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Production of drought tolerant crop is an important strategy for avoiding water scarce crisis. Improvement of the root structure leading to the higher yield and seed quality. In this study, three genes affecting root structure, drought tolerance and phosphorous absorbance are used in producing hybrid constructs used for the rice transformation. Three genes: a serine/threonine protein kinase (PSTOL1), a gene from the cytokinin oxidase/dehydrogenase family (OsCKX4) and a transcription factor induced under stress from the NAM-ATAF-CUC family (OsNAC5) isolated from the rice wild cultivars are cloned under  separate regulatory elements in the T-DNA region of the Agrobacterium binary vector. OsNAC5 gene was cloned under RCc3 root specific promoter and PSTOL1 gene under ubiquitin promoter. Also, OsCKX4 gene was cloned once under ubiquitin promoter and once under RCc3 promoter. Two hybrid multi-gene constructs named pUhrN5CkPstol and pUhrCkPstol harboring multiple genes are synthetized and used for the gene transformation into the Hashemi cultivar. Gene transfer was done to callus obtained from mature rice seeds. Transgenic plants were confirmed using PCR analysis. From the number of 107 regenerated plants in which the presence of transgenes was proved, 14 transgenic events were finally obtained. Root structure of the T0 plants showed drastic phenotypic difference in comparison to the non-transgenic ones. By now, one transgenic event harboring CKX4 and PSTOL1 is confirmed to have a homozygous line in T2 generation. It is hoped that genetic engineering of rice for enhanced root structure lead to drought tolerance, reduce water consumption and improve yield under stress conditions.
 

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Pyramiding genes related to grain quality and resistance through marker assisted selection (MAS) is an important approach in rice breeding programs. Marker-assisted selection can be used for monitoring the presence or absence of these genes in breeding populations and can be combined with conventional breeding approaches. This study is a part of cultivar development program in Iran through integration of conventional breeding with marker assisted selection. Crosses between two high yielding transgenic lines carrying an insect resistance gene (cry1Ab, from Bacillus thuringiensis) with a local aromatic variety were made followed by selection for incorporation of insect resistance and aroma (fgr) genes in desirable single F2 plants. Finally, plants homozygous for aroma and carrying cry1Ab genes with good agronomic performance were identified. Further analyses are underway on these plants in F3 generation. These plants promise to develop new aromatic Bt rice lines through integration of classical and molecular breeding in the near future in Iran

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The detection of Genetically Modified (GM) organisms is becoming a legal necessity. This study was carried out to detect genetically modified events in soybeans imported into Iran using simplex and multiplex PCR. Therefore, five samples of imported soybean were obtained from Bandar Imam Khomeini customs. Modified CTAB method was used to extract DNA from soybean seeds. The result indicates that the modified method is suitable for DNA extraction from soybean seeds and probably can be used for other oilseeds. Using specific primers for CaMV 35S promoter, NOS terminator and epsps gene PCR reactions were performed. In this study soybean lectin gene was used as internal control. The results revealed that soybean samples imported from Canada and Paraguay were genetically modified and they had CaMV 35S promoter, NOS terminator and epsps gene in their genomes. The result of simplex PCR was the same as multiplex PCR, but multiplex PCR detected the GM soybeans very quickly and in a cost-saving and time-consuming way. Based on PCR analysis using GM soybean event-specific primers, it is suggested that the soybean plants may be GTS 40-3-2. No fragment was amplified when the DNA of US or Non-GM soybeans were used as template in the PCR reaction. This is the first report that shows GM soybeans imported to Iran without use of the "GMO" label in the shipment's documentation.