Biological insights from multi-omics analysis strategies: Complex pleotropic effects associated with autophagy.

Research strategies that combine molecular data from multiple levels of genome expression (i.e., multi-omics data), often referred to as a systems biology strategy, has been advocated as a route to discovering gene functions.

Correction: Mugume et al. Complex Changes in Membrane Lipids Associated with the Modification of Autophagy in . 2022, , 190.

In the original article [...

Complex Changes in Membrane Lipids Associated with the Modification of Autophagy in .

Autophagy is a conserved mechanism among eukaryotes that degrades and recycles cytoplasmic components. Autophagy is known to influence the plant metabolome, including lipid content; however, its impact on the plant lipidome is not fully understood, and most studies have analyzed a single or few mutants defective in autophagy. To gain more insight into the effect of autophagy on lipid concentrations and composition, we quantitatively profiled glycerolipids from multiple mutants altered in autophagy and compared them with wild-type seedlings under nitrogen replete (+N; normal growth) and nitrogen starvation (-N; autophagy inducing) conditions.

Non-Catalytic Subunits Facilitate Quaternary Organization of Plastidic Acetyl-CoA Carboxylase.

Arabidopsis (), like most dicotyledonous plants, expresses a multicomponent, heteromeric acetyl-CoA carboxylase (htACCase), which catalyzes the generation of the malonyl-CoA precursor of de novo fatty acid biosynthesis. This enzyme consists of four catalytic subunits: biotin carboxylase (BC), carboxyltransferase (CT)-α, CT-β, and biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP1 or BCCP2). By coexpressing combinations of components in a bacterial expression system, we demonstrate noncatalytic BADCs facilitate the assembly and activation of BCCP-BADC-BC subcomplexes catalyzing the bicarbonate-dependent hydrolysis of ATP, which is the first half-reaction catalyzed by the htACCase enzyme.

Characterizing virus-induced gene silencing at the cellular level with in situ multimodal imaging.

Background: Reverse genetic strategies, such as virus-induced gene silencing, are powerful techniques to study gene function. Currently, there are few tools to study the spatial dependence of the consequences of gene silencing at the cellular level.

Results: We report the use of multimodal Raman and mass spectrometry imaging to study the cellular-level biochemical changes that occur from silencing the () gene using a (FoMV) vector in maize leaves.

Genetic dissection of methylcrotonyl CoA carboxylase indicates a complex role for mitochondrial leucine catabolism during seed development and germination.

3-methylcrotonyl CoA carboxylase (MCCase) is a nuclear-encoded, mitochondrial-localized biotin-containing enzyme. The reaction catalyzed by this enzyme is required for leucine (Leu) catabolism, and it may also play a role in the catabolism of isoprenoids and the mevalonate shunt. In Arabidopsis, two MCCase subunits (the biotinylated MCCA subunit and the non-biotinylated MCCB subunit) are each encoded by single genes (At1g03090 and At4g34030, respectively).