Laticifers as in vivo plant cell factories for therapeutic proteins.

The demand for therapeutic proteins is growing annually. Novel approaches for the production of these molecules on a large scale are necessary, especially in plants. Plant laticifers could help provide an in vivo cell system for protein production expression that can reduce costs of production and downstream processing.

Validating alternative oxidase (AOX) gene family as efficient marker consortium for multiple-resilience in Xylella fastidiosa-infected Vitis holobionts.

AOX gene family in motion marks in-born efficiency of respiration adjustment; can serve for primer screening, genotype ranking, in vitro-plant discrimination and a SMART perspective for multiple-resilient plant holobiont selection. The bacteria Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is a climate-dependent, global threat to many crops of high socio-economic value, including grapevine. Currently designed breeding strategies for Xf-tolerant or -resistant genotypes insufficiently address the danger of biodiversity loss by focusing on selected threats, neglecting future environmental conditions.

Transcriptome Analyses in Adult Olive Trees Indicate Acetaldehyde Release and Cyanide-Mediated Respiration Traits as Critical for Tolerance against and Suggest AOX Gene Family as Marker for Multiple-Resilience.

() is a global bacterial threat for a diversity of plants, including olive trees. However, current understanding of host responses upon -infection is limited to allow early disease prediction, diagnosis, and sustainable strategies for breeding on plant tolerance. Recently, we identified a jor omplex rait for arly e novo programming, named , by comparing early transcriptome data during plant cell survival with SARS-CoV-2-infected human cells.

Class III plant peroxidases: From classification to physiological functions.

Peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.

Molecular Basis of Crops and Fruit Plants in Response to Stress.

This editorial summarizes the main scientific contributions from 11 papers comprising the Special Issue (SI) "Molecular Basis of Crops and Fruit Plants in Response to Stress". Here, we collected papers from different research groups encompassing molecular studies from monocots (ginger, rice, maize) and eudicots (common hazel, cowpea, pepper, soybean, tomato) species submitted to abiotic stresses as heat, cold, salt, drought, and heavy metals or biotic stresses induced by different viruses, such as , , , and . These studies explored different aspects of molecular mechanisms involved in plant stress tolerance, establishing comparative analyses among genotypes/cultivars to identify potential molecular markers of stresses that are now available for future application in biotechnological studies.

Genome and Transcriptome Analyses of Genes Involved in Ascorbate Biosynthesis in Pepper Indicate Key Genes Related to Fruit Development, Stresses, and Phytohormone Exposures.

Pepper ( L.) is a vegetable consumed worldwide, primarily used for vitamin C uptake and condiment purposes. Ascorbate (Asc) is a multifunctional metabolite, acting as an antioxidant and enzymatic cofactor involved in multiple cellular processes.

Selection of Soybean and Cowpea Cultivars with Superior Performance under Drought Using Growth and Biochemical Aspects.

Identifying cultivars of leguminous crops exhibiting drought resistance has become crucial in addressing water scarcity issues. This investigative study aimed to select soybean and cowpea cultivars with enhanced potential to grow under water restriction during the vegetative stage. Two parallel trials were conducted using seven soybean (AS3810IPRO, M8644IPRO, TMG1180RR, NS 8338IPRO, BMX81I81IPRO, M8808IPRO, and BÔNUS8579IPRO) and cowpea cultivars (Aracê, Novaera, Pajeú, Pitiúba, Tumucumaque, TVU, and Xique-xique) under four water levels (75, 60, 45, and 30% field capacity-FC) over 21 days.

Polymorphisms in alternative oxidase genes from ecotypes of Arabidopsis and rice revealed an environment-induced linkage to altitude and rainfall.

We investigated SNPs in alternative oxidase (AOX) genes and their connection to ecotype origins (climate, altitude, and rainfall) by using genomic data sets of Arabidopsis and rice populations from 1190 and 90 ecotypes, respectively. Parameters were defined to detect non-synonymous SNPs in the AOX ORF, which revealed amino acid (AA) changes in AOX1c, AOX1d, and AOX2 from Arabidopsis and AOX1c from rice in comparison to AOX references from Columbia-0 and Japonica ecotypes, respectively. Among these AA changes, Arabidopsis AOX1c_A161E&G165R and AOX1c_R242S revealed a link to high rainfall and high altitude, respectively, while all other changes in Arabidopsis and rice AOX was connected to high altitude and rainfall.

