Chloroplasts play a crucial role in sustaining life on earth. The availability of over 800 sequenced chloroplast genomes from a variety of land plants has enhanced our understanding of chloroplast biology, intracellular gene transfer, conservation, diversity, and the genetic basis by which chloroplast transgenes can be engineered to enhance plant agronomic traits or to produce high-value agricultural or biomedical products. In this review, we discuss the impact of chloroplast genome sequences on understanding the origins of economically important cultivated species and changes that have taken place during domestication. We also discuss the potential biotechnological applications of chloroplast genomes.

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Cancer prevention and treatment using traditional Chinese medicines have attracted increasing interest. This study characterizes antioxidant activity and phenolic compounds of traditional Chinese medicinal plants associated with anticancer, comprising 112 species from 50 plant families. The improved ABTS(*+) method was used to systematically assess the total antioxidant capacity (Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, TEAC) of the medicinal extracts. The TEAC values and total phenolic content for methanolic extracts of herbs ranged from 46.7 to 17,323 micromol Trolox equivalent/100 g dry weight (DW), and from 0.22 to 50.3 g of gallic acid equivalent/100 g DW, respectively. A positive, significant linear relationship between antioxidant activity and total phenolic content (all R(2) values>/=0.95) showed that phenolic compounds were the dominant antioxidant components in the tested medicinal herbs. Major types of phenolic compounds from most of the tested herbs were preliminarily identified and analyzed, and mainly included phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannins, coumarins, lignans, quinones, stilbenes, and curcuminoids. These medicinal herbs exhibited far stronger antioxidant activity and contained significantly higher levels of phenolics than common vegetables and fruits. Traditional Chinese medicinal plants associated with anticancer might be potential sources of potent natural antioxidants and beneficial chemopreventive agents.

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Oxidative stress is induced by a wide range of environmental factors including UV stress, pathogen invasion (hypersensitive reaction), herbicide action and oxygen shortage. Oxygen deprivation stress in plant cells is distinguished by three physiologically different states: transient hypoxia, anoxia and reoxygenation. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is characteristic for hypoxia and especially for reoxygenation. Of the ROS, hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) and superoxide (O(2)(.-)) are both produced in a number of cellular reactions, including the iron-catalysed Fenton reaction, and by various enzymes such as lipoxygenases, peroxidases, NADPH oxidase and xanthine oxidase. The main cellular components susceptible to damage by free radicals are lipids (peroxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in membranes), proteins (denaturation), carbohydrates and nucleic acids. Consequences of hypoxia-induced oxidative stress depend on tissue and/or species (i.e. their tolerance to anoxia), on membrane properties, on endogenous antioxidant content and on the ability to induce the response in the antioxidant system. Effective utilization of energy resources (starch, sugars) and the switch to anaerobic metabolism and the preservation of the redox status of the cell are vital for survival. The formation of ROS is prevented by an antioxidant system: low molecular mass antioxidants (ascorbic acid, glutathione, tocopherols), enzymes regenerating the reduced forms of antioxidants, and ROS-interacting enzymes such as SOD, peroxidases and catalases. In plant tissues many phenolic compounds (in addition to tocopherols) are potential antioxidants: flavonoids, tannins and lignin precursors may work as ROS-scavenging compounds. Antioxidants act as a cooperative network, employing a series of redox reactions. Interactions between ascorbic acid and glutathione, and ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds are well known. Under oxygen deprivation stress some contradictory results on the antioxidant status have been obtained. Experiments on overexpression of antioxidant production do not always result in the enhancement of the antioxidative defence, and hence increased antioxidative capacity does not always correlate positively with the degree of protection. Here we present a consideration of factors which possibly affect the effectiveness of antioxidant protection under oxygen deprivation as well as under other environmental stresses. Such aspects as compartmentalization of ROS formation and antioxidant localization, synthesis and transport of antioxidants, the ability to induce the antioxidant defense and cooperation (and/or compensation) between different antioxidant systems are the determinants of the competence of the antioxidant system.

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A very simple, fast, universally applicable and reproducible method to extract high quality megabase genomic DNA from different organisms is described. We applied the same method to extract high quality complex genomic DNA from different tissues (wheat, barley, potato, beans, pear and almond leaves as well as fungi, insects and shrimps' fresh tissue) without any modification. The method does not require expensive and environmentally hazardous reagents and equipment. It can be performed even in low technology laboratories. The amount of tissue required by this method is approximately 50-100 mg. The quantity and the quality of the DNA extracted by this method is high enough to perform hundreds of PCR-based reactions and also to be used in other DNA manipulation techniques such as restriction digestion, Southern blot and cloning.

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We developed bulked segregant analysis as a method for rapidly identifying markers linked to any specific gene or genomic region. Two bulked DNA samples are generated from a segregating population from a single cross. Each pool, or bulk, contains individuals that are identical for a particular trait or genomic region but arbitrary at all unlinked regions. The two bulks are therefore genetically dissimilar in the selected region but seemingly heterozygous at all other regions. The two bulks can be made for any genomic region and from any segregating population. The bulks are screened for differences using restriction fragment length polymorphism probes or random amplified polymorphic DNA primers. We have used bulked segregant analysis to identify three random amplified polymorphic DNA markers in lettuce linked to a gene for resistance to downy mildew. We showed that markers can be reliably identified in a 25-centimorgan window on either side of the targeted locus. Bulked segregant analysis has several advantages over the use of near-isogenic lines to identify markers in specific regions of the genome. Genetic walking will be possible by multiple rounds of bulked segregation analysis; each new pair of bulks will differ at a locus identified in the previous round of analysis. This approach will have widespread application both in those species where selfing is possible and in those that are obligatorily outbreeding.

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