Disclosed herein are a suite of genetic tools suitable for engineering both the nucleus and chloroplast in diverse microalgae.

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for transforming soybean, corn, cotton, or canola explants using spectinomycin as a selective agent for transformation of the explants. The method may further comprise treatment of the explants with cytokinin during the transformation and regeneration process.

The present invention relates to a transgenic eukaryotic cell or non-human organism comprising one or more genetic modifications providing the activation of one or more signal transduction pathways which are involved in stress-induced gene expression and/or the pre-activation of one or more members of the transcriptional machinery and an expression cassette which comprises a nucleic acid sequence coding for a reporter protein under the control of a promoter the methylation of which increases upon priming for a stress response. The present invention also relates to a method for identifying substances which prime eukaryotic cells for a stress response by using this transgenic cell or organism.

The present invention provides cell lines for high efficiency genome editing using cas/CRISPR systems, methods of generating such cells lines and methods of generating mutations in the genome of an organism using such cell lines.

Methods of detecting the impacts on plant health attributable to the presence of one or more agronomically important polypeptides of interest in a transgenic plant are disclosed. The methods involve transforming plants or plant cells with nucleic acid sequences encoding proteins of agronomically important traits. The transformed plants or plant cells expressing the nucleic acid sequences encoding the proteins of agronomically important traits are compared to transformed plants or plant cells expressing a neutral control gene to detect the impacts on plant health attributable to the presence of the one or more agronomically important polypeptides of interest.

Polynucleotides and isolated polypeptides, nucleic acid constructs comprising the isolated polynucleotides, transgenic plants expressing same and methods of using same for increasing abiotic stress tolerance, yield, biomass, growth rate, vigor, oil content, fiber yield, fiber quality, and/or nitrogen use efficiency of a plant are disclosed.

The present invention relates to excision of explant material comprising meristematic tissue from cotton seeds. Methods for tissue preparation, storage, transformation, and selection or identification of transformed plants are disclosed, as are transformable meristem tissues and plants produced by such methods, and apparati for tissue preparation.

The subject invention relates to a novel gene referred to herein as DSM-2. This gene was identified in Streptomyces coelicolor A3. The DSM-2 protein is distantly related to PAT and BAR. The subject invention also provides plant-optimized genes encoding DSM-2 proteins. DSM-2 can be used as a transgenic trait to impart tolerance in plants and plant cells to the herbicides glufosinate and bialaphos. One preferred use of the subject genes are as selectable markers. The use of this gene as a selectable marker in a bacterial system can increase efficiency for plant transformations. Use of DSM-2 as the sole selection marker eliminates the need for an additional medicinal antibiotic marker (such as ampicillin resistance) during cloning. Various other uses are also possible according to the subject invention.

The subject invention relates to a novel gene referred to herein as DSM-2. This gene was identified in Streptomyces coelicolor A3. The DSM-2 protein is distantly related to PAT and BAR. The subject invention also provides plant-optimized genes encoding DSM-2 proteins. DSM-2 can be used as a transgenic trait to impart tolerance in plants and plant cells to the herbicides glufosinate and bialaphos. One preferred use of the subject genes areas selectable markers. The use of this gene as a selectable marker in a bacterial system can increase efficiency for plant transformations. Use of DSM-2 as the sole selection marker eliminates the need for an additional medicinal antibiotic marker (such as ampicillin resistance) during cloning. Various other uses are also possible according to the subject invention.

The present disclosure provides methods and systems for identifying biologically active random peptides (BARPs) in plants. The present disclosure also provides libraries of transformed plants, where each plant expresses a different candidate BARP. Also provided are engineered, isolated BARPs capable of producing a non-wild type phenotype in plants.