Rice (
) responds to various abiotic stresses during growth. Plant-specific NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2 (NAC) transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in controlling numerous vital growth and ...developmental processes. To date, 170 NAC TFs have been reported in rice, but their roles remain largely unknown. Herein, we discovered that the TF OsNAC006 is constitutively expressed in rice, and regulated by H
O
, cold, heat, abscisic acid (ABA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), NaCl, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 treatments. Furthermore, knockout of
using the CRISPR-Cas9 system resulted in drought and heat sensitivity. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) transcriptome analysis revealed that
regulates the expression of genes mainly involved in response to stimuli, oxidoreductase activity, cofactor binding, and membrane-related pathways. Our findings elucidate the important role of
in drought responses, and provide valuable information for genetic manipulation to enhance stress tolerance in future plant breeding programs.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has considerably burdened the healthcare system in the Hubei Province, the most severely affected region in China. The aim of our study was to ...assess the psychological effects of COVID-19 epidemic on the healthcare workers in Hubei.
A total of 2737 healthcare workers were sampled using a two-dimensional code shared online between Mar 4 and Mar 9, 2020. The questionnaires consisted of three elements: baseline characteristics, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The primary outcome variables were PQSI, anxiety and depression scores of non-medical staff, non-frontline medical staff and frontline medical staff. Binary logistical regression analyses were used to compare between respondents with and without sleep disturbance.
About 61.6% of the respondents reported sleep problems, 22.6% experienced anxiety, and 35% exhibited depressive symptoms. The prevalence of sleep disorders was higher among the frontline healthcare workers compared to the non-frontline and non-medical staff, while anxiety and depression were prevalent in the entire cohort. Logistic regression analysis identified medical occupation, family burden, bereavement, anxiety, and depression as significantly predictive of poor sleep quality.
Frontline medical staff are more vulnerable to sleep disturbances. Psychosocial interventions are needed to help allied healthcare personnel to better respond to COVID-19 and future outbreaks.
is a prized traditional Chinese medicinal plant species. Its red storage roots are primarily used for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In this study, a transcription ...factor gene
was cloned and introduced into
for ectopic expression. Overexpression of
enhanced salt stress resistance in
, leading to a more resilient phenotype in transgenic plants exposed to high-salinity conditions. Physiological experiments have revealed that overexpression of
can decrease the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during salt stress, boost the activity of antioxidant enzymes, and mitigate oxidative damage to cell membranes. In addition, overexpression of
promotes the synthesis of tanshinones and phenolic acids by upregulating the expression of biosynthetic pathway genes, resulting in increased levels of these secondary metabolites. In summary, our findings demonstrate that
not only enhances plant tolerance to salt stress, but also increases the accumulation of secondary metabolites in
. Our study lays a solid foundation for uncovering the molecular mechanisms governed by
and holds significant implications for the molecular breeding of high-quality
varieties.
Transcription factors play crucial roles in regulating plant abiotic stress responses and physiological metabolic processes, which can be used for plant molecular breeding. In this study, an R2R3-MYB ...transcription factor gene, AtMYB12, was isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana and introduced into Salvia miltiorrhiza under the regulation of the CaMV35S promoter. The ectopic expression of AtMYB12 resulted in improved salt tolerance in S. miltiorrhiza; transgenic plants showed a more resistant phenotype under high-salinity conditions. Physiological experiments showed that transgenic plants exhibited higher chlorophyll contents, and decreased electrolyte leakage and O2− and H2O2 accumulation when subjected to salt stress. Moreover, the activity of reactive oxygen species (ROS)-scavenging enzymes was enhanced in S. miltiorrhiza via the overexpression of AtMYB12, and transgenic plants showed higher superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) activities compared with those of the wild type (WT) under salt stress, coupled with lower malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. In addition, the amount of salvianolic acid B was significantly elevated in all AtMYB12 transgenic hair roots and transgenic plants, and qRT-PCR analysis revealed that most genes in the phenolic acid biosynthetic pathway were up-regulated. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that AtMYB12 can significantly improve the resistance of plants to salt stress and promote the biosynthesis of phenolic acids by regulating genes involved in the biosynthetic pathway.
