Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the NADPH oxidase, respiratory burst oxidase homolog (RBOH), trigger signal transduction in diverse biological processes in plants. However, the functions of ...RBOH homologs in rice (Oryza sativa) and other gramineous plants are poorly understood. Ethylene induces the formation of lysigenous aerenchyma, which consists of internal gas spaces created by programmed cell death of cortical cells, in roots of gramineous plants under oxygen-deficient conditions. Here, we report that, in rice, one RBOH isoform (RBOHH) has a role in ethylene-induced aerenchyma formation in roots. Induction of RBOHH expression under oxygen-deficient conditions was greater in cortical cells than in cells of other root tissues. In addition, genes encoding group I calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPK5 and CDPK13) were strongly expressed in root cortical cells. Coexpression of RBOHH with CDPK5 or CDPK13 induced ROS production in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves. Inhibitors of RBOH activity or cytosolic calcium influx suppressed ethylene-induced aerenchyma formation. Moreover, knockout of RBOHH by CRISPR/Cas9 reduced ROS accumulation and inducible aerenchyma formation in rice roots. These results suggest that RBOHH-mediated ROS production, which is stimulated by CDPK5 and/or CDPK13, is essential for ethylene-induced aerenchyma formation in rice roots under oxygen-deficient conditions.
Chest CT is emerging as a valuable diagnostic tool for clinical management of COVID-19 associated lung disease. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to aid in rapid evaluation of CT scans ...for differentiation of COVID-19 findings from other clinical entities. Here we show that a series of deep learning algorithms, trained in a diverse multinational cohort of 1280 patients to localize parietal pleura/lung parenchyma followed by classification of COVID-19 pneumonia, can achieve up to 90.8% accuracy, with 84% sensitivity and 93% specificity, as evaluated in an independent test set (not included in training and validation) of 1337 patients. Normal controls included chest CTs from oncology, emergency, and pneumonia-related indications. The false positive rate in 140 patients with laboratory confirmed other (non COVID-19) pneumonias was 10%. AI-based algorithms can readily identify CT scans with COVID-19 associated pneumonia, as well as distinguish non-COVID related pneumonias with high specificity in diverse patient populations.
Living organisms must acquire new biological functions to adapt to changing and hostile environments. Deepwater rice has evolved and adapted to flooding by acquiring the ability to significantly ...elongate its internodes, which have hollow structures and function as snorkels to allow gas exchange with the atmosphere, and thus prevent drowning. Many physiological studies have shown that the phytohormones ethylene, gibberellin and abscisic acid are involved in this response, but the gene(s) responsible for this trait has not been identified. Here we show the molecular mechanism of deepwater response through the identification of the genes SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2, which trigger deepwater response by encoding ethylene response factors involved in ethylene signalling. Under deepwater conditions, ethylene accumulates in the plant and induces expression of these two genes. The products of SNORKEL1 and SNORKEL2 then trigger remarkable internode elongation via gibberellin. We also demonstrate that the introduction of three quantitative trait loci from deepwater rice into non-deepwater rice enabled the latter to become deepwater rice. This discovery will contribute to rice breeding in lowland areas that are frequently flooded during the rainy season.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In many plant species, the intact main shoot apex grows predominantly and axillary bud outgrowth is inhibited. This phenomenon is called apical dominance, and has been analyzed for over 70 years. ...Decapitation of the shoot apex releases the axillary buds from their dormancy and they begin to grow out. Auxin derived from an intact shoot apex suppresses axillary bud outgrowth, whereas cytokinin induced by decapitation of the shoot apex stimulates axillary bud outgrowth. Here we describe the molecular mechanisms of the interactions between auxin and cytokinin in the control of shoot branching.
