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Biomedical subjects

Y Chupeau

Publications and source records attributed to Y Chupeau.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

[Transgenic plants: towards a more balanced diet?].

Over the past ten years, knowledge of the metabolic capacities of plants has expanded considerably. Combined with technical achievements in gene transfer, a better understanding of metabolic regulation provides new more precise and targeted means of modifying plant products in order to improve health and well being through diet. While a great number of attempts to modify plant metabolism are still in the exploratory phase, some key applications are emerging with applications involving micro and macronutrients.

Amino Acids↗

Genetically modified plants: the stakes.

Generically modified plants (GMP) are massively used on the American continent in Australia and in China, since they represent an unquestionable potential for progress. New attributes are therefore devoted to the human and animal diet, to the facilitating of culture management, to the reducing of the chemical fertilizer and pesticide usage, and to the conquest of new cultural spaces. Considering itself to be flawed by a too hasty plunge into the market, concomitant with sagging evaluations of other innovations, Europe is confronted by a strong societal debate which blocks GMP cultures and orientates the research towards an evaluation of the environmental and public health risks and an evaluation of their economical and sociological impacts. The authors encourage this societal debate in order to arbitrate the presence of transgenes in conventional productions and products, to define the accepted rules of responsibility, to decide what is not acceptable, and to involve the more upstream actors and operators of the innovation process, all that keeping in mind the agronomical, ecological and economical repercussions of their decisions.

Animals↗

A Lactuca universal hybridizer, and its use in creation of fertile interspecific somatic hybrids.

A Lactuca sativa cv. Ardente line heterozygous for a gene encoding resistance to kanamycin, a positive and dominant trait, was crossed with cv. Girelle, which is heterozygous for a recessive albinism marker. The resulting seeds yielded 25% albino seedlings, of which 50% were also resistant to kanamycin. Such plantlets (KR, a) grown in vitro were used for preparation of universal hybridizer protoplasts, since green buds that can develop on kanamycin containing-medium should result from fusion with any wild-type protoplast. To test the practicability of this selection scheme, we fused L. sativa KR, a protoplasts with protoplasts derived from various wild Lactuca as well as various other related species. Protoplast-derived cell colonies were selected for resistance to kanamycin at the regeneration stage. Green buds were regenerated after fusion with protoplasts of L. tatarica and of L. perennis. So far, 9 interspecific hybrid plants have been characterized morphologically. In addition, random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis with selected primers confirmed that these plants are indeed interspecific hybrids. Some plants are female-fertile and production of backcross progenies with L. sativa is in progress. Since many desirable traits such as resistances to viruses, bacteria and fungi (Bremia lactucae) have been characterized in wild Lactuca species, the use of somatic hybridization in breeding programmes now appears a practical possibility.

Base Sequence↗

Co-suppression of nitrate reductase host genes and transgenes in transgenic tobacco plants.

Constructs carrying the entire or part of the tobacco nitrate reductase cDNA (NIA) cloned between the promoter and terminator sequences of the 35S RNA of the cauliflower mosaic virus were introduced into tobacco, in an attempt to improve nitrate assimilation. Several transgenic plants that had elevated NIA mRNA and nitrate reductase (NR) activity were obtained. In addition, a few plants that exhibited a chlorotic phenotype characteristic of NR-deficient mutants were also obtained. One of these plants contained no NIA mRNA, no NR activity and accumulated nitrate. This phenotype was therefore assumed to result from co-suppression of 35S-NIA transgenes and host NIA genes. NR-deficient plants were also found among the progeny of transformants overexpressing NIA mRNA. Genetic analyses indicated that these NR-deficient plants were homozygous for the 35S-NIA transgene, although not all homozygous plants were deficient for NR. The ratio of normal to NR-deficient plants in the progeny of homozygous plants remained constant at each generation, irrespective of the state of expression of the NIA genes (active or inactive) in the previous generation. This ratio also remained unchanged when field trials were performed in two areas of France: Versailles and Bergerac. The analysis of homozygous plants revealed that co-suppression was reversible at some stage of sexual reproduction. Indeed, host genes and transgenes reactivated at each generation, and co-suppression always appeared after a lag period of normal growth, suggesting that the phenomenon is developmentally regulated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Caulimovirus↗