The biotrophic fungusSporisorium reilianumcauses head smut of maize (Zea mays) after systemic plant colonization. Symptoms include the formation of multiple female inflorescences at subapical nodes ...of the stalk because of loss of apical dominance. By deletion analysis of cluster 19-1, the largest genomic divergence cluster inS. reilianum, we identified a secreted fungal effector responsible forS. reilianum-induced loss of apical dominance, which we named SUPPRESSOR OF APICAL DOMINANCE1 (SAD1).SAD1transcript levels were highly up-regulated during biotrophic fungal growth in all infected plant tissues. SAD1- green fluorescent protein fusion proteins expressed by recombinantS. reilianumlocalized to the extracellular hyphal space. Transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana)-expressing green fluorescent protein-SAD1 displayed an increased number of secondary rosette-leaf branches. This suggests that SAD1 manipulates inflorescence branching architecture in maize and Arabidopsis through a conserved pathway. Using a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) two-hybrid library ofS. reilianum-infected maize tissues, we identified potential plant interaction partners that had a predicted function in ubiquitination, signaling, and nuclear processes. Presence of SAD1 led to an increase of the transcript levels of the auxin transporterPIN-FORMED1in the root and a reduction of the branching regulatorTEOSINTE BRANCHED1in the stalk. This indicates a role of SAD1 in regulation of apical dominance by modulation of branching through increasing transcript levels of the auxin transporter PIN1 and derepression of bud outgrowth.
A fungal protein increases plant inflorescence branching when both delivered by the fungus in maize and stably expressed in Arabidopsis, suggesting a conserved pathway for function.
The biotrophic ...fungus
Sporisorium reilianum
causes head smut of maize (
Zea mays
) after systemic plant colonization. Symptoms include the formation of multiple female inflorescences at subapical nodes of the stalk because of loss of apical dominance. By deletion analysis of cluster 19-1, the largest genomic divergence cluster in
S. reilianum
, we identified a secreted fungal effector responsible for
S. reilianum
-induced loss of apical dominance, which we named SUPPRESSOR OF APICAL DOMINANCE1 (SAD1).
SAD1
transcript levels were highly up-regulated during biotrophic fungal growth in all infected plant tissues. SAD1-green fluorescent protein fusion proteins expressed by recombinant
S. reilianum
localized to the extracellular hyphal space. Transgenic Arabidopsis (
Arabidopsis thaliana
)-expressing green fluorescent protein-SAD1 displayed an increased number of secondary rosette-leaf branches. This suggests that SAD1 manipulates inflorescence branching architecture in maize and Arabidopsis through a conserved pathway. Using a yeast (
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
) two-hybrid library of
S. reilianum
-infected maize tissues, we identified potential plant interaction partners that had a predicted function in ubiquitination, signaling, and nuclear processes. Presence of SAD1 led to an increase of the transcript levels of the auxin transporter
PIN-FORMED1
in the root and a reduction of the branching regulator
TEOSINTE BRANCHED1
in the stalk. This indicates a role of SAD1 in regulation of apical dominance by modulation of branching through increasing transcript levels of the auxin transporter PIN1 and derepression of bud outgrowth.
Advancing basic and applied plant research requires the continuous innovative development of the available technology toolbox. Essential components of this toolbox are methods that simplify the ...assembly, delivery, and expression of multiple transgenes of interest. To allow simultaneous and directional multigene assembly on the same plant transformation vector, several strategies based on overlapping sequences or restriction enzymes have recently been developed. However, the assembly of homologous and repetitive DNA sequences can be inefficient and the frequent occurrence of target sequences recognized by commonly used restriction enzymes can be a limiting factor. Here, we noted that recognition sites for the restriction enzyme SfiI are rarely occurring in plant genomes. This fact was exploited to establish a multigene assembly system called "COLORFUL-Circuit." To this end, we developed a set of binary vectors which provide a flexible and cost efficient cloning platform. The gene expression cassettes in our system are flanked with unique SfiI sites, which allow simultaneous multi-gene cassette assembly in a hosting binary vector. We used COLORFUL-Circuit to transiently and stably express up to four fluorescent organelle markers in addition to a selectable marker and analyzed the impact of assembly design on coexpression efficiency. Finally, we demonstrate the utility of our optimized "COLORFUL-Circuit" system in an exemplary case study, in which we monitored simultaneously the subcellular behavior of multiple organelles in a biotrophic plant-microbe interaction by Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy.
