Jasmonates are signals in plant stress responses and development. The exact mode of their action is still controversial. To modulate jasmonate levels intracellularly as well as compartment-specifically, transgenic Nicotiana tabacum plants expressing single-chain antibodies selected against the naturally occurring (3R,7R)-enantiomer of jasmonic acid (JA) were created in the cytosol and the endop...

The Arabidopsis HY4 gene, required for blue-light-induced inhibition of hypocotyl elongation, encodes a 75-kDa flavoprotein (CRY1) with characteristics of a blue-light photoreceptor. To investigate the mechanism by which this photoreceptor mediates blue-light responses in vivo, we have expressed the Arabidopsis HY4 gene in transgenic tobacco. The transgenic plants exhibited a short-hypocotyl ph...

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a member of a class of thermoelastic polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates that serve many bacteria as intracellular storage molecules for carbon and energy. Transgenic plants provide a potential means of producing this polymer cost-effectively. To date, however, few reports of the successful production of this polymer have been published, with the exception of work...

BACKGROUND We aimed to engineer transgenic plants for the purpose of early detection of plant pathogen infection, which was accomplished by employing synthetic pathogen inducible promoters fused to reporter genes for altered phenotypes in response to the pathogen infection. Toward this end, a number of synthetic promoters consisting of inducible regulatory elements fused to a red fluorescent pr...

In mammalian cells, apoptosis is often mediated via organelles. While apoptotic-like cell death occurs in plants, the mechanistic details are unresolved. Transgenic tobacco plants have been generated that harbour selected animal anti-apoptotic genes. Subcellular fractionation followed by western blot analysis indicated that chloroplasts serve as a location for these animal anti-apoptotic protei...

Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a member of a class of thermoelastic polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates that serve many bacteria as intracellular storage molecules for carbon and energy. Transgenic plants provide a potential means of producing this polymer cost-effectively. To date, however, few reports of the successful production of this polymer have been published, with the exception of work...

Development of disease-resistant plant varieties achieved by engineering anti-microbial transgenes under the control of strong promoters can suffice the inhibition of pathogen growth and simultaneously ensure enhanced crop production. For evaluating the prospect of such strong promoters, we comprehensively characterized the full-length transcript promoter of Cassava Vein Mosaic Virus (CsVMV; -5...

Transgenic tobacco plants expressing the hyperthermostable beta-glucosidase BglB of Thermotoga maritima were generated with the goal of cost-effective production of the enzyme for the application in bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass. The enzyme was targeted to the cytosol and chloroplasts, where it accumulated to level of 4.5% and 5.8% of total soluble protein, respectively. The optimal ...