Chloroplasts import thousands of nucleus-encoded preproteins synthesized in the cytosol through the TOC and TIC translocons on the outer and inner envelope membranes, respectively. Preprotein ...translocation across the inner membrane requires ATP; however, the import motor has remained unclear. Here, we report that a 2-MD heteromeric AAA-ATPase complex associates with the TIC complex and functions as the import motor, directly interacting with various translocating preproteins. This 2-MD complex consists of a protein encoded by the previously enigmatic chloroplast gene ycf2 and five related nuclear-encoded FtsH-like proteins, namely, FtsHi1, FtsHi2, FtsHi4, FtsHi5, and FtsH12. These components are each essential for plant viability and retain the AAA-type ATPase domain, but only FtsH12 contains the zinc binding active site generally conserved among FtsH-type metalloproteases. Furthermore, even the FtsH12 zinc binding site is dispensable for its essential function. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that all AAA-type members of the Ycf2/FtsHi complex including Ycf2 evolved from the chloroplast-encoded membrane-bound AAA-protease FtsH of the ancestral endosymbiont. The Ycf2/FtsHi complex also contains an NAD-malate dehydrogenase, a proposed key enzyme for ATP production in chloroplasts in darkness or in nonphotosynthetic plastids. These findings advance our understanding of this ATP-driven protein translocation system that is unique to the green lineage of photosynthetic eukaryotes.
Grain weight is an important crop yield component; however, its underlying regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we identify a grain-weight quantitative trait locus (QTL) encoding a ...new-type GNAT-like protein that harbors intrinsic histone acetyltransferase activity (OsglHAT1). Our genetic and molecular evidences pinpointed the QTL- OsglHAT1 ’s allelic variations to a 1.2-kb region upstream of the gene body, which is consistent with its function as a positive regulator of the traits. Elevated OsglHAT1 expression enhances grain weight and yield by enlarging spikelet hulls via increasing cell number and accelerating grain filling, and increases global acetylation levels of histone H4. OsglHAT1 localizes to the nucleus, where it likely functions through the regulation of transcription. Despite its positive agronomical effects on grain weight, yield, and plant biomass, the rare allele elevating OsglHAT1 expression has so far escaped human selection. Our findings reveal the first example, to our knowledge, of a QTL for a yield component trait being due to a chromatin modifier that has the potential to improve crop high-yield breeding.
Significance Grain weight is an important crop yield component; however, its underlying regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Here, we identify a grain-weight quantitative trait locus (QTL) in rice encoding a new-type GNAT-like protein that harbors intrinsic histone acetyltransferase activity (OsglHAT1). Elevated OsglHAT1 expression enhances grain weight and yield by enlarging spikelet hulls via increasing cell number and accelerating grain filling, and increases global acetylation levels of histone H4. Our findings reveal the first example, to our knowledge, of a QTL for a yield component trait being due to a chromatin modifier that has the potential to improve crop high-yield breeding.
In roots of gramineous plants, lysigenous aerenchyma is created by the death and lysis of cortical cells. Rice (Oryza sativa) constitutively forms aerenchyma under aerobic conditions, and its ...formation is further induced under oxygen‐deficient conditions. However, maize (Zea mays) develops aerenchyma only under oxygen‐deficient conditions. Ethylene is involved in lysigenous aerenchyma formation. Here, we investigated how ethylene‐dependent aerenchyma formation is differently regulated between rice and maize. For this purpose, in rice, we used the reduced culm number1 (rcn1) mutant, in which ethylene biosynthesis is suppressed. Ethylene is converted from 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic acid (ACC) by the action of ACC oxidase (ACO). We found that OsACO5 was highly expressed in the wild type, but not in rcn1, under aerobic conditions, suggesting that OsACO5 contributes to aerenchyma formation in aerated rice roots. By contrast, the ACO genes in maize roots were weakly expressed under aerobic conditions, and thus ACC treatment did not effectively induce ethylene production or aerenchyma formation, unlike in rice. Aerenchyma formation in rice roots after the initiation of oxygen‐deficient conditions was faster and greater than that in maize. These results suggest that the difference in aerenchyma formation in rice and maize is due to their different mechanisms for regulating ethylene biosynthesis.
Internal transport of oxygen from shoots to roots through aerenchyma is essential for the survival of plants under oxygen‐deficient conditions in waterlogged soil. A gene encoding 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic acid oxidase (ACO) is expressed more strongly in rice roots than in maize roots under aerobic conditions. This results in faster and greater stimulation of ethylene production and ethylene‐dependent lysigenous aerenchyma formation in rice roots than in maize roots after the initiation of oxygen‐deficient conditions and explains rice's greater tolerance of waterlogging.