Transformed hairy root culture in common buckwheat (
Fagopyrum esculentum
Moench Rubra cultivar) was investigated for accumulation of amino acids and specific flavonoids. Leaves and stems of
F. ...esculentum
were used a starting material for induction of hairy roots via the
Agrobacterium rhizogenes
A4 strain. The transformed lines were confirmed by PCR detection of
rol B
gene, and their capability to continuously form hairy roots. Three lines from each explant types depending upon growth kinetics were observed. The hairy root lines were used to measure the contents of 17 amino acids and 3 flavonoids. Overall, the hairy root lines exhibited elevated accumulation of semi-essential amino acids such as lysine, isoleucine, valine, histidine and phenylalanine. Content of proline was increased 3–5 times, likely due to the biotic stress reaction induced with
A. rhizogenes
. Determination of flavonoids by high-performance liquid chromatography, hesperidine and kaempferol-3-rutinoside, were accumulated in hairy root cultures and didn’t detected in non-transformed root. The increase in flavonoids positively correlated with the antioxidant capacity of the hairy root cultures.
BACKGROUND: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic inflammatory disease affects about 0.5–1% of adults. Sexuality is an integral part of human quality of life and responsible for our ...individual welfare, study the association between them is highly important as many studies revealed that sexuality is greatly affected in RA patients.
AIM: This study aims to determine the possible different risk factors for sexual dysfunction (SD) in RA and to study the magnitude of SD among RA male patients.
METHODS: This is a case–control study carried on 60 males – aged between 18–45 years – attending Family Medicine and Rheumatology Clinic in Kasr Alainy, Cairo University, Egypt. Participants were divided into case and control groups, both groups were matched regarding socioeconomic status. All participants were evaluated for sexual function using international index of erectile function (IIEF), psychological state using patient health questionnaire (PHQ9), disease-related disability using health assessment questionnaire, disease severity using disease activity score 28, and serum testosterone level was assessed.
RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference between both groups regarding IIEF (OR o’s SD among patients were 1.66), PHQ9, and serum testosterone (p = 0.005). There was highly statistically significant negative correlation between sexual problems and depression, disease caused disability, RA duration and there was highly statistically significant positive correlation between sexual problems and serum hormonal level.
CONCLUSION: Sexual problems are a prominent problem in males who suffer from RA. Sexual function was significant associated with disease activity, depression, quality of life, and with lower levels of total and free testosterone.
In the present study, the effects of the metabolite elicitors chitosan, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA) as well as the hairy root transformation were tested for silymarin and phenolic ...compound accumulation in in vitro cultures of Milk thistle. For callus induction, leaf explants were cultured on MS medium supplemented with 5mg/l NAA+2mg/l Kin+0.1mg/l GA3. Chitosan, SA and MeJA were added separately in three concentrations 200, 400 and 800mg/l; 10, 20 and 40mg/l; 20, 40 and 80mg/l, respectively, to hormone free B5 medium. Alternatively, cotyledons of 12 day old seedlings were transformed with Agrobacterium rhizogenes A4 strain. Overall, increasing the concentrations of the three elicitors dramatically increased the total silymarin content. Remarkably, the elicitors mainly enhanced the accumulation of silybine A&B that were not detected in un-treated callus culture (control). In addition, the hairy root culture triggered the accumulation of silybine A&B, and silydianin, which was not detected in the non-transgenic roots. The hairy root culture was superior in production of the phenolic compounds in comparison to the control and elicitor treatments. The hairy root cultures showed also higher antioxidant capacities than non-transformed cultures and/or chemically elicited-callus cultures. Thus hairy root provide instrumental in enhancing the production of economically valuable metabolite.
