EST-SSRs reveal genetic distinction between lac and grain yielding genotypes of pigeonpea

Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology - Pigeonpea, an important legume crop is a good host plant for lac cultivation in North East India. In the present study, sixty-three polymorphic EST...     

Identification,characterization, validation and cross-species amplification of genic-SSRs in Indian Mustard (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Brassica juncea</Emphasis>)

Brassica juncea is an economically important oilseed crop worldwide. It has limited genomic resources at present. We generated 47,962,057 expressed sequence reads which were assembled into 45,280 unigenes. A total of 4108 SSR loci (≥10 bp) were identified in these unigenes. Trinucleotide was the most frequent repeat unit (59.91 %) followed by di- (38.66 %), tetra - (0.71 %), hexa - (0.49 %) and pentanucleotide repeats (0.24 %). Primers were designed for 2863 SSR loci among which 460 were selected for primer synthesis. A total of 339 loci amplified successfully of which 134 (39.5 %) exhibited polymorphism among six B. juncea genotypes with PIC values ranging from 0.18 to 0.81. Further, 25 polymorphic SSRs were used for analysis of genetic variability in 25 genotypes of Brassicas and their wild relatives. Two to five alleles with PIC values 0.22–0.66 were detected at these loci. The dendrogram grouped the genotypes according to their known pedigree/systematic position.     

Structural and functional analysis of CCT family genes in pigeonpea

Molecular Biology Reports - Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) is a photoperiod-sensitive short-day plant. Understanding the flowering-related genes is critical to developing photoperiod insensitive...     

Chimeric B72.3 mouse/human (IgG1) antibody directs the lysis of tumor cells by lymphokine-activated killer cells

Summary Chimeric mouse/human B72.3 (cB72.3) antibodies having a human IgG1 (1) or IgG4 (4) constant region were compared to the native murine IgG1 B72.3 (nB72.3) monoclonal antibody (mAb) for their ability to participate with human effector cells in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Because the TAG-72 antigen recognized by B72.3 is poorly expressed on tissuecultured tumor cell lines, the xenografted OVCAR-3 human ovarian carcinoma ascites was used as a cytotoxicity target. The lytic activity of the cB72.3(1) mAb with peripheral blood lymphocytes was 1.5- to 50-fold greater than that of the nB72.3 mAb and usually the cB72.3(4) mAb. However, lymphocytes from some donors had similar ADCC activity with either the cB72.3(1) or cB72.3(4) mAb. The cB72.3(1) and the murine anti-colon carcinoma CO17-1A mAb had comparable activity in mediating ADCC against the OVCAR-3 tumor. Exposure of lymphoid cells to interleukin-2 (IL-2) (100–500 U/ml) for 24 h to generate lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells augmented ADCC mediated by the cB72.3(1) mAb 2- to 22-fold. By contrast, LAK cells from most donors expressed weak non-specific cytotoxicity against OVCAR-3 ascites tumor cells. The cB72.3(1), and to a lesser extent, the cB72.3(4) chimera also participated with monocytes in mediating ADCC, but the antibody-dependent lytic potency of monocytic effectors was much weaker than that of IL-2-activated lymphoid cells. These studies show that the cB72.3(1) mAb has appreciable ADCC-mediating properties, suggesting a potential role for its incorporation into treatment strategies utilizing adoptive killer cell and/or lymphokine therapy. Offprint requests to: J. Schlom, to whom reprint requests should be sent at 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 10, Room 8B07, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA     

Non-coding RNAs having strong positive interaction with mRNAs reveal their regulatory nature during flowering in a wild relative of pigeonpea (Cajanus scarabaeoides)

Molecular Biology Reports - In higher plants, flower development is a result of crosstalk between many factors like photoperiod, vernalization, hormone concentration, epigenetic modification etc....