Identification and evolutionary genomics of novel LTR retrotransposons in Brassica

315. Nouroz F, Noreen S, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2015. Identification and evolutionary genomics of Novel LTR retrotransposons in Brassica. Turkish Journal of Biology 39: 740-757 DOI: 10.3906/biy-1501-77 Link to manuscript PDF download at publisher site Retrotransposons (REs) are the most abundant and diverse elements identified from eukaryotic genomes. Using computational and molecular methods, 262 intact LTR retrotransposons…

Evolutionary genomics of miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) in Brassica

317. Nouroz F, Noreen S, Heslop-Harrison JS. 2015. Evolutionary genomics of miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) in Brassica. Molecular Genetics and Genomics (MGG) 290 (6): 2297–2312. DOI: 10.1007/s00438-015-1076-9 Brassica MITEs Author Version MGG download Miniature inverted-repeat transposable elements (MITEs) are truncated derivatives of autonomous DNA transposons, and are dispersed abundantly in most eukaryotic genomes. We aimed to characterize various MITEs families…

Genetic and physical maps of the Primula vulgaris S locus and localization by chromosome in situ hybridization

314. Li J, Webster MA, Wright J, Cocker JM, Smith MC, Badakshi F, Heslop‐Harrison P, Gilmartin PM. 2015. Integration of genetic and physical maps of the Primula vulgaris S locus and localization by chromosome in situ hybridization. New Phytologist http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.13373/full. dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.13373 Heteromorphic flower development in Primula is controlled by the S locus. The S locus genes, which…

Agriculture and Climate Change in Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Breeding, Climate Change Adaptation, Agronomy, and Water Security

313. Noorka IR, Heslop-Harrison JS  2014. Agriculture and Climate Change in Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Breeding, Climate Change Adaptation, Agronomy, and Water Security. In: Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation, Ed Leal Filho W. 1-8.  Springer Berlin Heidelberg http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40455-9_74-1 Link to NoorkaHeslopHarrisonBreedingClimateChangeAuthorVersion with colour figures. Link to typeset first page of publication. The agriculture of Southeast Asia and the Middle East…

Plant Virus Evolution and Pararetroviruses in Petunia

TS. Hohn T, Richert-Pöggeler KR, Staginnus C, Harper G, Schwarzacher T, Teo CH, Teycheney P-Y, Iskra-Caruana M-L, Hull R. 2008. Evolution of Integrated Plant Viruses. Chapter 4 pp 53-81. In: Plant Virus Evolution Ed Roossinck MJ. Springer: Berlin Link to Publisher homepage about the book with links to downloadable copies of the whole book or the chapter….

Descriptors for Crocus (Crocus spp.)

312. Molina RV, Guardiola JL, García-Luis D, Renau-Morata B, Sanchis E, González-Nebauer S, de los Mozos M, Rodríguez-Conde MF, Santana O, Pastor-Férriz MT, Fernández JA, Santaella M, Roldán M, Tsimidou M, Polissiou M, Heslop-Harrison JS, Branca F, Mathew B. 2015. Descriptors for Crocus (Crocus spp.). 74pp. Bioversity International, Rome. ISBN-13: 978-92-9043-999-8 Full document: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/uploads/tx_news/Descriptors_for_Crocus_1872_01.pdf Abstract…

Diversity and characters in Ethiopian linseed Linum #PAGXXIII Negash Worku

Many people have talked about Orphan crops – those where there has been little genetic or other research – and the characterization, evaluation and exploitation of germplasm at the #PAGXXIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference this week. Today, I am talking about work by Negash Worku on the Diversity and Characters in Ethiopian Linseed Accessions….

2014 in review: Molecular cytogenetics website activity

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Obviously, my New Year’s Resolution must be to put more of the things I do onto the Molcyt.com website, and not have such long gaps. Of course, half-a-dozen posts of more general interest was also put onto AoBBlog.com and I’ll be planning to…

Diversity in Ethiopian linseed (Linum usitatissimum): morphology and seed oil

311. Worku N, Heslop-Harrison JS, Wakjira A. 2015. Diversity in 198 Ethiopian linseed (Linum usitatissimum) accessions based on morphological characterization and seed oil characteristics. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution (GRACE) 62: 1037–1053. doi:10.1007/s10722-014-0207-1 (on-line 20 Jan 2015). And Worku: Linum / Linseed Morphological Diversity in Ethiopia – Author Version. Morphological and molecular characterization of germplasm is important…

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…

The damaging bureaucracy of academic peer preview

309. Braben DW, Allen JF, Amos W, Ball R, Birkhead T, Cameron P, Cogdell R, Colquhoun D, Dowler R, Engle I, Fernández-Armesto F, Fitzgerald D, Hall J, Heslop-Harrison P. Herschbach D, Kimble HJ, Kroto H, Ladyman J, Lawrence P, MacIntyre A, Mattick J, Pelloni B, Randall D, Ray D, Roberts RJ, Seddon K, Self C,…

Needs for understanding water and food security

“The earth’s land surface receives about 110,000 km3 of rainfall annually. More than half of this water is evapotranspired (transmitted from soils and through plants to the air); about 20,000 km3 falls on land that is cultivated in some form; and about 40,000 km3 becomes available in dams, lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers for human…

Evidence of convergent evolution in humans and macaques supports an adaptive role for copy number variation of the β-defensin-2 gene

Ottolini B, Hornsby MJ, Abujaber R, Macarthur JA, Badge RM, Schwarzacher T, Albertson DG, Bevins CL, Solnick JV, Hollox EJ. 2014. Evidence of convergent evolution in humans and macaques supports an adaptive role for copy number variation of the β-defensin-2 gene. Genome Biology and Evolution 6(11): 3025-3038. DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evu236 β-defensins are a family of important peptides of…

Molecular cytogenetics research group October 2014

At our lab. meeting a couple of weeks ago, we were happy to welcome two new PhD students to the group. Here we all are in the lobby of our Adrian Building. We are from six countries, and work on a diverse range of molecular cytogenetics projects. From left to right, left of DNA molecule:…