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Adv Bot Res 2014 Jan;72:1-28

Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.

Photoperiod, or the duration of light in a given day, is a critical cue that flowering plants utilize to effectively assess seasonal information and coordinate their reproductive development in synchrony with the external environment. The use of the model plant, , has greatly improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that determine how plants process and utilize photoperiodic information to coordinate a flowering response. This mechanism is typified by the transcriptional activation of gene by the transcription factor CONSTANS (CO) under inductive long-day conditions in FT protein then moves from the leaves to the shoot apex, where floral meristem development can be initiated. Read More

Adv Bot Res 2015;76:271-303

Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA; Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.

Cyclotides are fascinating naturally occurring micro-proteins (≈30 residues long) present in several plant families and display various biological properties such as protease inhibitory, anti-microbial, insecticidal, cytotoxic, anti-HIV and hormone-like activities. Cyclotides share a unique head-to-tail circular knotted topology of three disulfide bridges, with one disulfide penetrating through a macrocycle formed by the two other disulfides and interconnecting peptide backbones, forming what is called a cystine knot topology. This cyclic cystine knot (CCK) framework gives the cyclotides exceptional rigidity, resistance to thermal and chemical denaturation, and enzymatic stability against degradation. Read More

Adv Bot Res 2013 ;66

Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Indiana University, Simon Hall, 212 S Hawthorne Dr, Bloomington, IN 47405, U. S. A.

Metals are utilized for a variety of critical cellular functions and are essential for survival. However cells are faced with the conundrum of needing metals coupled with e fact that some metals, iron in particular are toxic if present in excess. Maintaining metal homeostasis is therefore of critical importance to cells. Read More

Adv Bot Res 2012 19;62:197-272. Epub 2012 Jun 19.

Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

Imbalance or malfunction of the immune systems is associated with a range of chronic diseases including autoimmune diseases, allergies, cancers and others. Various innate and adaptive immune cells that are integrated in this complex networking system may represent promising targets for developing immunotherapeutics for treating specific immune diseases. A spectrum of phytochemicals have been isolated, characterized and modified for development and use as prevention or treatment of human diseases. Read More

Adv Bot Res 2012;64:185-243

Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology, Ecological Genomics Institute, Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506 USA.

Volvocine algae are a group of chlorophytes that together comprise a unique model for evolutionary and developmental biology. The species and represent extremes in morphological diversity within the Volvocine clade. is unicellular and reflects the ancestral state of the group, while is multicellular and has evolved numerous innovations including germ-soma differentiation, sexual dimorphism, and complex morphogenetic patterning. Read More

Adv Bot Res 2010 Jan;53:1-22

Department of Biology, Indiana University, 915 E. Third Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA.

In eukaryotes, changes in chromatin structure regulate the access of gene regulatory sequences to the transcriptional machinery and play important roles in the repression of transposable elements, thereby protecting genome integrity. Chromatin dynamics and gene expression states are highly correlated, with DNA methylation and histone post-translational modifications playing important roles in the establishment or maintenance of chromatin states in plants. Histones can be covalently modified in a variety of ways, thereby affecting nucleosome spacing and/or higher-order nucleosome interactions directly or via the recruitment of histone-binding proteins. Read More