Excessive cellular accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) due to environmental stresses can critically disrupt plant development and negatively affect productivity. Plant glutathione ...peroxidases (GPXs) play an important role in ROS scavenging by catalyzing the reduction of H
O
and other organic hydroperoxides to protect plant cells from oxidative stress damage.
, a member of the GPX gene family, was isolated from a traditional medicinal plant
and constitutively expressed in
under control of the CaMV 35S promoter. Transgenic plants showed increased tolerance to oxidative stress caused by application of H
O
and drought, and had reduced production of malondialdehyde (MDA) compared with the wild type. Under drought stress, seedlings of the transgenic lines wilted later than the wild type and recovered growth 1 day after re-watering. In addition, the reduced glutathione (GSH) and total glutathione (T-GSH) contents were higher in the transgenic lines, with increased enzyme activities including glutathione reductase (GR), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and GPX. These changes prevent H
O
and O
accumulation in cells of the transgenic lines compared with wild type. Overexpression of
alters the relative expression levels of multiple endogenous genes in
, including transcription factor genes and genes in the ROS and ABA pathways. In particular,
expression increases the mass of
roots while reducing the concentration of the active ingredients. These results show that heterologous expression of
in
can affect the regulation of multiple biochemical pathways to confer tolerance to drought stress, and
might act as a competitor with secondary metabolites in the
response to environmental stimuli.
The AP2/ERF transcription factors (TFs) comprise one of the largest gene superfamilies in plants. These TFs perform vital roles in plant growth, development, and responses to biotic and abiotic ...stresses. In this study, 171 AP2/ERF TFs were identified in cauliflower (
L. var.
), one of the most important horticultural crops in
. Among these TFs, 15, 9, and 1 TFs were classified into the AP2, RAV, and Soloist family, respectively. The other 146 TFs belong to ERF family, which were further divided into the ERF and DREB subfamilies. The ERF subfamily contained 91 TFs, while the DREB subfamily contained 55 TFs. Phylogenetic analysis results indicated that the AP2/ERF TFs can be classified into 13 groups, in which 25 conserved motifs were confirmed. Some motifs were group- or subgroup- specific, implying that they are significant to the functions of the AP2/ERF TFs of these clades. In addition, 35 AP2/ERF TFs from the 13 groups were selected randomly and then used for expression pattern analysis under salt and drought stresses. The majority of these AP2/ERF TFs exhibited positive responses to these stress conditions. In specific,
, and
demonstrated rapid responses. By contrast, six AP2/ERF TFs were showed to delay responses to both stresses. The AP2/ERF TFs exhibiting specific expression patterns under salt or drought stresses were also confirmed. Further functional analysis indicated that ectopic overexpression of
could increase tolerance to both salt and drought treatments. These findings provide new insights into the AP2/ERF TFs present in cauliflower, and offer candidate AP2/ERF TFs for further studies on their roles in salt and drought stress tolerance.
(
) is an important Chinese herb that is derived from the perennial plant of Lamiaceae, which has been used to treat neurasthenic insomnia and cardiovascular disease. We produced a mutant
(MT), from ...breeding experiments, that possessed a large taproot, reduced lateral roots, and defective flowering. We performed transcriptome profiling of wild type (WT) and MT
using second-generation Illumina sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that could account for these phenotypical differences. Of the DEGs identified, we investigated the role of
, the expression of which was down-regulated in MT plants.
was introduced into
and
under the control of a CaMV35S promoter to verify its influence on abiotic stress and
secondary metabolism biosynthesis.
was found to promote flower and root development in
.
was also found to be positively regulated by Gibberellin (GA) and significantly enhanced plant resistance to salt, drought, and paclobutrazol (PBZ) stress.
also led to the up-regulation of the genes involved in salvianolic acid biosynthesis, but inhibited the expression of the genes involved in tanshinone biosynthesis. Taken together, our results reveal
as a promising candidate gene to promote
development.
