Genome Research and Traditional Intellectual Property Protection -- A Bad Fit?

Dr. Murashige addresses the need for a patent system more closely tailored to the needs of biotechnology. For example, the obviousness requirement may interfere with using patents to recoup high costs of work when it could arguably be done by researchers of ordinary skill

Overview of Potential Intellectual Property Protection for Biotechnology

Dr. Murashige compares the function and value of copyright, patent and trade secret laws in recovering investments in developing genome-related biotechnology

The Rockefeller Foundation's International Program on Rice Biotechnology

Presents the product of a two-year intensive survey and analysis of the genetic prospects for the world's major food crops conducted in the early 1980s

Cold Induction of EARLI1, a Putative Arabidopsis Lipid Transfer Protein, Is Light and Calcium Dependent

As sessile organisms, plants must adapt to their environment. One approach toward understanding this adaptation is to investigate environmental regulation of gene expression. Our focus is on the environmental regulation of EARLI1, which is activated by cold and long-day photoperiods. Cold activation of EARLI1 in short-day photoperiods is slow, requiring several hours at 4ºC to detect an increase in mRNA abundance. EARLI1 is not efficiently cold-activated in etiolated seedlings, suggesting that photomorphogenesis is necessary for its cold activation. Cold activation of EARLI1 is inhibited in the presence of the calcium channel blocker lanthanum chloride or the calcium chelator EGTA. Addition of the calcium ionophore Bay K8644 results in cold-independent activation of EARLI1. These data suggest that EARLI1 is not an immediate target of the cold response, and that calcium flux affects its expression. EARLI1 is a putative secreted protein and has motifs found in lipid transfer proteins. Over-expression of EARLI1 in transgenic plants results in reduced electrolyte leakage during freezing damage, suggesting that EARLI1 may affect membrane or cell wall stability in response to low temperature stress

Time-of-flight analysis of charge mobility in a Cu-phthalocyanine-based discotic liquid crystal semiconductor

We used a time-of-flight method to study the charge carrier mobility properties of a molecular-aligned discotic liquid crystal semiconductor based on Cu-phthalocyanine. The heated isotropic-phase semiconductor material was sandwiched between transparent electrodes coated onto glass substrates without conventional alignment layers. This was then cooled, and a discotic liquid crystal semiconductor cell was obtained, which we used to make mobility measurements. The material had a fixed molecular alignment due to the supercooling of the hexagonal columnar mesophase. It was clarified that the carrier mobility for electrons was as high as it was for holes at room temperature. The maximum value of negative charge mobility reached 2.60x10(-3) cm(2)/V s, although negative carrier mobility is often much lower than positive carrier mobility in other organic semiconductors, including conventional Cu-phthalocyanine vacuum-deposited films.ArticleAPPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS. 85(16):3474-3476 (2004)journal articl

Synthetic carbohydrate: An aid to nutrition in the future

The synthetic production of carbohydrate on a large scale is discussed. Three possible nonagricultural methods of making starch are presented in detail and discussed. The simplest of these, the hydrolysis of cellulose wastes to glucose followed by polymerization to starch, appears a reasonable and economic supplement to agriculture at the present time. The conversion of fossil fuels to starch was found to be not competitive with agriculture at the present time, but tractable enough to allow a reasonable plant design to be made. A reconstruction of the photosynthetic process using isolated enzyme systems proved technically much more difficult than either of the other two processes. Particular difficulties relate to the replacement of expensive energy carrying compounds, separation of similar materials, and processing of large reactant volumes. Problem areas were pinpointed, and technological progress necessary to permit such a system to become practical is described

Embryo Culture of Lycopersicon esculentum × L. peruvianum Hybrid Genotypes Possessing Heat-stable Resistance to Meloidogyne incognita

Genotypes of Lycopersicon peruvianum (L.) Mill. and L. peruvianum var. glandulosum (Rick), selected from accessions that possess resistance to Meloidogyne incognita [(Kofoid and White) Chitwood] at high soil temperature (30C), were used as male parents in crosses with L. esculentum (Mill.) susceptible cultivars UC82, Lukullus, Tropic, and male-sterile line ms-31, respectively. The incongruity barrier between the two plant species was overcome by embryo callus and embryo cloning techniques. Hybridity of the F, progeny obtained from each cross was confirmed by differences in leaf and flower morphology, plant growth habits, and by acid phosphatase isozyme phenotypes using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In greenhouse inoculation experiments, F1 plants were highly resistant to M. incognita in soil at 25 and 30C. These results confirmed the successful transfer and expression of heat-stable resistance to M. incognita from L. peruvianum to hybrids with L. esculentum as a preliminary step to introgressing additional root-knot nematode resistance into tomato.EEA AMBAFil: Cap, Guillermo Bartolome. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires. Agencia de Extensión Rural La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Roberts, P.A. University of California, Riverside. Department of Hematology; Estados UnidosFil: Thomason, I.J. University of California, Riverside. Department of Hematology; Estados UnidosFil: Murashige, T. University of California, Riverside. Department of Hematology; Estados Unido

Drivers' evaluation of advanced traveller information systems for inter-city expressways in Japan

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1995.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-172).by Yoshiyasu Murashige.M.S

In vitro cultures of Silybum marianum and silymarin accumulation

AbstractIn this study, a protocol for initiation of callus and shoot cultures from leaves and shoot tips explants of different silybium genotypes collected from different locations in Egypt was established. Callus cultures were initiated from leaves explants and exposed to different concentrations of the precursor (coniferyl alcohol). Shoot cultures were initiated from shoot tips explants. Moreover, the produced plants of the different Silybium shoots as well as intact plants were subjected to protein screening using SDS–PAGE analysis.Results obtained revealed that the optimum medium for growth and maintenance of friable callus was MS medium supplemented with 0.25mgL−1 2,4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D)+0.25mg L−1 Kinetin (Kin). The best medium for proliferation of high number of shoots was MS-medium with 0.25mgL−1 each of Benzyl Adinine (BA) and Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA). Coniferyl alcohol in concentration of 30μM caused an increase in accumulation of silymarin contents in most callus cultures. SDS–PAGE of different Silybium shoots revealed that the protein profiles of 100% of in vitro produced plantlets similar to their control