Concerns have been raised about potential horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of antibiotic resistance markers (ARMs) from transgenic plants to bacteria of medical and environmental importance. All ARMs used in transgenic plants have been bacterial in origin, but it has been recently shown that an Arabidopsis thaliana ABC transporter, Atwbc19, confers kanamycin resistance when overexpressed in trans...

In a previous study in which we examined the genome-wide response of Arabidopsis to the xenobiotic compound trinitrotoluene (TNT) via cDNA microarrays, we found that Atwbc19 (At3g55130) was among upregulated genes. Given the role of ABC transporters in cellular detoxification we sought to further characterize this gene. Initial characterization of mutants revealed that root growth of Atwbc19 kn...

DNA methylation and repressive histone Histone3 Lysine9 (H3K9) dimethylation correlate with chromatin silencing in plants and mammals. To identify factors required for DNA methylation and H3K9 dimethylation, we screened for suppressors of the repressor of silencing1 (ros1) mutation, which causes silencing of the expression of the RD29A (RESPONSE TO DESSICATION 29A) promoter-driven luciferase tr...

This article contains data related to the research article entitled "A case study to determine the geographical origin of unknown GM papaya in routine food sample analysis, followed by identification of papaya events 16-0-1 and 18-2-4" (Prins et al., 2016) [1]. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) with targets that are putatively present in genetically modified (GM) papaya was used as a first scre...

The transcriptional machineries of plastids and mitochondria in higher plants exhibit striking similarities. All mitochondrial genes and part of the plastid genes are transcribed by related phage-type RNA polymerases. Furthermore, the majority of mitochondrial promoters and a subset of plastid promoters show a similar structural organization. We show here that the plant mitochondrial atpA promo...

Resistance to kanamycin and neomycin in the bacterial assemblage of a coastal plain stream was detected by growth of colonies on media containing antibiotics. Three of 184 kanamycin-resistant colonies hybridized with a probe containing the nptII gene from transposon Tn5; the nptII gene encodes the enzyme neomycin phosphotransferase and conveys resistance to kanamycin and neomycin. In one of the...

Cassava is an important food for millions of people around the world. However, cassava is deficient in protein, iron, zinc, pro-vitamin A and vitamin E. Cassava biofortified with pro-vitamin A can help reduce Vitamin A Deficiency among the undernourished communities that rely upon it for sustenance. BioCassava Plus project has developed transgenic cassava that expresses beta carotene in roots u...