Saponaria vaccaria (Caryophyllaceae), a soapwort, known in western Canada as cowcockle, contains bioactive oleanane-type saponins similar to those found in soapbark tree (Quillaja saponaria; Rosaceae). To improve our understanding of the biosynthesis of these saponins, a combined polymerase chain reaction and expressed sequence tag approach was taken to identify the genes involved. A cDNA encod...

Abbreviations: ASP: active server page; BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool; dbEST ID: database for expressed sequence tagsIdentity; EST: expressed sequence tag; GO: Genome ontology; NCBI: National Centre for Biotechnology Information; NSH: no significant homology; RPS-BLAST: Reversed Position Specific BLAST; SSH: subtractive suppressive hybridization; SSR: simple sequence repeats; TIGR: T...

Background: Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) is secreted by parathyroid glands and controls the level of calcium in bones and kidney. PTH is a small polypeptide with 84 amino acids, but the first 34 amino acids of which are enough for hormone biological activity and can be used in the treatment of Osteoporosis. The expression efficiency of recombinant human parathyroid hormone rhPTH (1-34) or Teripara...

interferon regulatory factor 7 (irf7) gene was cloned from a subtractive cdna library constructed with mrnas obtained from rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss) macrophage cell line (rts-11). using expressed sequence tag clones of submitted irf7 amino acid sequences, specific primers were designed. results showed that irf7 cdna contains an orf of 1251 nucleotides that translates into a 416 residu...

Salicornia spp is one of the most salt-tolerant vascular plants and is native to salt marshes and estuaries. We developed expressed sequence tag derived-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers for estimating genetic diversity and marker-assisted Salicornia breeding. Six polymorphic EST-SSRs of 40 detected 27 alleles, ranging from three to five alleles per locus. The average number of alleles p...