Cordia monoica is a member of the Boraginaceae family. This plant is widely distributed in tropical regions and has a great deal of medical value as well as economic importance. In the current study, ...the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of C. monoica was sequenced, assembled, annotated, and reported. This circular chloroplast genome had a size of 148,711 bp, with a quadripartite structure alternating between a pair of repeated inverted regions (26,897-26,901 bp) and a single copy region (77,893 bp). Among the 134 genes encoded by the cp genome, there were 89 protein-coding genes, 37 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 8 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. A total of 1387 tandem repeats were detected, with the hexanucleotides class making up 28 percent of the repeats. Cordia monoica has 26,303 codons in its protein-coding regions, and leucine amino acid was the most frequently encoded amino acid in contrast to cysteine. In addition, 12 of the 89 protein-coding genes were found to be under positive selection. The phyloplastomic taxonomical clustering of the Boraginaceae species provides further evidence that chloroplast genome data are reliable not only at family level but also in deciphering the phylogeny at genus level (e.g., Cordia).
L. (Fenugreek) is a valuable medicinal plant cultivated for decades for its therapeutic characteristics. Still no pronounced improvement concerning wild form was accomplished as it is a ...self-pollinating crop. Induced mutagenesis is encouraged as a remarkable tool on this plant to circumvent the genetic bottleneck of cultivated germplasms. As a result, novel allelomorphic combinations for short-term agronomic attributes were developed. Fenugreek cultivar Pusa Early Bunching, selected for the present experiment, was mutagenized with five doses (0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, and 1.0%) of caffeine and sodium azide (SA) to evaluate its impact on the qualitative and quantitative traits of M
and M
generation conducted in a Complete Randomized Block Design (CRBD), replicated five times during 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, respectively. The frequency of induced phenotypic variations was assessed in M
progenies, resulting in the identification and isolation of a broad spectrum of mutants with altered phenotypes. Mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency were found to be maximum at lower concentrations of the mutagen treatments and highest in SA, followed by caffeine. Various morphological mutants with modified characters were observed at different concentrations in M
generation. The spectrum of mutations was wider in SA than in caffeine, as caffeine produced 51 while SA produced 54 individual mutants under seven major categories. The maximum frequency of morphological mutants was associated with leaf, followed by plant size, plant growth habit, pod, seed size, seed shape, and seed color. Morphological and structural variations in the guard cells of stomata and seeds were observed through scanning electron microscopy. The variations created in the economically important traits may enrich the genetic diversity of this plant species. Moreover, these morphological mutants may serve as a source of elite genes in further breeding programs of fenugreek.
Viral colonization was substantially reduced in banana plants that were foliar sprayed with Citosan NanoParticle, CS-NPs, solution. Banana plants treated with CS-NPs showed different levels of ...protection against Banana Streak Virus, BSV, compared with the untreated control plants. Banana plants treated with CS-NPs at a rate of 200 mg L
−1
, pre-inoculated with BSV, reduced the disease incidence (DI) by 75.00% and disease severity (DS) by 95.3%, compared with untreated plants. Banana plants treated with CS-NPs at a rate of 300 and 400 mg L
−1
, pre and post-inoculated with BSV, showed a complete reduction in DI and DS, compared to the control. Surprisingly, the inactivation effects were no longer strong enough to prevent viral accumulation and reproduction after 24h. However, foliar spraying of CS-NPs onto banana leaves significantly reduced BSV replication by activating the plant defense and growth response. The maximum up-regulating expression level of an 18.20-fold change was attained with CS-NPs at a rate of 400 mg L
−1
. Simultaneously, the mRNA accumulation of the PR-1 gene in 200- and 300 mg L
−1
CS-NPs treated plants was high, with 12.12- and 10.50-relative expression fold increases, respectively, over the untreated control. Plants treated with Cs-NP showed elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (PR1 and PR2), catalase activity, and peroxidase activity. Interestingly, the NPs also markedly raised the phytohormones ABA and SA levels by 160% and 520%, respectively.
