SUMMARY
Drought stress induces anthocyanin biosynthesis in many plant species, but the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Ethylene response factors (ERFs) play key roles in plant growth ...and various stress responses, including affecting anthocyanin biosynthesis. Here, we characterized an ERF protein, MdERF38, which is involved in drought stress‐induced anthocyanin biosynthesis. Biochemical and molecular analyses showed that MdERF38 interacted with MdMYB1, a positive modulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis, and facilitated the binding of MdMYB1 to its target genes. Therefore, MdERF38 promoted anthocyanin biosynthesis in response to drought stress. Furthermore, we found that MdBT2, a negative modulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis, decreased MdERF38‐promoted anthocyanin biosynthesis by accelerating the degradation of the MdERF38 protein. In summary, our data provide a mechanism for drought stress‐induced anthocyanin biosynthesis that involves dynamic modulation of MdERF38 at both transcriptional and post‐translational levels.
Significance Statement
MdERF38 promotes anthocyanin biosynthesis by interacting with MdMYB1 and enhancing the binding of MdMYB1 to its target genes in response to drought stress. MdBT2 decreases drought‐induced anthocyanin accumulation by accelerating the degradation of MdERF38.
Summary
The plant hormone jasmonic acid (JA) is involved in the cold stress response, and the inducer of CBF expression 1 (ICE1)‐ C‐repeat binding factor (CBF) regulatory cascade plays a key role in ...the regulation of cold stress tolerance. In this study, we showed that a novel B‐box (BBX) protein MdBBX37 positively regulates JA‐mediated cold‐stress resistance in apple.
We found that MdBBX37 bound to the MdCBF1 and MdCBF4 promoters to activate their transcription, and also interacted with MdICE1 to enhance the transcriptional activity of MdICE1 on MdCBF1, thus promoting its cold tolerance.
Two JA signaling repressors, MdJAZ1 and MdJAZ2 (JAZ, JAZMONATE ZIM‐DOMAIN), interacted with MdBBX37 to repress the transcriptional activity of MdBBX37 on MdCBF1 and MdCBF4, and also interfered with the interaction between MdBBX37 and MdICE1, thus negatively regulating JA‐mediated cold tolerance. E3 ligase MdMIEL1 (MIEL1, MYB30‐Interacting E3 Ligase1) reduced MdBBX37‐improved cold resistance by mediating ubiquitination and degradation of the MdBBX37 protein.
The data reveal that MIEL1 and JAZ proteins co‐regulate JA‐mediated cold stress tolerance through the BBX37‐ICE1‐CBF module in apple. These results will aid further examination of the post‐translational modification of BBX proteins and the regulatory mechanism of JA‐mediated cold stress tolerance.
Wounding stress leads to anthocyanin accumulation. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains elusive. In this study, MdWRKY40 was found to promote wounding-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis ...in association with MdMYB1 and undergo MdBT2-mediated degradation in apple.
We found that MdMYB1, a positive regulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis, was essential for the wounding-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis in apple. MdWRKY40 was identified as an MdMYB1-interacting protein, and enhanced the binding of MdMYB1 to its target genes in response to wounding.
We found that MdBT2 interacted physically with MdWRKY40 and was involved in its degradation through the 26S proteasome pathway.
Our results demonstrate that MdWRKY40 is a key modulator in the wounding-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis, which provides new insights into the regulation of wounding-induced anthocyanin biosynthesis at both the transcriptional and post-translational levels in apple.
Summary
MYB transcription factors (TFs) have been demonstrated to play diverse roles in plant growth and development through interaction with basic helix‐loop‐helix (bHLH) TFs. MdbHLH33, an apple ...bHLH TF, has been identified as a positive regulator in cold tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation by activating the expressions of MdCBF2 and MdDFR. In the present study, a MYB TF MdMYB308L was found to also positively regulate cold tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation in apple. We found that MdMYB308L interacted with MdbHLH33 and enhanced its binding to the promoters of MdCBF2 and MdDFR. In addition, an apple RING E3 ubiquitin ligase MYB30‐INTERACTING E3 LIGASE 1 (MdMIEL1) was identified to be an MdMYB308L‐interacting protein and promoted the ubiquitination degradation of MdMYB308L, thus negatively regulated cold tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation in apple. These results suggest that MdMYB308L acts as a positive regulator in cold tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation in apple by interacting with MdbHLH33 and undergoes MdMIEL1‐mediated protein degradation. The dynamic change in MYB‐bHLH protein complex seems to play a key role in the regulation of plant growth and development.
