Previous studies with Paenibacillus lentimorbus B-30488" (hereafter referred as B-30488), a plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) isolated from cow's milk, revealed its capabilities to improve ...plant quality under normal and stress conditions. Present study investigates its potential as a biocontrol agent against an economically important virus, Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), in Nicotiana tabacum cv. White Burley plants and delineates the physical, biophysical, biochemical and molecular perturbations due to the trilateral interactions of PGPR-host-CMV. Soil inoculation of B-30488 enhanced the plant vigor while significantly decreased the virulence and virus RNA accumulation by ~12 fold (91%) in systemic leaves of CMV infected tobacco plants as compared to the control ones. Histology of these leaves revealed the improved tissue's health and least aging signs in B-30488 inoculated tobacco plants, with or without CMV infection, and showed lesser intercellular spaces between collenchyma cells, reduced amount of xyloglucans and pectins in connecting primary cells, and higher polyphenol accumulation in hypodermis layer extending to collenchyma cells. B-30488 inoculation has favorably maneuvered the essential biophysical (ion leakage and photosynthetic efficiency) and biochemical (sugar, proline, chlorophyll, malondialdehyde, acid phosphatase and alkaline phosphatase) attributes of tobacco plants to positively regulate and release the virus stress. Moreover, activities of defense related enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase, guaiacol peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase) induced due to CMV-infection were ameliorated with inoculation of B-30488, suggesting systemic induced resistance mediated protection against CMV in tobacco. The quantitative RT-PCR analyses of the genes related to normal plant development, stress and pathogenesis also corroborate well with the biochemical data and revealed the regulation (either up or down) of these genes in favor of plant to combat the CMV mediated stress. These improvements led tobacco plant to produce more flowers and seeds with no negative impact on plant health. The present study may advocate the applicability of B-30488 for crop yield improvement in virus infested areas.
Along with many adaptive strategies, dynamic changes in protein abundance seem to be the common strategy to cope up with abiotic stresses which can be best explored through proteomics. Understanding ...of drought response is the key to decipher regulatory mechanism of better adaptation. Rice (
L.) proteome represents a phenomenal source of proteins that govern traits of agronomic importance, such as drought tolerance. In this study, a comparison of root cytoplasmic proteome was done for a drought tolerant rice (Heena) cultivar in PEG induced drought conditions. A total of 510 protein spots were observed by PDQuest analysis and 125 differentially regulated spots were subjected for MALDI-TOF MS-MS analysis out of which 102 protein spots identified which further led to identification of 78 proteins with a significant score. These 78 differentially expressed proteins appeared to be involved in different biological pathways. The largest percentage of identified proteins was involved in bioenergy and metabolism (29%) and mainly consists of malate dehydrogenase, succinyl-CoA, putative acetyl-CoA synthetase, and pyruvate dehydrogenase etc. This was followed by proteins related to cell defense and rescue (22%) such as monodehydroascorbate reductase and stress-induced protein sti1, then by protein biogenesis and storage class (21%) e.g. putative thiamine biosynthesis protein, putative beta-alanine synthase, and cysteine synthase. Further, cell signaling (9%) proteins like actin and prolyl endopeptidase, and proteins with miscellaneous function (19%) like Sgt1 and some hypothetical proteins were also represented a large contribution toward drought regulatory mechanism in rice. We propose that protein biogenesis, cell defense, and superior homeostasis may render better drought-adaptation. These findings might expedite the functional determination of the drought-responsive proteins and their prioritization as potential molecular targets for perfect adaptation.
Introduction Skeletal metastasis is catastrophic in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), leading to skeletal-related events (SRE) such as nerve entrapment, hypercalcemia and even pathological ...fractures, which may require surgical intervention. The nature of the bone metastasis in advanced RCC is large, destructive, hyper-vascular and mostly lytic. The present retrospective analysis aims to identify potential risk factors for predicting SREs in advanced RCC with bone metastasis. Methods The clinical data of 42 patients with RCC and bone metastasis and at least one episode of SRE were reviewed, and the correlations between erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), C-reactive protein (CRP), haemoglobin (Hb), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and bone metastases were analysed. Risk factors were identified by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Bone metastasis was diagnosed on a bone scan. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve calculated the cut-off value of the independent correlation factors. Results The areas under the ROC curve for ALP, Hb, CRP, and ESR were 0.84, 0.76, 0.86 and 0.88, respectively, suggesting excellent discriminatory capability of ALP, CRP, ESR and sufficient discriminative ability of Hb in predicting bone metastasis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed ALP, CRP, Hb and ESR associated with SRE and skeletal metastasis. Conclusion We propose that an A.C.H.E. score encompassing ALP, CRP, Hb, and ESR are potential risk factors for developing SRE and concomitant bone metastasis in advanced RCC patients. For new RCC patients, if values of ALP >128 U/L, CRP ≥74 mg/L, Hb <11.5 g/L, and ESR ≥55 mm/hr are detected, intensive monitoring and bone scanning are warranted as these cases are at a higher risk of skeletal events.