Salinity is a major abiotic stress factor that seriously affects plant growth. Many genes are involved in the response to salt stress with various metabolism pathways. A number of plant transcription ...factor family genes have been found to be involved in the salt stress response, and NAM, ATAF and CUC (NAC) transcription factors are thought to act as active regulators during abiotic stress, especially salt stress. In this study, we detected a rice NAC transcription factor coding gene, OsNAC041, and confirmed that it influenced the germination of seeds under salt stress and salt tolerance of plants. OsNAC041 was primarily expressed in the leaves and located in the nucleus. Furthermore, the CRISPR/Cas9 method was used to obtain a targeted osnac041 mutant, of which the plant height was higher than that of the wild-type, showing increased salt sensitivity. Moreover, RNA-seq analysis revealed a number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved in several important signaling pathways in the osnac041 mutant. Subsequently, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes annotation also revealed differential expression of DEGs associated with mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling, peroxisome, eukaryotic- type ABC transporters, photosynthesis and plant hormones, which are involved in stress-related signaling pathways. Overall, our study suggested that OsNAC041 was involved in the salt stress response in rice. These findings not only provide empirical evidence of OsNAC041 function, but also provide new insight into its potential application in rice resistance breeding.
Synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP25) exerts protective effects against postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) by promoting PTEN-induced kinase 1 (PINK1)/Parkin-mediated mitophagy and ...repressing caspase-3/gasdermin E (GSDME)-mediated pyroptosis. However, the regulatory mechanisms of SNAP25 protein remain unclear.
We employed recombinant adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9)-hSyn to knockdown tumor necrosis factor α-induced protein 1 (TNFAIP1) or SNAP25 and investigate the role of TNFAIP1 in POCD. Cognitive performance, hippocampal injury, mitophagy, and pyroptosis were assessed. Co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) and ubiquitination assays were conducted to elucidate the mechanisms by which TNFAIP1 stabilizes SNAP25.
Our results demonstrated that the ubiquitin ligase TNFAIP1 was upregulated in the hippocampus of mice following isoflurane (Iso) anesthesia and laparotomy. The N-terminal region (residues 1-96) of TNFAIP1 formed a conjugate with SNAP25, leading to lysine (K) 48-linked polyubiquitination of SNAP25 at K69. Silencing TNFAIP1 enhanced SH-SY5Y cell viability and conferred antioxidant, pro-mitophagy, and anti-pyroptosis properties in response to Iso and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenges. Conversely, TNFAIP1 overexpression reduced HT22 cell viability, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, impaired PINK1/Parkin-dependent mitophagy, and induced caspase-3/GSDME-dependent pyroptosis by suppressing SNAP25 expression. Neuron-specific knockdown of TNFAIP1 ameliorated POCD, restored mitophagy, and reduced pyroptosis, which was reversed by SNAP25 depletion.
In summary, our findings demonstrated that inhibiting TNFAIP1-mediated degradation of SNAP25 might be a promising therapeutic approach for mitigating postoperative cognitive decline. Video Abstract.
The wild species of the genus Oryza contain a largely untapped reservoir of agronomically important genes for rice improvement. Here we report the 261-Mb de novo assembled genome sequence of Oryza ...brachyantha. Low activity of long-terminal repeat retrotransposons and massive internal deletions of ancient long-terminal repeat elements lead to the compact genome of Oryza brachyantha. We model 32,038 protein-coding genes in the Oryza brachyantha genome, of which only 70% are located in collinear positions in comparison with the rice genome. Analysing breakpoints of non-collinear genes suggests that double-strand break repair through non-homologous end joining has an important role in gene movement and erosion of collinearity in the Oryza genomes. Transition of euchromatin to heterochromatin in the rice genome is accompanied by segmental and tandem duplications, further expanded by transposable element insertions. The high-quality reference genome sequence of Oryza brachyantha provides an important resource for functional and evolutionary studies in the genus Oryza.
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