Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of two Serbian potato cultivars (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Dragacevka and cv. Jelica)

An efficient protocol for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of Serbian potato cultivars Dragaevka and Jelica, enabling the introduction of oryzacystatin genes OCI and OCII, was established. Starting with leaf explants, a two-stage transformation protocol combining procedures of Webb and Wenzler provided high shoot regeneration efficiency: 84 - 89% for Dragaevka cultivar and 60 - 68% for Jelica cultivar as compared to 76 - 86% for Desiree, the most frequently used cultivar in transformation experiments. PCR analysis of a small sample of putative transformants showed a nptII integration frequency of 90.9, 76.9 and 86.4% for Dragaevka, Jelica and Desiree, respectively. Regeneration and transformation efficiency was strongly genotype-dependent

Green Light-Responsive CO-Releasing Polymeric Materials Derived from Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an important biological gasotransmitter in living cells. Precise spatial and temporal control over release of CO is a major requirement for clinical application. To date, the most reported carbon monoxide releasing materials use expensive fabrication methods and require harmful and poorly designed tissue-penetrating UV irradiation to initiate the CO release precisely at infected sites. Herein, we report the first example of utilizing a green light-responsive CO-releasing polymer P synthesized via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Both monomer M and polymer P were very stable under dark conditions and CO release was effectively triggered using minimal power and low energy wavelength irradiation (550 nm, ?28 mW). Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations were carried out to simulate the electronic transition and insight into the nature of the excitations for both L and M. TD-DFT calculations indicate that the absorption peak of M is mainly due to the excitation of the seventh singlet excited state, S7. Furthermore, stretchable materials using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) strips based on P were fabricated to afford P-PTFE, which can be used as a simple, inexpensive, and portable CO storage bandage. Insignificant cytotoxicity as well as cell permeability was found for M and P against human embryonic kidney cells. Copyright - 2019 American Chemical Society.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of this work from the Qatar National Research Fund project number: NPRP X-095-1-024.Scopu