Ascorbate synthesis as an alternative electron source for mitochondrial respiration: Possible implications for the plant performance.

The molecule vitamin C, in the chemical form of ascorbic acid (AsA), is known to be essential for the metabolism of humans and animals. Humans do not produce AsA, so they depend on plants as a source of vitamin C for their food. The AsA synthesis pathway occurs partially in the cytosol, but the last oxidation step is physically linked to the respiratory chain of plant mitochondria.

Transcriptome Analyses in a Selected Gene Set Indicate Alternative Oxidase (AOX) and Early Enhanced Fermentation as Critical for Salinity Tolerance in Rice.

Plants subjected to stress need to respond rapidly and efficiently to acclimatize and survive. In this paper, we investigated a selected gene set potentially involved in early cell reprogramming in two rice genotypes with contrasting salinity tolerance (Pokkali tolerant and IR29 susceptible) in order to advance knowledge of early molecular mechanisms of rice in dealing with salt stress. Selected genes were evaluated in available transcriptomic data over a short period of 24 h and involved enzymes that avoid ROS formation (AOX, UCP and PTOX), impact ATP production (PFK, ADH and COX) or relate to the antioxidant system.

Transcriptome profiling of cashew apples (Anacardium occidentale) genotypes reveals specific genes linked to firmness and color during pseudofruit development.

We found 34 and 71 key genes potentially involved in flavonoid biosynthesis and cell wall disassembly, respectively, which could be associated with specific peel coloration and softening of each genotype. Cashew apple (Anacardium occidentale) has a great economic importance worldwide due to its high nutritional value, peculiar flavor and aroma. During ripening, the peduncle develops different peel color and becomes quickly fragile due to its oversoftening, impacting its consumers' acceptance.

Major Complex Trait for Early De Novo Programming 'CoV-MAC-TED' Detected in Human Nasal Epithelial Cells Infected by Two SARS-CoV-2 Variants Is Promising to Help in Designing Therapeutic Strategies.

Background: Early metabolic reorganization was only recently recognized as an essentially integrated part of immunology. In this context, unbalanced ROS/RNS levels connected to increased aerobic fermentation, which is linked to alpha-tubulin-based cell restructuring and control of cell cycle progression, were identified as a major complex trait for early de novo programming ('CoV-MAC-TED') during SARS-CoV-2 infection. This trait was highlighted as a critical target for developing early anti-viral/anti-SARS-CoV-2 strategies.

Adaptive Reprogramming During Early Seed Germination Requires Temporarily Enhanced Fermentation-A Critical Role for Alternative Oxidase Regulation That Concerns Also Microbiota Effectiveness.

Plants respond to environmental cues adaptive cell reprogramming that can affect whole plant and ecosystem functionality. Microbiota constitutes part of the inner and outer environment of the plant. This underlies steady dynamics, due to complex local and global biotic and abiotic changes.

ROS/RNS Balancing, Aerobic Fermentation Regulation and Cell Cycle Control - a Complex Early Trait ('CoV-MAC-TED') for Combating SARS-CoV-2-Induced Cell Reprogramming.

In a perspective entitled 'From plant survival under severe stress to anti-viral human defense' we raised and justified the hypothesis that transcript level profiles of justified target genes established from somatic embryogenesis (SE) induction in plants as a reference compared to virus-induced profiles can identify differential virus signatures that link to harmful reprogramming. A standard profile of selected genes named 'ReprogVirus' was proposed for -scanning of early virus-induced reprogramming in critical primary infected cells/tissues as target trait. For data collection, the 'ReprogVirus platform' was initiated.

Genome-wide identification of ascorbate-glutathione cycle gene families in soybean (Glycine max) reveals gene duplication events and specificity of gene members linked to development and stress conditions.

Ascorbate-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle plays an important role in tuning beneficial ROS accumulation for intracellular signals and imparts plant tolerance to oxidative stress by detoxifying excess of ROS. Here, we present genome-wide identification of AsA-GSH cycle genes (APX, MDHAR, DHAR, and GR) in several leguminous species and expression analyses in G. max during stress, germination and tissue development.

From Plant Survival Under Severe Stress to Anti-Viral Human Defense - A Perspective That Calls for Common Efforts.

