WRKY proteins are a large group of plant transcription factors that are involved in various biological processes, including biotic and abiotic stress responses, hormone response, plant development, ...and metabolism. WRKY proteins have been identified in several plants, but only a few have been identified in Capsicum annuum. Here, we identified a total of 62 WRKY genes in the latest pepper genome. These genes were classified into three groups (Groups 1-3) based on the structural features of their proteins. The structures of the encoded proteins, evolution, and expression under normal growth conditions were analyzed and 35 putative miRNA target sites were predicted in 20 CaWRKY genes. Moreover, the response to cold or CMV treatments of selected WRKY genes were examined to validate the roles under stresses. And alternative splicing (AS) events of some CaWRKYs were also identified under CMV infection. Promoter analysis confirmed that CaWRKY genes are involved in growth, development, and biotic or abiotic stress responses in hot pepper. The comprehensive analysis provides fundamental information for better understanding of the signaling pathways involved in the WRKY-mediated regulation of developmental processes, as well as biotic and abiotic stress responses.
The function of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles has emerged as a promising therapeutic target and the measurement of HDL function is a promising diagnostic across several disease states. The ...vast majority of research on HDL functional biology has focused on adult participants with underlying chronic diseases, whereas limited research has investigated the role of HDL in childhood, pregnancy, and old age. Yet, it is apparent that functional HDL is essential at all life stages for maintaining health. In this review, we discuss current data regarding the role of HDL during childhood, pregnancy and in the elderly, how disturbances in HDL may lead to adverse health outcomes, and knowledge gaps in the role of HDL across these life stages.
Uveal melanoma (UVM), the most common primary intraocular malignancy, has a high mortality because of a high propensity to metastasize. Our study analyzed prognostic value and immune-related ...characteristics of CARD11 in UVM, hoping to provide a potential management and research direction. The RNA-sequence data of 80 UVM patients were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and divided them into high- and low-expression groups. We analyzed the differentially expressed genes, enrichment analyses and the infiltration of immune cells using the R package and Gene-Set Enrichment Analysis. A clinical prediction nomogram and protein-protein interaction network were constructed and the first 8 genes were considered as the hub-genes. Finally, we constructed a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network by Cytoscape and analyzed the statistical data via the R software. Here we found that CARD11 expression had notable correlation with UVM clinicopathological features, which was also an independent predictor for overall survival (OS). Intriguingly, CARD11 had a positively correlation to autophagy, cellular senescence and apoptosis. Infiltration of monocytes was significantly higher in low CARD11 expression group, and infiltration of T cells regulatory was lower in the same group. Functional enrichment analyses revealed that CARD11 was positively related to T cell activation pathways and cell adhesion molecules. The expressions of hub-genes were all increased in the high CARD11 expression group and the ceRNA network showed the interaction among mRNA, miRNA and lncRNA. These findings show that high CARD11 expression in UVM is associated with poor OS, indicating that CARD11 may serve as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of the UVM.
Dear Editor Pepper belongs to the Solanaceae family, which includes many important vegetable crops such as tomato, potato, and eggplant. Not only widely used as vegetables and spicy ingredients, ...pepper also has diverse applications in pharmaceutics, natural coloring agents, cosmetics, defense repellents, and as ornamental plants （Kim et al., 2014; Qin et al., 2014）. Pepper is among the most widely cultivated and consumed vegetables in the world, with annual production reachincl to 38 million tons in 2011 （www.fao.
Qinghai Lake is the largest lake in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and China, it is also an important part of the national ecological security strategy. Since 1950s, the water level of Qinghai Lake has been ...changing rapidly, which induces great effects on the surrounding traffic facilities, residents’ safety and the development of animal husbandry, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to study the water level evolution and water balance of Qinghai Lake under the main impact of climate change. Based on meteorological and hydrological data from Buha River Hydrological Station, Xiashe Hydrological Station, and Gangcha Meteorological Station, CMFD, and water balance equation, this article first analyzes the interannual and intra-year water level evolution characteristics of Qinghai Lake from 1956 to 2020, including lake surface precipitation (P), runoff into the lake (Rs) and evaporation (E). Secondly, we conducted a study on the water level change characteristics calculated for fixed months. Finally, the contribution rate of each factor to the fluctuation of Qinghai Lake water level was quantitatively calculated using the ridge regression method. Results show that the annual average water level declined at a rate of 0.8 m decade−1 from 1956 to 2004, primarily due to E exceeding the sum of P and Rs. However, from 2004 to 2020, the water level increased at a rate of 1.7 m decade−1, mainly attributed to the increase in P and Rs. Qinghai Lake exhibits evident intra-year variations, with the water level starting to rise in May and reaching its peak in September, which aligns with the monthly variations of Rs, P, and E. Furthermore, the impacts of the current year’s P, Rs, and E on the annual water level fluctuations for fixed months of September to December is greater than that of the previous year. Specifically, the contributions of the current year’s P, Rs and E to the water level fluctuations calculated based on December data are 10%, 70%, and 20%, respectively. The contribution rate of meteorological factors to the rise and fall of water level was wind speed (33%), downward short-wave radiation (27%), precipitation (27%), downward long-wave radiation (11%) and specific humidity (2%).
