An investigation was carried out to monitor the escape and spread of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) transgenic plants and the introgression of transgenes to its closely related feral species in Japan. We screened a total of about 7500 feral B. napus, 300 B. rapa, and 5800 B. juncea seedlings from maternal plants in 143 locations at several ports, roadsides, and riverbanks. The presence of glufos...

Wang, Q., Y. Li, Z. Handoo, and W. Klassen. 2007. Influence of cover crops on populations of soil nematodes. Nematropica 37:79-92. A pot experiment was carried out in south Florida to elucidate suppressive or antagonistic effects of several cover crops grown in rotation on soil nematode populations. The crops were two marigolds, Tagetes patula L. ‘Dwarf Double French Mix’ (MDF), and Tagetes pat...

Venturia inaequalis and V. pirina are Dothideomycete fungi that cause apple scab and pear scab disease, respectively. Whole genome sequencing of V. inaequalis and V. pirina isolates has revealed predicted proteins with sequence similarity to AvrLm6, a Leptosphaeria maculans effector that triggers a resistance response in Brassica napus and B. juncea carrying the resistance gene, Rlm6. AvrLm6-li...

Diacylgycerol acyltransferase (DGAT: EC 2.3.1.20) is the only enzyme in the Kennedy pathway that is exclusively committed to the synthesis of storage oil in plants. In this study, cloning and characterization of DGAT gene sequence from Brassica juncea cv Pusa bold, an important oil seed crop of India is reported. A partial gene sequence of 2003 bp was PCR amplified and cloned from B. juncea. Se...

Transgene insertions might have unintended side effects on the transgenic host, both crop and hybrids with wild relatives that harbor transgenes. We employed proteomic approaches to assess protein abundance changes in seeds from Bt-transgenic oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and its hybrids with wild mustard (B. juncea). A total of 24, 15 and 34 protein spots matching to 23, 13 and 31 unique genes...

Selenium-accumulating plants such as Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) concentrate the element in plant shoots and roots. Such behavior may provide a cost-effective technology to clean up contaminated soils and waters that pose major environmental and human health problems (phytoremediation). Such ability to transform selenium into bioactive compounds has important implications for human nutriti...

Plants often grow under the combined stress of several factors. Salinity and herbivory, separately, can severely hinder plant growth and reproduction, but the combined effects of both factors are still not clearly understood. Salinity is known to reduce plant tissue nitrogen content and growth rates. Since herbivores prefer tissues with high N content, and biochemical pathways leading to resist...