Reprogramming of primary virus-infected cells is the critical step that turns viral attacks harmful to humans by initiating super-spreading at cell, organism and population levels. To develop early anti-viral therapies and proactive administration, it is important to understand the very first steps of this process. Plant somatic embryogenesis (SE) is the earliest and most studied model for programming upon severe stress that, in contrast to virus attacks, promotes individual cell and organism survival.

Gene expression during development and overexpression after Cercospora kikuchii and salicylic acid challenging indicate defensive roles of the soybean toxin.

SBTX has defensive role against C. kikuchii, and therefore, its constituent genes SBTX17 and SBTX27 are promising candidates to engineer pathogen resistant plants. Soybean (Glycine max [L.

Identification and evaluation of reference genes for reliable normalization of real-time quantitative PCR data in acerola fruit, leaf, and flower.

Understanding into acerola (Malpighia emarginata) molecular and biochemical bases is still obscure, despite it is one of the most important natural source of vitamin C for humans. Recently, our research group published the first data on acerola transcriptome generating valuable information to identify reference genes for RT-qPCR in this species. Hence, this study aimed to identify the most stably expressed genes based on acerola transcriptome data, and further to evaluate the suitability of F-box, U3, Merad50-ATPase, TGD4, NOB1, PA-RNA, RCC1, RBL and PGAL candidates for accurate gene expression normalization in leaf, flower and fruit at 12, 16 and 20 days after anthesis using RT-qPCR analysis.

Alternative Oxidase (AOX) Senses Stress Levels to Coordinate Auxin-Induced Reprogramming From Seed Germination to Somatic Embryogenesis-A Role Relevant for Seed Vigor Prediction and Plant Robustness.

Somatic embryogenesis (SE) is the most striking and prominent example of plant plasticity upon severe stress. Inducing immature carrot seeds perform SE as substitute to germination by auxin treatment can be seen as switch between stress levels associated to morphophysiological plasticity. This experimental system is highly powerful to explore stress response factors that mediate the metabolic switch between cell and tissue identities.

Differential expression of recently duplicated PTOX genes in Glycine max during plant development and stress conditions.

Plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) is a chloroplast enzyme that catalyzes oxidation of plastoquinol (PQH) and reduction of molecular oxygen to water. Its function has been associated with carotenoid biosynthesis, chlororespiration and environmental stress responses in plants. In the majority of plant species, a single gene encodes the protein and little is known about events of PTOX gene duplication and their implication to plant metabolism.

Transcriptome analysis of acerola fruit ripening: insights into ascorbate, ethylene, respiration, and softening metabolisms.

The first transcriptome coupled to metabolite analyses reveals major trends during acerola fruit ripening and shed lights on ascorbate, ethylene signalling, cellular respiration, sugar accumulation, and softening key regulatory genes. Acerola is a fast growing and ripening fruit that exhibits high amounts of ascorbate. During ripening, the fruit experience high respiratory rates leading to ascorbate depletion and a quickly fragile and perishable state.

Gene expression and spatiotemporal localization of antifungal chitin-binding proteins during Moringa oleifera seed development and germination.

Chitin-binding proteins behave as storage and antifungal proteins in the seeds of Moringa oleifera. Moringa oleifera is a tropical multipurpose tree. Its seed constituents possess coagulant, bactericidal, fungicidal, and insecticidal properties.

Salt acclimation in sorghum plants by exogenous proline: physiological and biochemical changes and regulation of proline metabolism.

Mitigation of deleterious effects of salinity promoted by exogenous proline can be partially explained by changes in proline enzymatic metabolism and expression of specific proline-related genes. Proline accumulation is a usual response to salinity. We studied the ability of exogenous proline to mitigate the salt harmful effects in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) leaves.

Polymorphisms in plastoquinol oxidase (PTOX) from Arabidopsis accessions indicate SNP-induced structural variants associated with altitude and rainfall.

Plant plastoquinol oxidase (PTOX) is a chloroplast oxidoreductase involved in carotenoid biosynthesis, chlororespiration, and response to environmental stresses. The present study aimed to gain insight of the potential role of nucleotide/amino acid changes linked to environmental adaptation in PTOX gene/protein from Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. SNPs in the single-copy PTOX gene were identified in 1190 accessions of Arabidopsis using the Columbia-0 PTOX as a reference.