A common yet poorly understood evolutionary transition among flowering plants is a switch from outbreeding to an inbreeding mode of mating. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana evolved to an inbreeding state through the loss of self-incompatibility, a pollen-rejection system in which pollen recognition by the stigma is determined by tightly linked and co-evolving alleles of the S-locus receptor...

To utilize and exploit pollen for in situ mutagen monitoring, screening and toxicology, the range of genetic traits in pollen must be identified and analyzed. Traits that can be considered include ornamentation, shape and form, male sterility viability, intraspecific incompatibility, proteins and starch deposition. To be useful for the development of mutagen detection systems proteins should be...

one hundred and twenty iranian accessions of aegilops crassa with origin from different geographical areas of iran, were evaluated for variation in high molecular weight glutenin subunit (hmw-gs) composition. the results showed different banding patterns between hexa (6x) and tetra-ploid (4x) as well as within different ploidy accessions. eleven allelic variants were observed in glu- dcr1 locus...

Various mechanisms in flowering plants have evolved to prevent the tendency of self-fertilization created by close proximity of male and female reproductive organs in a perfect flower. One such mechanism, called self-incompatibility (SI), allows the pistil of a plant to reject self pollen or pollen from genetically related individuals, thus preventing inbreeding and promoting outcrosses. Geneti...

As a starting point for a phylogenetic study of self-incompatibility (SI) in crucifers and to elucidate the genetic basis of transitions between outcrossing and self-fertilizing mating systems in this family, we investigated the SI system of Arabidopsis lyrata. A. lyrata is an outcrossing close relative of the self-fertile A. thaliana and is thought to have diverged from A. thaliana approximate...

eight pollinators (as pollen parents) and four cms lines (as seed parents) differing in salinity and drought tolerance were evaluated using agro-morphological traits and microsatellite markers. root yield, leaf weight, sugar content, sodium content (na+), potassium content (k+), a-amino nitrogen content, alkalinity coefficient, molasses sugar, white sugar content, extraction coefficient of suga...

Trans-species polymorphism, meaning the presence of alleles in different species that are more similar to each other than they are to alleles in the same species, has been found at loci associated with vegetative incompatibility in filamentous fungi. If individuals differ at one or more of these loci (termed het for heterokaryon), they cannot form stable heterokaryons after vegetative fusion. A...

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS), as a multifactorial autoimmune disease with complex genetic basis, causes demyelination in the central nervous system via cytokine responses to myelin antigens. Myelin basic protein (MBP) is the main protein component of the myelin sheath. HLA-DRB (human leukocyte antigen-DR beta) alleles, particularly HLA-DRB1*1501, may be of significance in the pathogenesi...

Maize is an important staple crop for many countries. Culture dictates maize use, processing, and incorporation into foods. The crop has a rich history of domestication and improvement. With its relative ease of genetic manipulation, maize is considered a model crop for plant genetic experimentation. Recent biotechnological advances, as well as the completed B73 reference genome sequence, have ...