Protein deficiency is the most crucial factor that affects physical growth and development and that increases morbidity and mortality especially in developing countries. Efforts have been made to ...improve protein quality and quantity in crop plants but with limited success. Here, we report the development of transgenic potatoes with enhanced nutritive value by tuber-specific expression of a seed protein, AmA1 (Amaranth Albumin 1), in seven genotypic backgrounds suitable for cultivation in different agro-climatic regions. Analyses of the transgenic tubers revealed up to 60% increase in total protein content. In addition, the concentrations of several essential amino acids were increased significantly in transgenic tubers, which are otherwise limited in potato. Moreover, the transgenics also exhibited enhanced photosynthetic activity with a concomitant increase in total biomass. These results are striking because this genetic manipulation also resulted in a moderate increase in tuber yield. The comparative protein profiling suggests that the proteome rebalancing might cause increased protein content in transgenic tubers. Furthermore, the data on field performance and safety evaluation indicate that the transgenic potatoes are suitable for commercial cultivation. In vitro and in vivo studies on experimental animals demonstrate that the transgenic tubers are also safe for human consumption. Altogether, these results emphasize that the expression of AmA1 is a potential strategy for the nutritional improvement of food crops.
Drought stress, an inevitable factor due to global climate change, hampers plant biomass production and overall yield. Drought mediated stress sensitivity exerts multi-dimensional effect on ...transcriptional and proteomic variations leading to changes in morphological, physiological, metabolic and hormonal responses. To cope up water scarcity, plants adapt several drought avoidances or tolerance mechanisms including biochemical, physiological and gene regulatory networks, leading to their effective survival. Genomic intervention modulates the defensive strategies of drought-related to phytohormones (auxins, cytokinins, ethylene, ABA and brassinosteroids), signalling molecules (e.g. nitric oxide), transcription factors, and transcriptional and translational modifications. Further, proteomic modulation is allied with antioxidant defence, photosynthesis, respiration, stomatal conductance, cell signalling and post-translational modifications of proteins. These factors exhibit strong mitigation strategies related to the acclimatisation of plants in response to water deficit. This review presents mechanistic explanations to draught stress following genomic and proteomic approaches, and suggests effective morpho-physiological, biochemical, and bio-technological strategies to overcome the negative impacts of drought stress. It highlights current knowledge, potential strategies and future possibilities to improve drought tolerance and crop yield.
Extensor tendon injuries are much commoner when compared to flexor tendons. Extensor tendon injuries can cause serious functional loss if not repaired on time. Injured tendon should be repaired ...immediately to avoid tendon shortening which can cause flexion lag after repair of injured tendon. We are reporting a case of extensor tendon injury in a 26-year-old female who suffered injury over her right wrist by glass bangle. She presented a month after injury. She suffered right-hand extensor zone VII injury with involvement of middle and ring finger extensor digitorum communis tendons. The method of surgical repair and post-operative regime had given a good functional outcome in our case. However, timely intervention would have resulted in the primary repair of tendon instead of tendon graft as required in our patient.
2-Hydroxy-4-Methoxy Benzaldehyde (2H4MB) is a structural isomer of vanillin produced in the tuberous roots of
D. hamiltonii
. Both vanillin and 2H4MB share the common phenylpropanoid pathway for ...their synthesis. Unlike vanillin, in which the biosynthetic pathway was well elucidated in
V. planifolia
, the 2H4MB biosynthetic pathway is not known in any of its plant sources. To find the key enzymes/proteins that promote 2H4MB biosynthesis, a comparative proteomic approach was adapted. In this case, two developmental stages of tuberous roots of
D. hamiltonii
were selected, where the flavour content was highly variable. The flavour content in the two stages was estimated using quantitative HPLC. The flavour content in the first and second stages of tuber development was 160 and 510 µgg
−1
, respectively. Two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) was performed for these two stages of tubers; this was followed by PDquest analysis. A total of 180 protein spots were differentially abundant of which 57 spots were selected and subjected to MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis. The largest percentage of identified proteins was involved in stress and defence (27.9%), followed by proteins related to bioenergy and metabolism (23.2%), Cellular homeostasis proteins (18.6%), signaling proteins (11.6%), Plant growth and development proteins (9.3%). Holistically, we found the upregulation of methyltransferase, cell division responsive proteins, plant growth and development proteins which directly relate to flavour development and maturation. Similarly, stress-responsive and signaling proteins, vacuole proteins and ATPases were down-regulated with an increase in flavour content. In this study, we could not identify the specific 2H4MB metabolic pathway proteins, however, we could be able to study the changes in physiological and primary metabolic proteins with 2H4MB accumulation.
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