植物生理

Under light-stress conditions, the photosystem (PS)II reaction center D1 protein is photodamaged. The damage to the D1 protein is induced by singlet oxygen molecules and endogenous free radicals generated by the photochemical reactions of PSII. To maintain PSII activity, the oxidati ...

In plants, reactive oxygen species (ROS), also known as active oxygen species (AOS), are associated with normal, physiological processes as well as with responses to adverse conditions. ROS are associated with stress in many ways; as primary elicitors, as products and propagators of oxidat ...

Isolated photosynthetic materials have a relatively short active lifetime that limits their effective use. To circumvent this limitation, various immobilization techniques have been designed to improve their stability both under storage and working conditions. The immobi ...

Redox-dependent thylakoid protein phosphorylation regulates both short- and long-term acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to changes in environmental conditions. The major thylakoid phosphoproteins belong to photosystem (PS)II (D1, D2, CP43, PsbH) and its lighth ...

Plants have a range of mechanisms to protect against oxidative damage induced by excess light and environmental stress. One of these processes consists of the detoxification of reactive oxygen species by the ascorbate peroxidase (APX) family of enzymes, which convert H2O2 into H2O. Two of the ...

Photosystem (PS)I is a multi-subunit pigment-protein complex that uses light energy to transfer electrons from plastocyanin to ferredoxin. Application of genetic engineering to photosynthetic reaction center proteins has led to a significant advancement in our understandi ...

A series of protocols are presented for the storage, growth, transformation, and characterization of wild-type (wt) and mutant strains of Synechocystis PCC 6803. These protocols include the isolation of genomic DNA and the strategies required for the construction of specific gene knoc ...

Despite their economic importance, the Agave spp. have not been genetically improved. This is probably owing to the fact that they have very long life cycles and many of them have an inefficient sexual reproduction mechanism. Micropropagation offers an alternative to this problem through t ...

Softwoods or gymnosperms, which make up 60% of the forested areas of the world, are economically important as a source of lumber, pulp, and paper. Reforestation is a major activity worldwide and the potential benefits of using clonal planting stock have long been recognized. Tissue culture clon ...

This chapter describes the multiple-shoot-based methods of micropropagation for endangered plant species. Taxus and aloe are used here as examples. For Taxus, the process of micropropagation includes initiating multiple shoots, elongating shoots, rooting shoots, and transpl ...

The family Passifloraceae contains many species exploited in the food, pharmaceutical, and ornamental plant industries. The routine culture of isolated protoplasts (naked cells) followed by reproducible plant regeneration, is crucial to the genetic improvement of Passiflo ...

A plant regeneration system from the isolated protoplasts of Echinacea purpurea L. using an alginate solid/liquid culture is described in the chapter. Viable protoplasts were isolated from 100 mg of young leaves of 4-wk-old seedlings in an isolation mixture containing 1.0% cellulase Ono ...

This chapter describes a method of cytoplasm transfer within the brassicaceae family through Ca-PEG-mediated protoplast fusion. The method includes a protocol of nonmutagenic albinism induction based on spectinomycin-induced plastid ribosome deficiency (PRD). The propo ...

The methods of production of inter-specific hybrids in Primula are categorized into four steps: (1) emasculation, (2) pollination, (3) rescue culture of immature embryo, and (4) confirmation of hybridity and ploidy level of the regenerated plants. Although most of the Primula species have a h ...

Many dicotyledonous and also several monocotyledonous plant species are susceptible to Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. This current and well-established method has been used successfully with a large number of plant species to mediate gene transfer. This chapter de ...

In this chapter we briefly review the developmental history and current research status of chloroplast transformation and introduce the merits of chloroplast transformation as compared with the nuclear genome transformation. Furthermore, according to the chloroplast tran ...

The protocol described in this chapter was successfully used to produce the first transgenic plants of wheat. It involves high velocity bombardment of explants with DNA-coated microprojectiles (the biolistics procedure). It highlights the importance of selecting the right expla ...

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is one of the most widespread agronomic problems in world agriculture. The cellular mechanisms that some plant species use to tolerate Al are still not understood today. This knowledge is essential in order to develop crop species that can be cultivated on acid soils. Plant ...

This chapter describes a stepwise protocol to achieve success in genetic transformation of maize using Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a DNA delivery system. Researchers will be able to effectively transform immature embryos of Hi-II and related genotypes with this protocol. The outc ...

Fruits of chili peppers (Capsicum spp.) specifically synthesize and accumulate a group of analogs known as capsaicinoids in the placenta tissues. These secondary metabolites are responsible for the hot taste of chili pepper fruits. Capsaicinoids are of economic importance because of ...