TaSPL6B, a member of the Squamosa promoter binding protein-like family, regulates shoot branching and florescence in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background: Squamosa promoter-binding protein-like (SPL) proteins are essential to plant growth and development as plant-specific transcription factors. However, the functions of SPL proteins in wheat need to be further explored.

Results: We cloned and characterized TaSPL6B of wheat in this study.

Multiple roles of wheat ferritin genes during stress treatment and TaFER5D-1 as a positive regulator in response to drought and salt tolerance.

Ferritin not only regulates the plant's iron content but also plays a significant role in the plant's development and resistance to oxidative damage. However, the role of the FER family in wheat has not been systematically elucidated. In this study, 39 FERs identified from wheat and its ancestral species were clustered into two subgroups, and gene members from the same group contain relatively conservative protein models.

Multiple roles of wheat calmodulin genes during stress treatment and TaCAM2-D as a positive regulator in response to drought and salt tolerance.

Calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins are the most prominent calcium (Ca) sensing proteins involved in Ca-signaling processes. However, the function of these calcium sensors in wheat remains unclear. In this study, 15 TaCAMs and 113 TaCMLs were identified from the wheat reference genome.

Inhibitory Effect of Volatiles Emitted From N1-4 on and Aflatoxins in Storage.

Controlling aflatoxigenic and aflatoxins (AFs) in grains and food during storage is a great challenge to humans worldwide. N1-4 isolated from tea rhizosphere soil can produce abundant antifungal volatiles, and greatly inhibited the growth of in un-contacted face-to-face dual culture testing. Gas chromatography tandem mass spectrometry revealed that dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and methyl isovalerate (MI) were two abundant compounds in the volatile profiles of N1-4.

Pitx2 promotes development of splanchnic mesoderm-derived branchiomeric muscle.

Recent experiments, showing that both cranial paraxial and splanchnic mesoderm contribute to branchiomeric muscle and cardiac outflow tract (OFT) myocardium, revealed unexpected complexity in development of these muscle groups. The Pitx2 homeobox gene functions in both cranial paraxial mesoderm, to regulate eye muscle, and in splanchnic mesoderm to regulate OFT development. Here, we investigated Pitx2 in branchiomeric muscle.

Pitx2 regulates cardiac left-right asymmetry by patterning second cardiac lineage-derived myocardium.

Current models of left-right asymmetry hold that an early asymmetric signal is generated at the node and transduced to lateral plate mesoderm in a linear signal transduction cascade through the function of the Nodal signaling molecule. The Pitx2 homeobox gene functions at the final stages of this cascade to direct asymmetric morphogenesis of selected organs including the heart. We previously showed that Pitx2 regulated an asymmetric pathway that was independent of cardiac looping suggesting a second asymmetric cardiac pathway.