There has been a lot of talk about transposable elements during the Plant and Animal Genome #PAGXXIII meeting this week. As half or more – often 75% – of all the DNA in a plant or animal genome is typically made of class I retrotransposons and class II DNA transposons, this widespread interest is right!…
Category: Species
The diversification and activity of hAT transposons in Musa genomes
Menzel G, Heitkam T, Seibt KM, Nouroz F, Müller-Stoerme M, Heslop-Harrison JS, Schmidt T. 2014. The diversification and activity of hAT transposons in Musa genomes. Chromosome Research 22: 559–571. DOI 10.1007/s10577-014-9445-5 and Pubmed link ID: 25377178 And author print hATs in Musa _2014_CR_MenzelEtAlAuthorVersion2014. Sequencing of plant genomes often identified the hAT superfamily as largest group of DNA…
An Overview of Peanut Genome Structure
308. DJ Bertioli, ACG Araujo, S Nielen, P Heslop-Harrison, PM Guimarães, T Schwarzacher, S Isobe, K Shirasawa, Leal-Bertioli SCM. 2014. An overview of peanut genome structure. Chapter 6 in Genetics, Genomics and Breeding of Peanuts. Eds Nalini Mallikarjuna, Rajeev K. Varshney. Peanut genome structure manuscript Author Version pp. 114-138. CRC Press, Florida. http://www.crcnetbase.com/doi/abs/10.1201/b16872-7 ABSTRACT Cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea…
The origin of an old, resource-efficient crop, Broomcorn millet or Panicum miliaceum
307. Hunt HV, Badakshi F, Romanova O, Howe CJ, Jones M, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2014. Reticulate evolution in Panicum (Poaceae): the origin of tetraploid broomcorn millet, P. miliaceum. Journal of Experimental Botany 65 (12), 3165-3175. DOI:10.1093/jxb/eru161 . (Link to local copy J. Exp. Bot.-2014-Hunt-3165-75) Panicum miliaceum (broomcorn millet) is a tetraploid cereal which was among the first domesticated crops, but is now a minor…
Crocus and the origin of Saffron
305. Alsayied N, Schwarzacher T, Heslop-Harrison P. 2014. Crocus: research into the origin of saffron. Botanic Garden Newsletter 5: 3. Link to scan of Crocus and the origin of saffron article. The genus Crocus has nearly 100 species, each with unique characters of colour, flowering time or geographical distribution. We are aiming to understand the relationships of the different species, the diversity within species,…
In situ hybridization: a course on FISH and ChIp
In situ hybridization – a course on FISH and ChIp In situ hybridization, now largely with fluorescent detection so ‘fluorescent in situ hybridization’ or FISH, is a key method for localizing DNA sequences along chromosomes and occassionally within interphase nuclei. RNA in situ hybridization (not discussed here) is used for locating gene transcripts within nuclei….
Fertilizer statistics: changes and usage
Fertilizer has been critical to crop yields from the start of agriculture, and the application of artificially fixed nitrogen has been fundamental to crop yield increases since the 1970s. However, finding definitive data about absolute amounts, costs, effects on yields and changes in application is tricky – with dispersed literature, many units, confusion with sales…
Wild banana species: their classification and the sequencing of Musa balbisiana
Crop relatives are important – we learn about the relationships of wild germplasm in comparison to the domesticated forms, and about the genetics and genes in the wild species. Two papers in the last month advance our understanding of wild banana (Musa) from different perspectives. The first presents “A draft Musa balbisiana genome sequence for…
Nouf Alsayied: PhD student with Saffron Crocus at the University of Leicester and faculty member Umm Al-Qura University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
My research focuses on understanding the origin and diversity of the genus Crocus (Iridaceae), with particular emphasis on a triploid sterile plant, Crocus sativus (2n=3x=24) that yields Saffron, one of the most expensive spices on earth. The saffron is the stigmas of the flowers, and nearly 200,000 must be collected to give 1kg of spice,…
Molecular cytogenetics, genome evolution and agricultural genomics 