Project description:Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum tuberosum are agriculturally important crop species as they are rich sources of starch, protein, antioxidants, lycopene, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and fiber. The genomes of S. lycopersicum and S. tuberosum are currently available. However the linear strings of nucleotides that together comprise a genome sequence are of limited significance by themselves. Computational and bioinformatics approaches can be used to exploit the genomes for fundamental research for improving their varieties. The comparative genome analysis, Pfam analysis of predicted reviewed paralogous proteins was performed. It was found that S. lycopersicum proteins belong to more families, domains and clans in comparison with S. tuberosum. It was also found that mostly intergenic regions are conserved in two genomes followed by exons, intron and UTR. This can be exploited to predict regions between genomes that are similar to each other and to study the evolutionary relationship between two genomes, leading towards the development of disease resistance, stress tolerance and improved varieties of tomato.
Project description:BACKGROUND:The use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) brings several key advantages over existing illumination technologies for indoor plant cultivation. Among these are that LEDs have predicted lifetimes from 50-100.000 hours without significant drops in efficiency and energy consumption is much lower compared to traditional fluorescent tubes. Recent advances allow LEDs to be used with customized wavelengths for plant growth. However, most of these LED growth systems use mixtures of chips emitting in several narrow wavelengths and frequently they are not compatible with existing infrastructures. This study tested the growth of five different plant species under phosphor coated LED-chips fitted into a tube with a standard G13 base that provide continuous visible light illumination with enhanced blue and red light. RESULTS:The LED system was characterized and compared with standard fluorescence tubes in the same cultivation room. Significant differences in heat generation between LEDs and fluorescent tubes were clearly demonstrated. Also, LED lights allowed for better control and stability of preset conditions. Physiological properties such as growth characteristics, biomass, and chlorophyll content were measured and the responses to pathogen assessed for five plant species (both the model plants Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana bentamiana and crop species potato, oilseed rape and soybean) under the different illumination sources. CONCLUSIONS:We showed that polychromatic LEDs provide light of sufficient quality and intensity for plant growth using less than 40% of the electricity required by the standard fluorescent lighting under test. The tested type of LED installation provides a simple upgrade pathway for existing infrastructure for indoor plant growth. Interestingly, individual plant species responded differently to the LED lights so it would be reasonable to test their utility to any particular application.
Project description:Rice stripe virus (RSV) causes the general chlorosis symptom and influences expression of numberous chloropalst-related genes at transcriotional level in Nicotiana benthamiana plants, but the mechanism are not well understood. Small RNAs (sRNAs), including virus-derived siRNA (vsiRNA) play roles in modulating genes expression post-transcriptionally. This present work presents multi-omics analysis of the transcriptome, sRNAome and degradome in RSV-infected N.benthamiana plants. Transcriptome-seq profiled 4127 N. benthamiana genes, with differentially expressed genes (DEGs) enriched in functional categories such as metabolic process, protein phosphorylation, regulation of transcription, carotenoid biosynthetic process. We identified 400863, 203874 and 244713 reads of vsiRNA from 3 sRNA libraries of RSV-infected N.benthamiana plants respectively. The degradome-seq report discovered a significant number of N.benthamiana genes that might be regulated by vsiRNAs post-transcriptionally. Based on integrated analysis of the three omics, we provide a substantial amount of novel information on the transcriptional and post-transcriptional networks in RSV-infected N.benthamiana, which will extends our horizon about the interactions between virus and their hosts.
Project description:Potato leaves From Solanum tuberosum var. Kennebec will be wounded and oral secretions from 4th instar CPB will be isolated and added to the plants as described by Kruzmane et al (2002, Physiol. Plantarum 115:577-584). The leaf from the 6th node of the potato plant will be wounded or wounded and treated with oral secretions from CPB. Unwounded leaves from node 1-5 of the wounded and wounded plus oral secretions plants will be harvested as systemic material. The leaves will be harvested after 4 hrs and RNA will be isolated. 4 hrs was chosen because this represents a time when early and late induced genes should both be present. In addition, the leaf from the 6th node will be subjected to feeding by CPB that have been raised on potato leaves and starved for 16 hrs immediately prior to infestation. Insects will be allowed to feed for 1 hr and the leaves will be harvested after 3 additional hrs. An additional set of plants will be used to infest the leaf on the 6th node for 4 hrs. Leaves from the 6th node will be collected from uninfested plants after 4 hrs as a control. Three sets of 6-12 plants will be used for each sample. Keywords: Direct comparison