henbane/nicotine

Plant secondary metabolites are a wide variety of low-molecular weight compounds whose productions are often enhanced in response to both biotic and abiotic stresses. Many of the responses are mediated by a class of hormones, named as jasmonates. In jasmonate biosynthetic pathway of plants, allene

Protoplasts of the nicotinamide-deficient Hyoscyamus muticus cell line nic(-) IVH2 and of the nitrate reductase-deficient Nicotiana tabacum cell line NR(-) cnx 68 were induced to fuse. Selection for putative interspecific hybrid clones was via auxotroph complementation. Controls included tests for

Morphological characteristics were studied in cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) cybrids possessing the tobacco nuclear genome, Hyoscyamus niger plastome and recombinant mitochondria. After backcrosses with tobacco, new flower modifications were found, including: conversions of stamens into branched

Tobacco epiaristolochene and hyoscyamus premnaspirodiene synthases (TEAS and HPS) catalyze the cyclizations and rearrangements of (E,E)-farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) to the corresponding bicyclic sesquiterpene hydrocarbons. The complex mechanism proceeds through a tightly bound (R)-germacrene A

The genetic basis of multiple phenotypic alterations was studied in cell-engineered cybrids Nicotiana tabacum (+ Hyoscyamus niger) combining the nuclear genome of N. tabacum, plastome of H. niger and recombinant mitochondria. The plants possess a complex, maternally inheritable syndrome of

1. No hybrid plants of Nicotiana tabacum + Petunia hybrida were regenerated from calluses of fusion experiments with mesophyll protoplasts of N. tabacum s, s (2) and v and of P. hybrida mu 1 (2). 2. After in vitro pollination of ovules of N. tabacum with pollen of P. hybrida, filamentous proembryos

Cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) in a novel inter-generic combination, Nicotiana tabacum (+ Hyoscyamus aureus), were generated by fusion of protoplasts from a plastome tobacco albino mutant (line R100a1) and gamma-irradiated green protoplasts of H. aureus. Cybrids possessed a plastome of H. aureus and

N-methylputrescine is the precursor of nicotine and pharmaceutical tropane alkaloids such as hyoscyamine. Putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) catalyzes the N-methylation of putrescine to form N-methylputrescine. While the role of PMT in nicotine biosynthesis is clear, knowledge of PMT in the

We have used the photoaffinity label azido-[3H]IAA (5-N3-[7-3H]indole-3-acetic acid), a biologically active analog of indole-3-acetic acid, to identify auxin-binding proteins (ABPs) in the soluble fraction of Hyoscyamus muticus. A 25-kD polypeptide previously described (H. Macdonald, A. M. Jones, P.

Hyoscyamine-6beta-hydroxylase (H6H) catalyses the conversion of hyoscyamine into its epoxide scopolamine, a compound with a higher added value in the pharmaceutical market than hyoscyamine. We report the establishment of tobacco cell cultures carrying the Hyoscyamus muticus h6h gene under the

The putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) cDNA clone previously isolated from tobacco encodes a spermidine synthase-like protein with an 11 amino acid element repeated four times in tandem at the amino terminus. Genomic Southern blot analyses indicated that this N-terminal repeat array is found in

The activity of arginine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.19) in cultured roots of Hyoscyamus albus L., which produce considerable amounts of tropane alkaloids, was twice that of ornithine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.17), both activities being highest during active root growth, whereas arginase (EC 3.5.3.1)

Genomic and cDNA clones for vetispiradiene synthase, a sesquiterpene cyclase found in Hyoscyamus muticus, were isolated using a combination of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions and conventional cloning procedures. RNA blot hybridization demonstrated an induction of mRNA consistent