Unicellular micro-alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been recognized as a promising host for expressing recombinant proteins albeit its limited utility due to low levels of heterologous protein expression. Here, transcription of the 3.4-kb mosquito-larvicidal cry4Ba gene from Bacillus thuringiensis in transgenic C. reinhardtii chloroplasts under control of the promoter and 5'-untranslated regio...

Plastid genome content and arrangement are highly conserved across most land plants and their closest relatives, streptophyte algae, with nearly all plastid introns having invaded the genome in their common ancestor at least 450 million years ago. One such intron, within the transfer RNA trnK-UUU, contains a large open reading frame that encodes a presumed intron maturase, matK. This gene is mi...

The psbA gene of photosystem II was cloned and characterized from the P. ginseng chloroplast. The psbA gene is composed of 1,062 nucleotides. The overall amino acid sequence shows 99% and 98% identities to dicots and monocots of higher plants, respectively. Southern blot analysis revealed that a single copy of the psbA gene existed in the chloroplast genome. Northern blot analysis of the in viv...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Gagea is a Eurasian genus of petaloid monocots, with a few species in North Africa, comprising between 70 and approximately 275 species depending on the author. Lloydia (thought to be the closest relative of Gagea) consists of 12-20 species that have a mostly eastern Asian distribution. Delimitation of these genera and their subdivisions are unresolved questions in Liliaceae...

BACKGROUND Populus is an ecologically and economically important genus of trees, but distinguishing between wild species is relatively difficult due to extensive interspecific hybridization and introgression, and the high level of intraspecific morphological variation. The DNA barcoding approach is a potential solution to this problem. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, we tested the discri...

Quaternary climate and environment oscillations have profoundly shaped the population dynamic history geographic distributions of current plants. However, how endangered rare tree species respond to climatic environmental fluctuations in subtropical regions China East Asia still needs elucidation. In this study, we collected 36 natural populations an Magnolia sprengeri Pamp. determine demograph...

We investigated the role of the redox state of the photosynthetic and respiratory electron transport chains on the regulation of psbA expression in Synechocystis PCC 6803. Different means to modify the redox state of the electron carriers were used: (a) dark to oxidize the whole electron transport chain; (b) a shift from dark to light to induce its reduction; (c) the chemical interruption of th...

Leucobryum boninense is endemic to the Bonin Islands, Japan, and its related species are widely distributed in Asia and the Pacific. We aimed to clarify the phylogenetic relationships among Leucobryum species and infer the origin of L. boninense. We also describe the utility of the chloroplast trnK intron including matK for resolving the phylogenetic relationships among Leucobryum species, as p...

Our research brought together traditional aboriginal knowledge (TK) and scientific knowledge (SK) to explore the relationship between scientific and aboriginal systems of botanical classification and the corresponding valorization(s) of biological diversity in the Western Ghats of southern India. We worked with two aboriginal cultures namely 'Irulas' and 'Malasars' of the Nilgiri Biosphere Rese...

Senna alexandrina (Fabaceae) is a globally recognized medicinal plant for its laxative properties as well as the only source of sennosides, and is highly exported bulk herb from India. Its major procurement is exclusively from limited cultivation, which leads to risks of deliberate or unintended adulteration. The market raw materials are in powdered or finished product form, which lead to diffi...