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Saussurea involucrata is a valuable traditional Chinese medicinal herb. This is the first report of a successful genetic transformation protocol for S. involucrata using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Leaf explants were incubated with A. tumefaciens strain EHA105 harboring the binary vector pCAMBIA 1301, which contains the hpt gene as a selectable marker for hygromycin resistance and an intron-containing β-glucuronidase gene as a reporter gene. Following co-cultivation, about 23.7% of the explants produced hygromycin-resistant calli on MS basal medium (Murashige and Skoog in Physiol Plant 15: 473-497, ) supplemented with 1 mg l benzyladenine (BA), 0.1 mg l α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), 0.1 mg l 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 20 mg l hygromycin, and 500 mg l cefotaxime. Shoots were regenerated following transfer of the resistant calli to shoot induction medium containing 1.5 mg l BA, 0.1 mg l NAA, 0.25 mg l gibberellic acid (GA3), 20 mg l hygromycin, and 250 mg l cefotaxime, and about 67.5% of the resistant calli differentiated into shoots. Finally, 80% of the hygromycin-resistant shoots rooted on MS media supplemented with 0.2 mg l NAA, 20 mg l hygromycin, and 250 mg l cefotaxime. The transgenic nature of the transformants was demonstrated by detection of β-glucuronidase activity in the primary transformants and by Southern blot hybridization analysis. About 16% of the total inoculated leaf explants produced transgenic plants after approximately 5 months. Using this optimized transformation system, a rice ortholog of the Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T gene, Hd3a, was transferred into S. involucrata. Introduction of this gene caused an early-flowering phenotype in S. involucrata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract   Broussonetia papyrifera is well-known for its bark fibers, which are used for making paper, cloth, rope etc. This is the first report of a successful genetic transformation protocol for B. papyrifera using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Callus was initiated at a frequency of about 100% for both leaf and petiole explants. Shoots formed on these calli with a success rate of almost 100%, with 14.08 and 8.36 shoots regenerating from leave-derived and petiole-derived callus, respectively. For genetic transformation, leaf explants of B. papyrifera were incubated with A. tumefaciens strain LBA4404 harboring the binary vector pCAMBIA 1301 which contains the hpt gene as a selectable marker for hygromycin resistance and an intron-containing β-glucuronidase gene (gus-int) as a reporter gene. Following co-cultivation, leaf explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (Physiol Plant 15:473, 1962) (MS) medium supplemented with 1.5 mg l−1 benzyladenine (BA) and 0.05 mg l−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) (CI medium) containing 5 mg l−1 hygromycin and 500 mg l−1 cefotaxime, in the dark. Hygromycin-resistant calli were induced from leaf explants 3 weeks thereafter. Regenerating shoots were obtained after transfer of the calli onto MS medium supplemented with 1.5 mg l−1 BA, 0.05 mg l−1 IBA, and 0.5 mg l−1 gibberellic acid (GA3) (SI medium), 5 mg l−1 hygromycin and 250 mg l−1 cefotaxime under fluorescent light. Finally, shoots were rooted on half strength MS medium (1/2 MS) supplemented with 10 mg l−1 hygromycin. Transgene incorporation and expression was confirmed by PCR, Southern hybridisation and histochemical GUS assay. Using this protocol, transgenic B. papyrifera plants containing desirable new genes can be obtained in approximately 3 months with a transformation frequency as high as 44%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG) materials are successfully realized by using composite right/left-handed transmission line (CRLH TL), based on which the photonic crystals were also constituted. The simulated and measured scattering parameters and phase shift indicate that the photonic crystals containing single-negative (SNG) materials can possess zero-effective phase (zero-Øeff) gaps, which are insensitive to the scaling change of the respective unit length. The width and depth of zero-Øeff gaps can be adjusted by varying the ratio of the length of ENG and MNG materials. The characteristics can be utilized to design a compact high quality factor (high-Q) filter, which is demonstrated by a defect mode in the photonic crystals in experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]