In this study,
Trema orientalis
was used as an example to explore chloroplast genome evolution and determine Cannabaceae’s phylogenetic relationship using phylogenetic analysis. Comparing six
Trema
...species chloroplast genomes shows that gene order, gene content, and length are highly conserved yet dynamically evolve among species. The whole
T. orientalis
chloroplast genome is 157,134 bp long with accession number OQ871457 and includes a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,493 bp separated by a small single-copy region of 19,320 bp and a large single-copy region of 86,822 bp. The total content of GC is 36.3%. The chloroplast genome was annotated to include 129 genes, 84 of which code for proteins, 37 for tRNA, and 8 for rRNA. Regarding, there are 127 SSRs were found, with the highest concentration in p1 (60), whose length varied from 10 to 16 bp; these areas could serve as foundational molecular markers for the
Trema
genus. The IRS repeats were found: 17 were forward repeats (F), 25 were palindromic repeats (P), and five were reverse repetitions (R).
T. orientalis
and
T. orientalis
(NC_039734.1), with 99% similarity, were found in the same group in a phylogenetic analysis of
Trema
species. IR scope expansion and contraction were also determined and compared with 17 related species in this family. It is the first report of the chloroplast genome of
T. orientalis
collected from Western Desert, Saudi Arabia, providing an important data reference for future investigations into genetic diversity and plant evolution. Such information based on the complete chloroplast genomes facilitates the evolution of species-specific molecular tools to discriminate
T. orientalis.
This research was delineated to explore the efficacy of selenium nanoparticles delivered in liposomes (L-Se) in the mitigation of type-2 diabetes mellitus. Adult female Wistar rats were assigned into ...four groups: group I, the normal control group in which the rats received normal saline solution orally; group II, the diabetic control group in which the rats were injected intraperitoneally with a single dose of streptozotocin (STZ) for induction of diabetes; group III, the metformin (Met)-treated group in which the diabetic rats were treated orally with Met; and group IV, the L-Se-treated group in which the diabetic rats were treated orally with L-Se. All treatments were delivered for 21 days. Blood and pancreas tissue samples were obtained for biochemical analysis, immunohistochemical examinations, and histopathological investigation. The L-Se-treated group showed significant drop in serum glucose and pancreatic malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) levels associated with significant rise in serum insulin and pancreatic glutathione, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and glutathione reductase (GR) values, in addition to significant improvement in the immunohistochemical indices (insulin and glucagon). Aforementioned results are appreciated by the histopathological findings of pancreatic tissue. In conclusion, our data have brought about compelling evidence favoring the antidiabetic potency of elemental selenium nanoparticles delivered in liposomes through preservation of pancreatic β cell integrity with consequent increment of insulin secretion and in turn glucose depletion, repression of oxidative stress, potentiation of the antioxidant defense system, and inhibition of pancreatic inflammation.
Salinity and drought are the major abiotic stresses that disturb several aspects of maize plants growth at the cellular level, one of these aspects is cell cycle machinery. In our study, we dissected ...the molecular alterations and downstream effectors of salinity and drought stress on cell cycle regulation and chromatin remodeling. Effects of salinity and drought stress were determined on maize seedlings using 200 mM NaCl (induced salinity stress), and 250 mM mannitol (induced drought stress) treatments, then cell cycle progression and chromatin remodeling dynamics were investigated. Seedlings displayed severe growth defects, including inhibition of root growth. Interestingly, stress treatments induced cell cycle arrest in S‐phase with extensive depletion of cyclins B1 and A1. Further investigation of gene expression profiles of cell cycle regulators showed the downregulation of the CDKA, CDKB, CYCA, and CYCB. These results reveal the direct link between salinity and drought stress and cell cycle deregulation leading to a low cell proliferation rate. Moreover, abiotic stress alters chromatin remodeling dynamic in a way that directs the cell cycle arrest. We observed low DNA methylation patterns accompanied by dynamic histone modifications that favor chromatin decondensation. Also, the high expression of DNA topoisomerase 2, 6 family was detected as consequence of DNA damage. In conclusion, in response to salinity and drought stress, maize seedlings exhibit modulation of cell cycle progression, resulting in the cell cycle arrest through chromatin remodeling.
PDF
