ScienceDaily: Botany News
Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:05:02 EST

'Yellow biotechnology': Using plants to silence insect genes in a high-throughput manner
'Yellow biotechnology' refers to biotechnology with insects -- analogous to the green (plants) and red (animals) biotechnology. Active ingredients or genes in insects are characterized and used for research or application in agriculture and medicine. Scientists in Germany are now using a procedure which brings forward ecological research on insects: They study gene functions in moth larvae by manipulating genes using the RNA interference technology (RNAi). RNAi is induced by feeding larvae with plants that have been treated with viral vectors. This method -- called "plant virus based dsRNA producing system" (VDPS) -- increases sample throughput compared to the use of genetically transformed plants. 
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:12:12 EST

Prolific plant hunters provide insight in strategy for collecting undiscovered plant species
Today's alarmingly high rate of plant extinction necessitates an increased understanding of the world's biodiversity. An estimated 15 to 30 percent of the world's flowering plants have yet to be discovered, making efficiency an integral function of future botanical research.
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:14:14 EST

Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease
Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- biologists are showing how freeloading, mutant derivatives of these plasmids benefit while the virulent, disease-causing plasmids do the heavy-lifting of initiating infection in plant hosts. The research confirms that the ability of bacteria to cause disease comes at a significant cost that is only counterbalanced by the benefits they experience from infected host organisms.
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:53:53 EST

Genetic information migrates from plant to plant
To generate phylogenetic trees and investigate relationships between organisms, scientists usually look for similarities and differences in the DNA. Plant scientists were confounded by the fact that the DNA extracted from the plants’ green chloroplasts sometimes showed the greatest similarities when related species grew in the same area. Scientists have now discovered that a transfer of entire chloroplasts, or at least their genomes, can occur in contact zones between plants. Inter-species crossing is not necessary. The new chloroplast genome can even be handed down to the next generation and, thereby, give a plant with new traits. These findings are of great importance to the understanding of evolution as well as the breeding of new plant varieties.
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:31:31 EST

Botany: Moonlighting enzyme works double shift 24/7
A team of researchers has discovered an overachieving plant enzyme that works both the day and night shifts. The discovery shows that plants evolved a new function for this enzyme by changing merely one of its protein building blocks.
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:08 EST