Comparative Analysis of Rice Transformation Using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Rhyzobium leguminosarum

This study was aimed to study the effectiveness of Rhizobium transformation system compared to the most widely used Agrobacterium mediated transformation system on three rice cultivars, Ciherang (Indica), Nipponbare (Japonica), and Rojolele (Javanica). Six day old calli induced from immature embryos were inoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum bv trifolii ANU845 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA288 that harbored with vector pCAMBIA 5106. This plasmid contained a minimum set of transfer machinery genes and had a gusplus and an hptII gene driven by 35S CaMV promoter in the T-DNA. The results showed that the transformation frequencies (number of PCR positive plants per number of calli inoculated) ranging from 0 to 12.05 % depend on the genotype and transfer agent used. The highest transformation frequency (12.05%) was obtained in Ciherang transformed with R. leguminosarum. Most of the transgenic rice obtainedby Rhizobium transformation were normal in morphology and fertile similar to those obtained by Agrobacterium transformation. Integration, expression and inheritance of transgenes were demonstrated by molecular and genetic analysis in T0 and T1 generations.Key words : Rhizobium leguminosarum, immature embryos, Agrobacterium tumefacien

Comparative Analysis of Rice Transformation Using Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Rhyzobium leguminosarum

This study was aimed to study the effectiveness of Rhizobium transformation system compared to the most widely used Agrobacterium mediated transformation system on three rice cultivars, Ciherang (Indica), Nipponbare (Japonica), and Rojolele (Javanica). Six day old calli induced from immature embryos were inoculated with Rhizobium leguminosarum bv trifolii ANU845 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens LBA288 that harbored with vector pCAMBIA 5106. This plasmid contained a minimum set of transfer machinery genes and had a gusplus and an hptII gene driven by 35S CaMV promoter in the T-DNA. The results showed that the transformation frequencies (number of PCR positive plants per number of calli inoculated) ranging from 0 to 12.05 % depend on the genotype and transfer agent used. The highest transformation frequency (12.05%) was obtained in Ciherang transformed with R. leguminosarum. Most of the transgenic rice obtainedby Rhizobium transformation were normal in morphology and fertile similar to those obtained by Agrobacterium transformation. Integration, expression and inheritance of transgenes were demonstrated by molecular and genetic analysis in T0 and T1 generations.Key words : Rhizobium leguminosarum, immature embryos, Agrobacterium tumefacien

An open toolkit for tracking open science partnership implementation and impact.

Serious concerns about the way research is organized collectively are increasingly being raised. They include the escalating costs of research and lower research productivity, low public trust in researchers to report the truth, lack of diversity, poor community engagement, ethical concerns over research practices, and irreproducibility. Open science (OS) collaborations comprise of a set of practices including open access publication, open data sharing and the absence of restrictive intellectual property rights with which institutions, firms, governments and communities are experimenting in order to overcome these concerns. We gathered two groups of international representatives from a large variety of stakeholders to construct a toolkit to guide and facilitate data collection about OS and non-OS collaborations. Ultimately, the toolkit will be used to assess and study the impact of OS collaborations on research and innovation. The toolkit contains the following four elements: 1) an annual report form of quantitative data to be completed by OS partnership administrators; 2) a series of semi-structured interview guides of stakeholders; 3) a survey form of participants in OS collaborations; and 4) a set of other quantitative measures best collected by other organizations, such as research foundations and governmental or intergovernmental agencies. We opened our toolkit to community comment and input. We present the resulting toolkit for use by government and philanthropic grantors, institutions, researchers and community organizations with the aim of measuring the implementation and impact of OS partnership across these organizations. We invite these and other stakeholders to not only measure, but to share the resulting data so that social scientists and policy makers can analyse the data across projects

How are accountability standards implemented in the international agricultural research centers?

First, I would like to thank the panel members, in particular, Mr. Edward Flaherty, for inviting me to participate in this meeting. I am most grateful for this kind invitation

Workplace Equality in International Organizations: A Way Forward

In this contribution, I am interested in how discrimination issues are manifested in employment relations in the United Nations (UN), a public forum to all states political leaders to advance their concerns, the World Bank, a financial organization that promotes economic development, mainly in developing countries, and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the eldest and largest global public program of the World Bank with a strategic network of diverse stakeholders that harnesses the best in science to produce more and better food, reduce poverty and sustain environments. Considering the immunity and privileges granted to international organizations, what are the current available legal procedures, at the national or international level, for workplace equality? How accountable and transparent are they, based on the practice of these organizations? Can discrimination biases that go beyond the known individual-based discrimination claims be identified? If so, how can they be challenged and changed? Based of the special position of international civil servants in international organizations and the duty to protect their fundamental rights, I claim that the limitation of opportunity by discriminatory biases and the psychic burden on the individual staff member, on daily basis, qualify for a workplace wrong and call for independent and impartial legal procedures that would ensure due process and fair treatment

QUT Library advances the use of open public tools to navigate genetic inventions and builds research networks

Many emerging economies are dangling the patent system to stimulate bio-technological innovations with the ultimate premise that these will improve their economic and social growth. The patent system mandates full disclosure of the patented invention in exchange of a temporary exclusive patent right. Recently, however, patent offices have fallen short of complying with such a mandate, especially for genetic inventions. Most patent offices provide only static information about disclosed patent sequences and even some do not keep track of the sequence listing data in their own database. The successful partnership of QUT Library and Cambia exemplifies advocacy in Open Access, Open Innovation and User Participation. The library extends its services to various departments within the university, builds and encourages research networks to complement skills needed to make a contribution in the real world

A Survey of Viruses Affecting Dry Bean and Cowpea in Lebanon

A survey was conducted to identify viruses affecting dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) in Lebanon. Three hundred and thirty four samples exhibiting virus-like symptoms were collected from 13 different locations during the fall growing season of 1984. Samples were stored at 20 deg C until they were tested by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the presence of blackeye cowpea mosaic virus (B1CMV), bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV), bean common mosaic virus (BCMV) and cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). In preliminary tests, the extraction buffer 0.1M phosphate + O.1MEDTA, pH 7.4 was found to be far better than the standard extraction buffer and, accordingly, was used for virus extraction for all field samples. Results obtained indicated that around 50% of the bean samples tested were infected with B1CMV. Incidence of BCMV, BYMV and CMV in the samples tested were 4,4 and 1.7%, respectively. B1CMV was detected in 10 locations, whereas, BYMV, BCMV and CMV were found in 1,4 and 4 locations, respectively. Mixed infections such as BCMV, BICMV, BCMV+CMV, BYMV+CMV and BICMV+BCMV+CMV were detected. In 35% of the samples assayed, the causal virus was not identifie

Rice tungro

Many well-known specialists have contributed to this book which presents for the first time an in-depth look at the viruses, their satellites and the retrotransposons infecting (or occuring in) one plant family: the Poaceae (Gramineae). After molecular and biological descriptions of the viruses to species level, virus diseases are presented by crop: barley, maize, rice, rye, sorghum, sugarcane, triticales, wheats, forage, ornamental and lawn. A detailed index of the viruses and taxonomic lists will help readers in the search for information