Pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP), a 29-kDa protein isolated from Phytolacca americana, inhibits translation by catalytically removing a specific adenine residue from the large rRNA of the 60S subunit of eukaryotic ribosomes. In addition to its ribosome-inactivating ability, PAP has potent antiviral activity against many plant and animal viruses, including HIV. We recently described the isolatio...

Resistance to virus infections in higher vertebrates is mediated in part through catalysis of RNA decay by the, interferon-regulated 2-5A system. A functional 2-5A system requires two enzymes, a 2-5A synthetase that produces 5'-phosphorylated, 2',5'-linked oligoadenylates (2-5A) in response to double-stranded RNA, and the 2-5A-dependent RNase L. We have coexpressed these human enzymes in transg...

Tepfer, M. 1993. Viral genes and transgenic plants. What are potential environmental risks? Bio/Technology 11:1125–1132. Truve, E., A. Aaspollu, J. Honkanen, R. Puska, M. Mehto, A. Hassi, T.H. Teeri, M. Kelve, P. Seppanen, and M. Saarma. 1993. Transgenic potato plants expressing mammalian 2'-5' oligoadenylate synthetase are protected from potato virus X infection under field conditions. Bio/Tec...

Insect pest complex, cotton leaf curl disease and weeds pose major threat to crop production worldwide, including Pakistan. To address these problems, in the present study a triple gene construct harboring Cry1Ac, Cry2Ab, and EPSPS cassettes has been developed for plant specifically in cotton transformation against lepidopteron insect-pests and weeds. Nicotiana benthamiana (tobacco) was used as...

Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) ethylene-responsive element binding protein (AtEBP) gene was isolated as a suppressor of Bax-induced cell death by functional screening in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). To further examine the cell death suppressive action of AtEBP in plant cells, we established transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants overexpressing AtEBP as well as transgenic tobacco...

objective: escherichia coli (e.coli) o157:h7 is one of the most important pathogenic causes of hemorrhagic colitis in humans. cattle are the main reservoirs of this bacteria and vaccination is a key mechanism for its control. the intimin, translocated intimin receptor (tir), and espa proteins are virulence factors expressed by the lee locus of enterohemorrhagic e. coli. espa protein is a member...

Cadmium (Cd) is a nonessential microelement and low concentration Cd2+ has strong toxicity to plant growth. Plant metallothioneins, a class of low molecular, cystein(Cys)-rich and heavy-metal binding proteins, play an important role in both metal chaperoning and scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS) with their large number of cysteine residues and therefore, protect plants from oxidative ...

Motivation exists to develop tobacco cultivars with reduced nicotine content for the purpose of facilitating compliance with expected tobacco product regulations that could mandate the lowering of nicotine levels per se, or the reduction of carcinogenic alkaloid-derived tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). A berberine bridge enzyme-like (BBL) gene family was recently characterized for N. taba...

With the general aim of elevating the content of the essential amino acid methionine in vegetative tissues of plants, alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and tobacco plants, as well as BY2 tobacco suspension cells, were transformed with a beta-zein::3HA gene under the 35S promoter of cauliflower mosaic virus encoding a rumen-stable methionine-rich storage protein of 15 kDa zein. To examine whether sol...

Drought is one of the most important abiotic stresses affecting the productivity of maize. Previous studies have shown that expression of a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAPKKK) gene activated an oxidative signal cascade and led to the tolerance of freezing, heat, and salinity stress in transgenic tobacco. To analyse the role of activation of oxidative stress signalling in imp...