination, fruit ripening, senescence, and abscission (1). All tissue types and probably ...

Plant hormones are present and active in minor concentrations in plant tissue. To allow quantification in a restricted amount of material, i.e., protoplasts, chloroplasts, seedlings, seeds, buds, or apical root- and stem regions, a sensitive analytical technique is a prerequisite. Duri ...

The advent of genetic engineering has provided a means to manipulate the biosynthesis of plant hormones to the advantage of agriculture. Such manipulation is very dependent on a detailed knowledge of the biosynthetic pathways involved in the production of the hormones, and more precisely ...

Most experiments utilizing Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a vector for the introduction of genes into plant cells commence in Escherichia coli. The sheer size and complexity of the Ti-plasmids precludes their direct manipulation. Thus, insertion is usually into a comparatively small ...