Summary
In intact plants, the shoot apex grows predominantly and inhibits outgrowth of axillary buds. After decapitation of the shoot apex, outgrowth of axillary buds begins. This phenomenon is ...called an apical dominance. Although the involvement of auxin, which represses outgrowth of axillary buds, and cytokinin (CK), which promotes outgrowth of axillary buds, has been proposed, little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms. In the present study, we demonstrated that auxin negatively regulates local CK biosynthesis in the nodal stem by controlling the expression level of the pea (Pisum sativumL.) gene adenosine phosphate–isopentenyltransferase (PsIPT), which encodes a key enzyme in CK biosynthesis. Before decapitation, PsIPT1 and PsIPT2 transcripts were undetectable; after decapitation, they were markedly induced in the nodal stem along with accumulation of CK. Expression of PsIPT was repressed by the application of indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA). In excised nodal stem, PsIPT expression and CK levels also increased under IAA‐free conditions. Furthermore, β‐glucuronidase expression, under the control of the PsIPT2 promoter region in transgenic Arabidopsis, was repressed by an IAA. Our results indicate that in apical dominance one role of auxin is to repress local biosynthesis of CK in the nodal stem and that, after decapitation, CKs, which are thought to be derived from the roots, are locally biosynthesized in the nodal stem rather than in the roots.
Plants tailor immune responses to defend against pathogens with different lifestyles. In this process, antagonism between the immune hormones salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) optimizes ...transcriptional signatures specifically to the attacker encountered. Antagonism is controlled by the transcription cofactor NPR1. The indispensable role of NPR1 in activating SA-responsive genes is well understood, but how it functions as a repressor of JA-responsive genes remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that SA-induced NPR1 is recruited to JA-responsive promoter regions that are co-occupied by a JA-induced transcription complex consisting of the MYC2 activator and MED25 Mediator subunit. In the presence of SA, NPR1 physically associates with JA-induced MYC2 and inhibits transcriptional activation by disrupting its interaction with MED25. Importantly, NPR1-mediated inhibition of MYC2 is a major immune mechanism for suppressing pathogen virulence. Thus, NPR1 orchestrates the immune transcriptome not only by activating SA-responsive genes but also by acting as a corepressor of JA-responsive MYC2.
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•NPR1 physically interacts with JA-induced MYC2 and its homologs•NPR1 is distributed to the JA-responsive promoters occupied by MYC2 and MED25•NPR1 dissociates the MYC2-MED25 interaction to repress JA-responsive gene expression•NPR1 suppresses MYC-mediated susceptibility of virulent Pseudomonas syringae
Nomoto et al. demonstrate the mechanistic details of crosstalk signaling between the phytohormones salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA). The SA-induced immune cofactor NPR1 directly inhibits JA-induced MYC activators, suppressing the virulent effect of the phytotoxin coronatine (COR) secreted from Pseudomonas syringae.
1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) synthase (ACS) is the rate-limiting enzyme of the ethylene biosynthesis pathway. ACS is regulated both transcriptionally and post-translationally. We ...previously reported that LeACS2, a wound-inducible ACS in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), is phosphorylated in vivo, and suggested that phosphorylation regulates protein stability rather than enzymatic activity. In this report, we demonstrate that phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of LeACS2 regulates its turnover upstream of the ubiquitin-26S-proteasome degradation pathway. Pulse-chase experiments coupled with treatment with protein kinase/phosphatase inhibitors demonstrated that LeACS2 is stabilized by phosphorylation and degraded after dephosphorylation. The amount of LeACS2 affected by the protein kinase/phosphatase inhibitors significantly influenced cellular ACS activity, ACC content, and ethylene production levels in tomato fruit tissue, suggesting that post-translational regulation by phosphorylation plays an important role in the control of ethylene production. A calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK), LeCDPK2, was isolated as one of the protein kinases that are able to phosphorylate LeACS2 at Ser-460. LeACS2 was immediately phosphorylated after translation by CDPK and mitogen-activated protein kinase at different sites in response to wound signaling and almost all functional LeACS2 molecules are phosphorylated in the cell. Phosphorylation at both sites was required for LeACS2 stability.
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