Washington State University

About: Washington State University is a education organization based out in Pullman, Washington, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 26947 authors who have published 57736 publications receiving 2341509 citations. The organization is also known as: WSU & Wazzu.

Wheat Stripe Rust Epidemic and Virulence of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici in China in 2002.

Abstract: In China, wheat stripe rust, caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici, is one of the most destructive diseases of wheat and can cause severe yield losses when susceptible cultivars are grown and weather conditions are favorable for the disease. Wheat stripe rust most frequently affects the winter wheat growing areas in Northwest, Southwest, and North China, and the spring wheat growing areas in Northwest China. In the 2001-2002 growing season, a widespread stripe rust epidemic affected about 6.6 million hectares of wheat in 11 provinces: Si-chuan, Chongqing, eastern Gansu, southern and western Shaanxi, southern and central Ningxia, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hubei, Henan, southern and central Hebei, and Shandong. The epidemic could be attributed to relatively warm weather from November 2001 to March 2002, high frequencies of stripe rust races CYR31 and CYR32, and widely grown susceptible cultivars. Race CYR31 was virulent on the Chinese differential cultivars Trigo Eureka, Fulhard, Lutescens 128, Mentana, Virgilio, Abbondanza, Early Premium, Funo, Danish 1, Fengchan 3, Lovrin 13, Shui-yuan 11, Lovrin 10, and Hybrid 46. Race CYR32 had all the virulence factors of CYR31, plus virulences on Chinese differential cultivars Jubilejina 2 and Kangyin 655, i.e., CYR32 was virulent on all differential cultivars, except Zhong 4. When tested on the world and European differential and some other resistant genotypes, CYR32 was virulent on Chinese 166 (Yr1), Heines VII (Yr2, Yr25, and YrHVII), Vilmorin 23 (Yr3a and Yr4a), Heines Kolben (Yr6 and YrHK), Lee (Yr7, Yr22, and Yr23), Clement (Yr9, Yr25, YrCle), VPM1 (Yr17), Selkirk (Yr27), Anza (YrA), Carstens V (YrCV1, YrCV2, and YrCV3), Gaby (YrG), Strubes Dickkopf (Yr25), and Suwon 92/Omar (YrSO). Resistance genes in Triticum spelta album (Yr5), Zhong 4, and Moro (Yr10 and YrMor) were effective against all races identified.

Evaluation of nitrogen dioxide chemiluminescence monitors in a polluted urban environment

Abstract: Data from a recent field campaign in Mexico City are used to evaluate the performance of the EPA Federal Ref- erence Method for monitoring the ambient concentrations of NO2. Measurements of NO2 from standard chemilumines- cence monitors equipped with molybdenum oxide converters are compared with those from Tunable Infrared Laser Differ- ential Absorption Spectroscopy (TILDAS) and Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) instruments. A significant interference in the chemiluminescence measure- ment is shown to account for up to 50% of ambient NO2 con- centration during afternoon hours. As expected, this interfer- ence correlates well with non-NOx reactive nitrogen species (NOz) as well as with ambient O3 concentrations, indicat- ing a photochemical source for the interfering species. A combination of ambient gas phase nitric acid and alkyl and multifunctional alkyl nitrates is deduced to be the primary cause of the interference. Observations at four locations at varying proximities to emission sources indicate that the per- centage contribution of HNO3 to the interference decreases with time as the air parcel ages. Alkyl and multifunctional alkyl nitrate concentrations are calculated to reach concen-

Metabolic engineering of hydroxy fatty acid production in plants: RcDGAT2 drives dramatic increases in ricinoleate levels in seed oil.

Abstract: A central goal of green chemistry is to produce industrially useful fatty acids in oilseed crops. Although genes encoding suitable fatty acid-modifying enzymes are available from many wild species, progress has been limited because the expression of these genes in transgenic plants produces low yields of the desired products. For example, Ricinus communis fatty acid hydroxylase 12 (FAH12) produces a maximum of only 17% hydroxy fatty acids (HFAs) when expressed in Arabidopsis. cDNA clones encoding R. communis enzymes for additional steps in the seed oil biosynthetic pathway were identified. Expression of these cDNAs in FAH12 transgenic plants revealed that the R. communis type-2 acyl-coenzyme A:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (RcDGAT2) could increase HFAs from 17% to nearly 30%. Detailed comparisons of seed neutral lipids from the single- and double-transgenic lines indicated that RcDGAT2 substantially modified the triacylglycerol (TAG) pool, with significant increases in most of the major TAG species observed in native castor bean oil. These data suggest that RcDGAT2 prefers acyl-coenzyme A and diacylglycerol substrates containing HFAs, and biochemical analyses of RcDGAT2 expressed in yeast cells confirmed a strong preference for HFA-containing diacylglycerol substrates. Our results demonstrate that pathway engineering approaches can be used successfully to increase the yields of industrial feedstocks in plants, and that members of the DGAT2 gene family probably play a key role in this process.