Lycopene biosynthesis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits has been proposed to proceed through a poly-cis pathway catalyzed by phytoene synthase (PSY), two desaturases (phytoene desaturase [PDS] and ζ-carotene desaturase [ZDS]), and two cis-trans isomerases (ζ-carotene isomerase [ZISO] and prolycopene isomerase [CrtISO]). The mechanism of action of these enzymes has been studied in Escheric...

The phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene of Nicotiana benthamiana was silenced in plants infected with potato virus X (PVX) vectors carrying PDS inserts, and a green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgene was silenced in plants infected with PVX-GFP. This virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is post-transcriptional and cytoplasmic because it is targeted against exons rather than introns of PDS RNA and ag...

Solanum rostratum is a "super weed" that grows fast, is widespread, and produces the toxin solanine, which is harmful to both humans and other animals. To our knowledge, no study has focused on its molecular biology owing to the lack of available transgenic methods and sequence information for S. rostratum. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a powerful tool for the study of gene function in...

Center for Plant Biology and MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (N.L., K.X., Q.J., J.Z., T.C., X.W., H.L., Y.L.); Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China (X.D.); Research Centre for Plant RNA Signaling, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University,...

Pathogens have evolved various strategies to overcome host immunity for successful infection. Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) can cause lethal necrosis in maize (Zea mays) when it coinfects with a the Potyviridae family. However, MCMV pathogenicity determinant remains largely unknown. Here we show that P31 protein of is important viral accumulation and essential symptom development. Ectopic...

Virus-induced gene silencing was used to assess the function of random Nicotiana benthamiana cDNAs in disease resistance. Out of 4992 cDNAs tested from a normalized library, there were 79 that suppressed a hypersensitive response (HR) associated with Pto-mediated resistance against Pseudomonas syringae. However, only six of these clones blocked the Pto-mediated suppression of P.syringae growth....

The P19 protein of tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) is a multifunctional pathogenicity determinant involved in suppression of posttranscriptional gene silencing, virus movement, and symptom induction. Here, we report that P19 interacts with the conserved RNA-binding domain of an as yet uncharacterized family of plant ALY proteins that, in animals, are involved in export of RNAs from the nucleus ...

Light is an important environmental signal that governs plant growth, development, and metabolism. Constitutive photomorphogenic 1 (COP1) a light signaling component plays vital role in responses. We isolated the COP1 gene (LoCOP1) from petals of Lilium ‘Siberia’ investigated its function. The LoCOP1 protein was found to be most similar Apostasia shenzhenica COP1. factor located nucleus played ...