Carbon dots (CDs) are photoluminescent nanomaterials with wide-ranging applications. Despite their photoactivity, it remains unknown whether CDs degrade under illumination and whether such ...photodegradation poses any cytotoxic effects. Here, we show laboratory-synthesized CDs irradiated with light degrade into molecules that are toxic to both normal (HEK-293) and cancerous (HeLa and HepG2) human cells. Eight days of irradiation photolyzes 28.6-59.8% of the CDs to <3 kilo Dalton molecules, 1431 of which are detected by high-throughput, non-target high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Molecular network and community analysis further reveal 499 cytotoxicity-related molecules, 212 of which contain polyethylene glycol, glucose, or benzene-related structures. Photo-induced production of hydroxyl and alkyl radicals play important roles in CD degradation as affected by temperature, pH, light intensity and wavelength. Commercial CDs show similar photodegraded products and cytotoxicity profiles, demonstrating that photodegradation-induced cytotoxicity is likely common to CDs regardless of their chemical composition. Our results highlight the importance of light in cytocompatibility studies of CDs.
The existence of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) is a major reason underlying cancer metastasis and recurrence after chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Targeting BCSCs may ameliorate breast cancer ...relapse and therapy resistance. Here we report that expression of the pseudokinase Tribble 3 (TRIB3) positively associates with breast cancer stemness and progression. Elevated TRIB3 expression supports BCSCs by interacting with AKT to interfere with the FOXO1-AKT interaction and suppress FOXO1 phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and degradation by E3 ligases SKP2 and NEDD4L. The accumulated FOXO1 promotes transcriptional expression of SOX2, a transcriptional factor for cancer stemness, which in turn, activates FOXO1 transcription and forms a positive regulatory loop. Disturbing the TRIB3-AKT interaction suppresses BCSCs by accelerating FOXO1 degradation and reducing SOX2 expression in mouse models of breast cancer. Our study provides insights into breast cancer development and confers a potential therapeutic strategy against TRIB3-overexpressed breast cancer.
The molecular mechanism of leaf senescence in apple (Malus domestica) is still not fully understood. We used gene expression analysis and protein–protein interactions to decipher the relationships of ...abscisic acid (ABA) and two proteins, MdbHLH93 and MdBT2, in the senescence process.
We found that MdbHLH93 promoted leaf senescence and the expression of senescence-related genes, which exhibited similar effects to ABA on leaf senescence. MdbHLH93 activated directly the transcription of MdSAG18.
We also found that an ABA-responsive protein, MdBT2, interacted directly with MdbHLH93, and induced the ubiquitination and degradation of the MdbHLH93 protein, and thus delayed leaf senescence.
Our findings provide new insights into the regulatory network of leaf senescence through the functional interactions among ABA, MdbHLH93 and MdBT2.
Wounding stress leads to leaf senescence. However, the underlying molecular mechanism has not been elucidated. In this study, we investigated the role of the MdVQ10-MdWRKY75 module in wound-induced ...leaf senescence. MdWRKY75 was identified as a key positive modulator of wound-induced leaf senescence by activating the expression of the senescence-associated genes MdSAG12 and MdSAG18. MdVQ10 interacted with MdWRKY75 to enhance MdWRKY75-activated transcription of MdSAG12 and MdSAG18, thereby promoting leaf senescence triggered by wounding. In addition, the calmodulin-like protein MdCML15 promoted MdVQ10-mediated leaf senescence by stimulating the interaction between MdVQ10 and MdWRKY75. Moreover, the jasmonic acid signaling repressors MdJAZ12 and MdJAZ14 antagonized MdVQ10-mediated leaf senescence by weakening the MdVQ10-MdWRKY75 interaction. Our results demonstrate that the MdVQ10-MdWRKY75 module is a key modulator of wound-induced leaf senescence, and provides insights into the mechanism of leaf senescence caused by wounding.
This paper investigates the guaranteed cost design problem for controlling a class of semilinear parabolic partial differential equation (PDE) systems using mobile collocated actuators and sensors. ...Initially, a mode indicator function is employed to indicate the different modes for all actuator/sensor pairs according to whether each actuator/sensor pair is static or mobile. Subsequently, a mode-dependent switching control scheme is proposed and the well-posedness of the closed-loop PDE system is also analysed. Then, based on Lyapunov direct method, an integrated design of switching controllers and mobile actuator/sensor guidance laws is developed in the form of linear matrix inequalities, such that the closed-loop PDE system is exponentially stable while providing an upper bound for the prescribed quadratic cost function. Moreover, a suboptimal guaranteed cost design problem is also addressed to make the cost bound as small as possible. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
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