Evaluation of stability of chitinase gene in transgenic offspring of cotton [Gossypium hirsutum]

Cotton cultivar Coker has been already transformed with recombinant pBI121-chi via Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The T-DNA region of pBI121-chi carries the chitinase [chi] gene from bean and is under the control of the CaMV35S promoter. T1 and T2 progenies of transgenic cotton containing the chi gene were used in this study. Polymerase chain reaction [PCR], Southern and Western blotting data confirmed integration and expression of the chi gene in the T1 and T2 progenies. The growth of Verticillium dahliae was singnificantly inhibited in an in vitro bioassay for which 100 micro g of crude leaf protein extract derived from the T1 plants was used. The 850-bp expected chi fragment was amplified for 77 transgenic plants from 128 T1 and T2 progenies, and 75 transgenic plants showed both chi and nptII bands. T0 conduct bioassay, cotton seedlings were infected with the spore suspension [10[6] spores/ml], in a greenhouse. Fifty-five percent of the transgenic plants were able to restrict V. dahliae growth and symptoms. There were no distinguishable differences in the phenotypic appearance of transgenic plants compared to non-transgenics. These results showed that transgenic cotton expressing a bean chitinase exhibited enhanced resistance against V. dahliae in greenhouse and in-vitro assay as compared to the non-transgenic plants

Genetic diversity of Iranian and some of European grapes revealed by microsatellite markers

In order to characterize Iranian grape [Vitis vinifera L.] germplasm, 136 genotypes were collected from five grape growing regions [Azarbaijan, Qazvin, Kordestan, Khorasan and Fars] and genotyped along with 36 European cultivars using 9 sequence tagged microsatellite sites [STMS] markers. The used set of markers could distinguish all 172 genotypes under study. Altogether 84 polymorphic alleles were observed detected all the genotypes, with an average of 9.33 and 5.81 effective alleles per locus. The expected heterozygosity values were higher than those observed for all the loci. This could probably be due to the occurrence of null alleles at these loci. The usefulness of this set of markers for genotype distinction was assessed as probability of identity [PI]. The estimated total PI value over all the geographic regions for this set of markers was estimated to be 5.67 0[-9]. Comparison of samples from different grape growing regions of Iran and Europe based on various parameters using allelic data revealed similar level of genetic variation. Analysis of molecular variance [AMOVA] indicated significant difference between samples, however, no difference was observed between the Iranian and European groups. Genetic differentiation among samples based on Fst in most pairwise comparisons was significant. Cluster analysis based on coancestry coefficient matrix and principal coordinate analysis confirmed the result of AMOVA and Fst analysis