Transgenic plants expressing a foreign gene are a suitable system for the production of relevant immunogens in high amounts that can be used for the development of a new generation of vaccines against a variety of infectious diseases. In the present study, the expression of the nucleocapsid (N) protein of hantavirus serotype Puumala in tobacco and potato plants was investigated. Transgenic toba...

The heavy metal cadmium (Cd(2+)) applied on tobacco roots in the form of cadmium chloride, induced significantly higher levels of DNA damage as measured by the cellular Comet assay than did treatment of isolated root nuclei, analyzed by use of the acellular Comet assay. DNA damage induced by Cd(2+) in roots of a transgenic catalase-deficient tobacco line (CAT1AS) was higher than in wild-type to...

Nicotine is a natural water-soluble alkaloid obtained from the dried leaves and stems of tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum and Nicotiana rustica), with amounts of 0.5%-8% by weight. Because this substance has an addictive potential, leaves or products of tobacco have been sold as snuff, chewing tobacco, cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco. Nicotine is also used for therapeutic purposes, such as...

Four endochitinases (poly[1,4-(N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminide)] glycanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.14) have been purified from leaves of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun NN reacting hypersensitively to tobacco mosaic virus. Two of them are acidic proteins of molecular weights 27,500 and 28,500 and have been identified as 2 of the 10 pathogenesis-related proteins that are known to accumulate in tobacco in re...

Polyhydroxybutyrate [P(3HB)] was produced in the transgenic tobacco harboring the genes encoding acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (PhaB) and polyhydroxyalkanoate synthase (PhaC) from Ralstonia eutropha (Cupriavidus necator) with optimized codon usage for expression in tobacco. P(3HB) contents in the transformants (0.2mg/g dry cell weight in average) harboring the codon-optimized phaB gene was twofold ...

In tobacco cultivars resistant to tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), infection results in the death of the infected cells accompanying the formation of necrotic lesions. To identify the genes involved in this hypersensitive reaction, we isolated the cDNA of tobacco DS9, the transcript of which decreases before the appearance of necrotic lesions. The DS9 gene encodes a chloroplastic homolog of bacteria...

The sink-source conversion in developing leaves of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) was studied to determine whether import termination is caused by the onset of export or is related to achievement of positive carbon balance. Albino shoots were grown in vitro and grafted to detopped stems of green tobacco plants. Termination of import was studied by providing mature leaves of the stock plant with...

The induced defense response in plants towards herbivores is mainly regulated by jasmonates and leads to the accumulation of so-called jasmonate-induced proteins. Recently, a jasmonate (JA) inducible lectin called Nicotiana tabacum agglutinin or NICTABA was discovered in tobacco (N. tabacum cv Samsun) leaves. Tobacco plants also accumulate the lectin after insect attack by caterpillars. To stud...

Panax ginseng is one of the famous medicinal plants. Ginsenosides, a class of tetracyclic triterpene saponins, are mainly responsible for its pharmacological activity. Most ginsenosides are composed of dammarenediol-II aglycone with various sugar moieties. Dammarenediol-II synthase is the first enzyme in the biosynthesis of ginsenosides. Here, we report that transgenic tobacco expressing the P....