โ Scribed by Roger N Beachy
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Studies in plant biology continue to deliver novel findings that contribute substantial new information about gene regulation, development, disease resistance, metabolism and physiology that are relevant to a wide variety of disciplines. In addition, much of the fundamental research carried out during the past 20 years has potential for direct applications in agriculture.
In this section I have attempted to draw examples from the long list of exciting subfields of plant biology to illustrate the continuum between discovery and applications in biotechnology. The topics covered in each review contribute to the 'now' of plant biotechnology; some of the topics are also in the 'then' group because they have yet to be involved in product development. This is the case with papers that discuss regulating flowering, translation, and leaf senescence. Translationally regulated plant gene expression has received insufficient attention in plant biology considering the important role of mRNAs. Although it has been known for some time that certain 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) confer greater levels of ribosome binding and initiation of protein synthesis than others, it is unclear in most cases why one UTR is preferred over another, or whether the co-evolution of coding and noncoding sequences plays a significant role in the translation of mRNAs. The exception to this is UTRs of viral origin, where studies have been more detailed. The review by reviews the status of the field, with special emphasis on the translation of organellar mRNAs. They isolated and characterized several proteins that bind to the 5' UTR of a chloroplast mRNA, and are in the midst of completing genetic and biochemical characterizations of these proteins and their role in regulating the translation of subsets of mRNAs. It is anticipated that information derived from these and subsequent studies will be applicable for the targeted regulation of gene expression in the cytoplasm as well as in organelles.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
The information in square brackets following a selected patent, e.g. [Braun et a/., P1] refers to the selecting author and its number in the annotated patents of the corresponding review.
The mission of the BIC is to provide information regarding agricultural and environmental biotechnology and their Web site provides an excellent jumping-off point to a variety of such resources. Contents include bibliographies and resource guides, biotechnology education resources, biotechnology new