Sporisorium reilianum is a biotrophic maize (Zea mays) pathogen of increasing economic importance. Symptoms become obvious at flowering time, when the fungus causes spore formation and phyllody in ...the inflorescences. To understand how S. reilianum changes the inflorescence and floral developmental program of its host plant, we investigated the induced morphological and transcriptional alterations. S. reilianum infection promoted the outgrowth of subapical ears, suggesting that fungal presence suppressed apical dominance. Female inflorescences showed two distinct morphologies, here termed "leafy ear" and "eary ear." In leafy ears, all floral organs were replaced by vegetative organs. In eary ears, modified carpels enclosed a new female inflorescence harboring additional female inflorescences at every spikelet position. Similar changes in meristem fate and organ identity were observed in the tassel of infected plants, which formed male inflorescences at spikelet positions. Thus, S. reilianum triggered a loss of organ and meristem identity and a loss of meristem determinacy in male and female inflorescences and flowers. Microarray analysis showed that these developmental changes were accompanied by transcriptional regulation of genes proposed to regulate floral organ and meristem identity as well as meristem determinacy in maize. S. reilianum colonization also led to a 30% increase in the total auxin content of the inflorescence as well as a dramatic accumulation of reactive oxygen species. We propose a model describing the architectural changes of infected inflorescence as a consequence of transcriptional, hormonal, and redox modulation, which will be the basis for further molecular investigation of the underlying mechanism of S. reilianum-induced alteration of floral development.
For analysis of gene expression profiles underlying tomato–
Ralstonia solanacearum interaction and silicon-induced resistance, an internal control with high expression stability under the ...experimental conditions is needed as a prerequisite for accurate relative quantification of gene expression. Therefore, the expression stability of three housekeeping genes, phosphoglycerate kinase genes (
PGK), α-tubulin (
TUB) and actin (
ACT) in tomato under 24 experimental conditions including combinations of silicon amendments and inoculation with
R. solanacearum at six time points was examined. The expression of
ACT severely varied, in particular at the early phase after inoculation with the pathogen, suggesting a possible disabling the cytoskeleton that mediates resistance. Application of silicon resulted in more expression stability of the three housekeeping genes, showing alleviation of the biotic stress imposed by the pathogen. Although
PGK and
TUB showed reasonable expression stability,
PGK was frequently ranked as the more stable among the treatments and over time. Thus, it is misleading to use a commonly used housekeeping gene for normalization without prior investigation of its expression stability. Here, we recommend to use either
PGK alone, or
PGK and
TUB together as internal controls to increase the accuracy and to avoid error propagation in quantification of relative gene expression.
► Here
ACT is not reliable reference gene for mRNA normalization in quantification of gene expression. ► Using reference gene without validation of its expression stability may mislead interpreted results. ►
PGK and
TUB can be used as stable internal controls to study
R. solanacearum-silicon interactions.
Background
Labor pain is a common complaint. The method used to reduce maternal discomfort should be efficacious and safe for the mother and the child. Several alternative methods have been reported ...to reduce childbirth pain.
Objective
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of kinesio taping combined with breathing exercises on childbirth duration and labor pain.
Participants and methods
This study was conducted on 40 normal full-term primigravida women during the first stage of labor with regular painful, palpable uterine contraction, and cervical dilatation between 3 and 5cm. They were randomly assigned into two equal groups, group A and group B. Group A (the study group) consisted of 20 women, and group B (the control group) consisted of 20 women. All participants in both groups A and B performed breathing exercises in addition to conventional medical treatment. However, group A patients received kinesio taping at the lumbar region and anterior lower abdomen during the first stage of normal labor. Assessment of all participants in both groups A and B was carried out before and after the treatment program using visual analogue scale (VAS), cardiotocography, and by measuring the duration of the first stage of labor using a stopwatch.
Results
There was a nonsignificant difference between group A and group B in pain intensity using VAS in the first stage of labor at the first reading (cervical dilatation: 3–4cm). However, there was a highly significant difference between group A and group B in the pain intensity using VAS in the first stage of labor at the second reading (cervical dilatation: 7–8cm), favoring group A. Furthermore, there was a highly significant difference between group A and group B in the duration of the first stage of labor, favoring group A.
Conclusion
These results suggest that kinesio taping combined with breathing exercise is an effective method in reducing labor pain and shortening the duration of the first stage of labor.
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