Dwarfing is the development trend of pepper breeding. It is of great practical and scientific value to generate new dwarf germplasms, and identify new genes or alleles conferring dwarf traits in ...pepper. In our previous study, a weakly BR-insensitive dwarf mutant, E29, was obtained by EMS mutagenesis of the pepper inbred line 6421. It can be used as a good parent material for breeding new dwarf varieties. Here, we found that this dwarf phenotype was controlled by a single recessive gene. Whole-genome resequencing, dCAPs analysis, and VIGs validation revealed that this mutation was caused by a nonsynonymous single-nucleotide mutation (C to T) in
CaBRI1
. An enzyme activity assay, transcriptome sequencing, and BL content determination further revealed that an amino-acid change (Pro1157Ser) in the serine/threonine protein kinase and catalytic (S_TKc) domain of CaBRI1 impaired its kinase activity and caused the transcript levels of two important genes (
CaDWF4
and
CaROT3
) participating in BR biosynthesis to increase dramatically in the E29 mutant, accompanied by significantly increased accumulation of brassinolide (BL). Therefore, we concluded that the novel single-base mutation in
CaBRI1
conferred the dwarf phenotype and resulted in brassinosteroid (BR) accumulation in pepper. This study provides a new allelic variant of the height-regulating gene
CaBRI1
that has theoretical and practical values for the breeding of the plants suitable for the facility cultivation and mechanized harvesting of pepper varieties.
Infection by
Sclerotium rolfsii
will cause serious disease and lead to significant economic losses in chili pepper. In this study, the response of pepper during
S. rolfsii
infection was explored by ...electron microscopy, physiological determination and integrated proteome and metabolome analyses. Our results showed that the stomata of pepper stems were important portals for
S. rolfsii
infection. The plant cell morphology was significantly changed at the time of the fungal hyphae just contacting (T1) or surrounding (T2) the pepper. The chlorophyll, carotenoid, and MDA contents and the activities of POD, SOD, and CAT were markedly upregulated at T1 and T2. Approximately 4129 proteins and 823 metabolites were clearly identified in proteome and metabolome analyses, respectively. A change in 396 proteins and 54 metabolites in pepper stem tissues was observed at T1 compared with 438 proteins and 53 metabolites at T2. The proteins and metabolites related to photosynthesis and antioxidant systems in chloroplasts and mitochondria were disproportionally affected by
S. rolfsii
infection, impacting carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism. This study provided new insights into the response mechanism in pepper stems during
S. rolfsii
infection, which can guide future work on fungal disease resistance breeding in pepper.
A Guide to Diet-Microbiome Study Design Johnson, Abigail J.; Zheng, Jack Jingyuan; Kang, Jea Woo ...
Frontiers in nutrition,
06/2020, Letnik:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Intense recent interest in understanding how the human gut microbiome influences health has kindled a concomitant interest in linking dietary choices to microbiome variation. Diet is known to be a ...driver of microbiome variation, and yet the precise mechanisms by which certain dietary components modulate the microbiome, and by which the microbiome produces byproducts and secondary metabolites from dietary components, are not well-understood. Interestingly, despite the influence of diet on the gut microbiome, the majority of microbiome studies published to date contain little or no analysis of dietary intake. Although an increasing number of microbiome studies are now collecting some form of dietary data or even performing diet interventions, there are no clear standards in the microbiome field for how to collect diet data or how to design a diet-microbiome study. In this article, we review the current practices in diet-microbiome analysis and study design and make several recommendations for best practices to provoke broader discussion in the field. We recommend that microbiome studies include multiple consecutive microbiome samples per study timepoint or phase and multiple days of dietary history prior to each microbiome sample whenever feasible. We find evidence that direct effects of diet on the microbiome are likely to be observable within days, while the length of an intervention required for observing microbiome-mediated effects on the host phenotype or host biomarkers, depending on the outcome, may be much longer, on the order of weeks or months. Finally, recent studies demonstrating that diet-microbiome interactions are personalized suggest that diet-microbiome studies should either include longitudinal sampling within individuals to identify personalized responses, or should include an adequate number of participants spanning a range of microbiome types to identify generalized responses.
Cytokinins (CKs) are among the hormones that regulate plants' growth and development, and the
and
genes, which are CK degradation and biosynthesis genes, respectively, play important roles in ...fine-tuning plants' cytokinin levels. However, the current research on the function of
and
in cucumber's growth, development, and response to abiotic stress is not specific enough, and their regulatory mechanisms are still unclear. In this study, we focused on the
and
genes in cucumber, analyzed the physiological and biochemical properties of their encoded proteins, and explored their expression patterns in different tissue parts and under low light, salt stress, and drought stress. Eight
and eight
genes were identified from the cucumber genome. We constructed a phylogenetic tree from the amino acid sequences and performed prediction analyses of the cis-acting elements of the
and
promoters to determine whether
and
are responsive to light, abiotic stress, and different hormones. We also performed expression analysis of these genes in different tissues, and we found that
and
were highly expressed in roots and male flowers. Thus, they are involved in the whole growth and development process of the plant. This paper provides a reference for further research on the biological functions of
and
in regulating the growth and development of cucumber and its response to abiotic stress.
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