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Annotation:  Oligo painting FISH was established to identify all chromosomes in banana (Musa spp.) and to anchor pseudomolecules of reference genome sequence of Musa acuminata spp. malaccensis “DH Pahang” to individual chromosomes in situ. The study demonstrates the potential of chromosome painting for comparative karyotype analysis and identification of structural chromosome changes that accompanied . . .

Annotation:  The effects of the non-denaturing RGEN-ISL and standard denaturing FISH on the chromatin structure of maize were compared. A, B Comparison of the chromatin ultrastructure after Knob 2-specific labeling by RGEN-ISL (red) and subsequent FISH (green) of fixed chromosomes (A) and interphase nuclei of maize (B). To analyze the ultrastructure and spatial arrangement of signals and chromatin at a lateral resolution of ∼140 nm, 3D . . .

Annotation:  Research on the formation of mitotic chromosomes from interphase chromatin domains made significant progress in recent years. We summarized and compared several models of chromatin fiber folding to form mitotic chromosomes and discussed them in the light of the recent findings. We also compared available data on the role of condensins and cohesins, the major players in chromosome condensation, across lower and higher eukaryotes and . . .

As a little boy he wanted to be a gamekeeper, but eventually his passion for plants won. Plant geneticist Aleš Pečinka from the Center of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research has moved from classical “flower lover” through cytology to molecular biology and epigenetics.

Annotation: Mutants in centromeric histone variant, cenh3-1, complemented by CENH3 S65A or S65D are defective with respect to their floral meristem development. (A) Main stems of Wt and cenh3-1 complemented mutants (S65S, S65A or S65D under native promotor). (B) Scanning electron micrograph of flowers of Wt and cenh3-1 complemented mutants (S65S, S65A or S65D under native promotor).Link

Scientists from the Olomouc laboratory of the Institute of Experimental Botany (IEB) at the Czech Academy of Sciences, which is part of the Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research (CRH), have achieved another success. They were part of an international team that has sequenced the common pea genome after six years. The findings have been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Genetics.

Annotation:  Using 3D FISH, we studied alien chromosome posiotining in various wheat-rye and wheat-barley introgression lines. In the majority of cases, the detected homologous chromosomes did not show any association. Interestingly, there appeared to be a relationship between the chromosome length and its positioning in the nucleus: longer chromosomes frequently occupied position close to the nuclear periphery, while shorter chromosomes were . . .

A year ago, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that plants obtained by methods of precision breeding (so-called CRISPR) are genetically modified organisms. However, this means that even crops with the smallest genome modifications that can occur spontaneously in nature are subject to restrictive European regulations prohibiting such modifications. 

Annotation: Effect of 5-azacytidine pre-treatment on microspore reprogramming and the effectiveness on microspore embryogenesis in triticale. Top panel: Morphology of microspores on the day of in vitro cultures initiation. Bars = 50 µm. Middle panel: Embryo-like structures (yellow arrows) formed after six weeks of in vitro cultivation. Bars = 2 mm. Bottom panel: Green and albino (white arrows) plants regenerated after nine weeks from microspores . . .

Plant geneticists from the Institute of Experimental Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IEB CAS) have been the first in the world to describe the function of two genes of Arabidopsis thaliana and their influence on the properties of this model plant. The prestigious journal Plant Cell has published their work which could have practical applications in the future.

Annotation:  Confocal imaging of live seed of Arabidopsis 72 hours after pollination. Red color shows cell walls and yellow NSE4A protein in cell nuclei of the syncytial (multi-nucleate) endosperm. Bar = 50 µm.Link

Jaroslav Doležel is Head of the Centre of Plant Structural and Functional Genomics of the Institute of Experimental Botany (IEB) and Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Palacký University with both institutes in Olomouc (Czech Republic).

Annotation:  Flow sorting enabled to dissect the genome of crested wheatgrass into individual chromosomes. The flow sorted chromosome- or chromosome-arm-specific subgenomic DNA samples provide attractive resources to perform structural and functional genome analysis. Successful sorting of B chromosomes (Bs) of crested wheatgrass provides an opportunity to determine their gene content and reveal their origin, as well as discovering the mechanisms . . .

Annotation: Recently published reference genomes of important small grain cereals were shown to represent 88 – 98% of their genome size. We aimed at identifying the missing parts in genomes of wheat and barley, considering tandem repeats as the major candidates. We found that shorter repeats can be present in the genome assemblies even if generated from short-read data but they may be difficult to integrate into pseudomolecules. We demonstrated . . .

Annotation:  Alien introgressions are often used to introduce beneficial traits from one species into another. However, exploitation of the introgressions in breeding requires proper transmission of introgressed segments to consecutive generations. In introgression cultivars of xFestulolium hybrids, we observed about 27–32% elimination of Festuca chromatin in a single round of multiplication. At this pace, Festuca chromatin would be . . .