Creation of glyphosate-resistant Brassica napus L. plants expressing DesC desaturase of cyanobacterium Synechococcus vulcanus

Aim. Creation of glyphosate-resistant canola plants expressing bifunctional hybrid desC::licBM3 gene. In the hybrid gene the sequence of DesC desaturase of cyanobacterium S. vulcanus without plastid targeting was fused with the sequence of thermostable lichenase reporter LicBM3 gene. Methods. Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation, PCR, quantitative and qualitative determination of lichenase activity, genetic analysis. Results. Transgenic canola plants, carring the enolpyruvat shikimat phosphate syntase gene (epsps), conferring on plants resistance to phosphonomethyl glycine herbicides (Roundup), as well as the desC::licBM3 gene, were selected. The presence of transgenes was confimed by multiplex PCR. The epsps gene expression in canola was shown at the transcription level, during in vitro growth and after greenhouse herbicide treatment. Activity of the licBM3 gene product as a part of hybrid protein allowed quantitative and qualitative estimation of the desaturase gene expression. Inheritance of heterologous genes and their expression in the first generation were investigated. Conclusions. Transgenic canola plants were obtained, the presence of trangenes in plant genome was proved and expression of the target genes was detected

[Analysis of clusterin gene (CLU/APOJ) polymorphism in Alzheimer's disease patients and in normal cohorts from Russian populations].

Three genes mutations in which cause familial forms of Alzheimer's disease are known to date:PSEN1, PSEN2 and APP; and APOE gene polymorphism is a strong risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. We have evaluated allele and genotype frequency distribution of rs11136000 polymorphism in clusterin (CLU) gene (or apolipoprotein J, APOJ) in populations of three Russian regions and i nAlzheimhner's diseasepatients. Genome-wideassociation studies in samples from several European populations have recently revealed highly significant association o fCLU gene with AD (p = 8.5 x 10(-10)). We found no differences in allele and genotype frequencies of rs11136000 between populations from Moscow, Ural and Siberia regions. The allele frequencies are close to those in European populations. The genetic association analysis in cohort of Alzheimer's disease patients and normal individuals (>500 individuals ineach group) revealed no significant association of the rs11136000 polymorphism in CLU with Alzheimer's disease in Russian populations. Although our resultsdo not confirm the role of CLU gene as a majorgenetic factor forcommon form of Alzheimer's disease, the data do not rule out the possibility of modest effect of CLU and interaction between CLU and APOE genotypes in etiology of Alzheimer's disease