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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2012

Abstract

Plasmopara halstedii is a diploid oomycete plant pathogen causing downy mildew on sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Due to changes in cultural systems and the introduction of new exotic cultivars, the pathogen developed many races and have now become a serious problem affecting sunflower growing fields in Europe. The yield losses in sunflower crop caused by P. halstedii can be up to 85 %.

Abstract

The global spread of dengue fever threatens a large percentage of the world’s population. The disease causes great human suffering, a high mortality from dengue haemorrhagic fever and its complications, and major costs. There is currently no vaccine to prevent dengue virus infection. Our project aims to express a tetravalent vaccine candidate in tobacco chloroplasts, a cost effective system, and hence to contribute to innovation and bio-economy as a long term goal.

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Abstract

The development of new tools able to select specific plant tissue is crucial for gene expression studies. During the last years, the use of laser microdissection, mainly tested on herbaceous plant tissue, has been found to be a useful technique for these purposes. This method is poorly tested on woody species, and so far no studies of gene expression have been applied on forest trees. For this reason the present work proposes the optimization of a functional protocol using laser microdissection pressure catapulting (LMPC) and real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in bark stem tissue of Norway spruce (Picea abies). Bark tissue fragments were collected from Norway spruce trees and sliced with a cryostat. RNA was extracted from both whole cross-sections and microdissected bark cells. The feasibility of the method was confirmed by the amplification of the α-tubulin, an endogenous gene of P. abies, with efficiency comparable to that obtained from non-microdissected tissue. The proposed protocol, here adapted for bark tissue of woody species, represents a useful tool in a wide range of hosts that, unlike herbaceous plants, have scarcely been considered up to now.

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Abstract

A 1149 bp genomic fragment corresponding to the 5' non-coding region of the PgD1 (Picea glauca Defensin 1) gene was cloned, characterized, and compared with all Arabidopsis thaliana defensin promoters. The cloned fragment was found to contain several motifs specific to defence or hormonal response, including a motif involved in the methyl jasmonate reponse, a fungal elicitor responsive element, and TC-rich repeat cis-acting element involved in defence and stress responsiveness. A functional analysis of the PgD1 promoter was performed using the uidA (GUS) reporter system in stably transformed Arabidopsis and white spruce plants. The PgD1 promoter was responsive to jasmonic acid (JA), to infection by fungus and to wounding. In transgenic spruce embryos, GUS staining was clearly restricted to the shoot apical meristem. In Arabidopsis, faint GUS coloration was observed in leaves and flowers and a strong blue colour was observed in guard cells and trichomes. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing the PgD1::GUS construct were also infiltrated with the hemibiotrophic pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. It caused a suppression of defensin expression probably resulting from the antagonistic relationship between the pathogen-stimulated salicylic acid pathway and the jasmonic acid pathway. It is therefore concluded that the PgD1 promoter fragment cloned appears to contain most if not all the elements for proper PgD1 expression and that these elements are also recognized in Arabidopsis despite the phylogenetic and evolutionary differences that separates them.