April 2006
Editorial Note
There is a current global effort to promote industrial biotechnology as a central feature of the sustainable livelihoods in modern industrialized societies. Since there could be no modern biotechnology without molecular biology and the former is limited by the latter, the developed world is pumping billions of dollars towards basic research in molecular biology of organisms with view of harnessing...
April 2006
Cassava Biotechnology, a southern African Perspective
The pre-requisite for any cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) transformation program that proposes to develop improved plants is the availability of a reliable regeneration system. Presently many laboratories that prioritize cassava research are able to reliably regenerate plants from a range of cultivars. Unfortunately, some cultivars are still either recalcitrant or resisting attempts to induce useful levels of...
April 2006
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of plants: emerging factors that influence efficiency
Despite production of fertile transgenic plants through transformation mediated by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, transformation efficiency is still low. Apart from plant genotype, Agrobacterium strains, plasmid vectors, virulence (vir) gene inducing compounds, medium composition and tissue specific factors, some other factors are becoming important for improving transformation efficiency of...
April 2006
Phenolic compounds and related enzymes as determinants of sorghum for food use
Phenolic compounds and related enzymes such as phenol biosynthesizing enzymes (phenylalanine ammonia lyase) and phenol catabolizing enzymes (polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase) are determinants for sorghum utilization as human food because they influence product properties during and after sorghum processing. Phenolic compounds are quality-grade markers for the preparation of several foods because of...
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