Seed desiccation tolerance (DT) is one of the most fascinating processes of higher plants, and has played a fundamental role in the evolution of land plants. DT allows plant seeds to remain viable in the dry state for years and even centuries. What the key transcription factors (TFs) are that activate the mechanisms that allow plant seeds to maintain cellular and DNA integrity for centuries remains largely unknown.

A soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) gnarled trichome mutant, exhibiting stunted trichomes compared to wild-type, was identified in a fast neutron mutant population. Genetic mapping using whole genome sequencing-based bulked segregant analysis identified a 26.6 megabase interval on chromosome 20 that co-segregated with the phenotype.

The rice blast fungus causes significant annual harvest losses. It also serves as a genetically-tractable model to study fungal ingress. Whilst pathogenicity determinants have been unmasked and changes in global gene expression described, we know little about Magnaporthe oryzae cell wall remodelling. Our interests, in wall remodelling genes expressed during infection, vegetative growth and under exogenous wall stress, demand robust choice of reference genes for quantitative Real Time-PCR (qRT-PCR) data normalisation.

While glycolate oxidase (GLO) is well known as a key enzyme for the photorespiratory metabolism in plants, its physiological function and mechanism remains to be further clarified. Our previous studies have shown that suppression of GLO in rice leads to stunted growth and inhibited photosynthesis (Pn) which is positively and linearly correlated with decreased GLO activities. It is, therefore, of interest to further understand whether Pn can be improved when GLO is up-regulated?

Bevacizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) targeting to the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), has been widely used in clinical practice for the treatment of multiple cancers. Bevacizumab was mostly produced by the mammalian cell expression system. We here reported the first plant-derived Bevacizumab by using transgenic rice callus as an alternative gene expression system. Codon-optimized Bevacizumab light chain (BLC) and Bevacizumab heavy chain (BHC) genes were designed, synthesized as a polyprotein with a 2A self-cleavage linker peptide from the Foot-and-mouth disease virus, cloned into a plant binary vector under a constitutive maize ubiquitin promoter, and transformed into rice nuclear genome through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

Understanding how climate change affects ecosystem productivity is critical for managing fisheries and sustaining biodiversity. African lakes are warming rapidly, potentially jeopardizing both their high endemic biodiversity and important fisheries. Using paleoecological records from Lake Tanganyika, we show that declines in commercially important fishes and endemic molluscs have accompanied lake warming.

Ingenol mebutate is a diterpene ester with a highly complex macrocyclic structure that has been approved for the treatment of actinic keratosis, a precondition of skin cancer. The current production of ingenol mebutate through plant extraction or chemical synthesis is inefficient and costly. Here, we describe the discovery of a biosynthetic route in Euphorbia lathyris L. (caper spurge) in which regio-specific oxidation of casbene is followed by an unconventional cyclization to yield jolkinol C,

The Association of National Biosafety Agencies in Africa (ANBAA) held its first African Biosafety Leadership Summit on August 15 and 16, 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya. The summit brought together over eighty delegates from local, regional and international organizations involved in biosafety.

The molecular chaperone heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a key member of the cellular proteostasis network, and as such helps to protect cells against proteotoxic stress. Cancer cells have up-regulated members of this network, including Hsp90, to promote their survival and growth. Several Hsp90 inhibitors have undergone clinical trials, but these drugs, which bind to a shared nucleotide pocket in the N-terminal domain

The family of chloride channel proteins that mediate Cl(-) transportation play vital roles in plant nutrient supply, cellular action potential and turgor pressure adjustment, stomatal movement, hormone signal recognition and transduction, Cl(-) homeostasis, and abiotic and biotic stress tolerance. The anionic toxicity, mainly caused by chloride ions (Cl(-)), on plants under salt stress remains poorly understood. In this work, we investigated the function of soybean Cl(-)/H(+) antiporter GmCLC1 under salt stress in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana, soybean, and yeast