Expression Patterns Conferred by Tyrosine/Dihydroxyphenylalanine Decarboxylase Promoters from Opium Poppy Are Conserved in Transgenic Tobacco1

Opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) contains a large family of tyrosine/dihydroxyphenylalanine decarboxylase (tydc) genes involved in the biosynthesis of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids and cell wall-bound hydroxycinnamic acid amides. Eight members from two distinct gene subfamilies have been isolated, tydc1, tydc4, tydc6, tydc8, and tydc9 in one group and tydc2, tydc3, and tydc7 in the other. The tydc8 and tydc9 genes were located 3.2 kb apart on one genomic clone, suggesting that the family is clustered. Transcripts for most tydc genes were detected only in roots. Only tydc2 and tydc7 revealed expression in both roots and shoots, and TYDC3 mRNAs were the only specific transcripts detected in seedlings. TYDC1, TYDC8, and TYDC9 mRNAs, which occurred in roots, were not detected in elicitor-treated opium poppy cultures. Expression of tydc4, which contains a premature termination codon, was not detected under any conditions. Five tydc promoters were fused to the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene in a binary vector. All constructs produced transient GUS activity in microprojectile-bombarded opium poppy and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cell cultures. The organ- and tissue-specific expression pattern of tydc promoter-GUS fusions in transgenic tobacco was generally parallel to that of corresponding tydc genes in opium poppy. GUS expression was most abundant in the internal phloem of shoot organs and in the stele of roots. Select tydc promoter-GUS fusions were also wound induced in transgenic tobacco, suggesting that the basic mechanisms of developmental and inducible tydc regulation are conserved across plant species.

Afghan Opium and the EU: Fighting the War Economy through Development Cooperation. EU Diplomacy Paper No. 4, 2014

Opium is at the heart of the war economy in Afghanistan, involving a broad range of actors. It generates a sustainable violence cycle and, while international troops withdraw from the country, threatens the Afghan government’s reconstruction efforts. The European Union (EU) plays an important part in the debate on how to deal with this issue. Several counter-narcotics policies have been implemented since 2001 and have mostly failed. This paper looks at these failures and questions the European Union’s ability to help tackle the problem of opium in Afghanistan. It argues that a comprehensive development response, backed by counter-narcotics incentives, could unfasten the spiral of the war economy. It also argues that the EU has developed relevant policies based on poverty alleviation and a structural approach to the opium issue but still lacks the means for action and for donor coordination in order to significantly influence the situation.

U.S.-Mexico opium poppy and marijuana aerial eradication program /

At head of title: United States General Accounting Office. Testimony.

The opium question,

Mode of access: Internet.

Medical reports, on the effects of water, cold and warm, as a remedy in fever and other diseases ... to which are added observations on the nature of fever, and on the effects of opium, alcohol, and inanition /

Mode of access: Internet.

The mysteries of opium /

Mode of access: Internet.

Report by W.L. Mackenzie King, C.M.G., deputy minister of labour, on the need for the suppression of the opium traffic in Canada. Printed by order of Parliament.

Mode of access: Internet.

On the trail of the opium poppy; a narrative of travel in the chief opium-producing provinces of China,

Mode of access: Internet.

Straight thinking on narcotics: alcohol, tobacco, opium, morphine, cocaine, and marihuana.

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Mode of access: Internet.

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Mode of access: Internet.

Quaestio medica quodlibetariis disputationibus manè discutienda, in Scholis Medicorum ... Anno Domini MDCCLXVI ... An rabiei opium? /

Mode of access: Internet.

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"London: Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street."-- Colophon.

Pratical hints on opium considered as a poison.

Mode of access: Internet.

Crisis in the opium traffic : being an account of the proceedings of the Chinese government to suppress that trade, with the notices, edicts, &c., relating thereto.

Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 30928.