Changes in plant volatile emission can be induced by exposure to volatiles from neighbouring insect-attacked plants. However, plants are also exposed to volatiles from unattacked neighbours, and the consequences of this have not been explored. We investigated whether volatile exchange between undamaged plants affects volatile emission and plant-insect interaction. Consistently greater quantitie...

Sucrose synthase (SuSy) is a highly regulated cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of sucrose and a nucleoside diphosphate into the corresponding nucleoside diphosphate glucose and fructose. To determine the impact of SuSy activity in starch metabolism and yield in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers we measured sugar levels and enzyme activities in tubers of SuSy-overexpressing pota...

SWEET (Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter) proteins, a novel family of sugar transporters, mediate the diffusion of sugars across cell membranes and acts as key players in sucrose phloem loading. Manipulation of SWEET genes in plants leads to various effects on resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses due to disruption of sugar efflux and changes in sugar distribution. In this stud...

Magainin peptides originally identified from Xenopus laevis have cytotoxic effects against a range of prokaryotic organisms without harmful effects on higher eukaryotes. The mechanism of cytotoxicity of the peptides is by disruption of membranes, which causes osmolysis. Magainin peptides are known to inhibit the in vitro growth of many phytopathogens including Erwinia carotovora, the causative ...

Experiments were conducted to study the plant growth and tuber yield of the seed potato collected from PVY and PLRV infected plants. The seed potatoes were graded as under size (<28 mm), A grade ( 28-40 mm), B grade (41-55 mm) and over size (>55 mm) which were planted following RCBD in the field. Third generation seed potatoes of Diamant variety were used. The incidence of viruses was confirmed...

BACKGROUND Patatins encoded by a multi-gene family are one of the major storage glycoproteins in potato tubers. Potato tubers have recently emerged as bioreactors for the production of human therapeutic glycoproteins (vaccines). Increasing the yield of recombinant proteins, targeting the produced proteins to specific cellular compartments, and diminishing expensive protein purification steps ar...

The catecholamine compounds in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) leaves and tubers have been identified by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) measurements. The finding that the catecholamine level is dramatically increased upon tyrosine decarboxylase (TD) overexpression potentiates the investigation on their physiological significance in plants. It was then evidenced that catec...

Acetolactate synthase (ALS), the first enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of leucine, valine, and isoleucine, i s the biochemical target of different herbicides. To investigate the effects of repression of ALS activity through antisense gene expression we cloned an ALS gene from potato (Solanum fuberosum L. cv Désirée), constructed a chimeric antisense gene under control of the cauliflower mosa...

A potato (Solanum tuberosum) cDNA encoding an isoform of disproportionating enzyme (stDPE2) was identified in a functional screen in Escherichia coli. The stDPE2 protein was demonstrated to be present in chloroplasts and to accumulate at times of active starch degradation in potato leaves and tubers. Transgenic potato plants were made in which its presence was almost completely eliminated. It c...