The root system plays an essential role in plant growth and adaptation to the surrounding environment. The root clock periodically specifies lateral root prebranch sites (PBS), where a group of pericycle founder cells (FC) is primed to become lateral root founder cells and eventually give rise to lateral root primordia or lateral roots (LRs). This clock-driven organ formation process is tightly controlled by modulation of auxin content and signaling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn all-atom Molecular Dynamics (MD) study was applied to three viral nanoparticles (VLPs) of Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV), a potyvirus: the particles genetically functionalized with two peptides, VIP (human vasoactive intestinal peptide) and VEGFR (peptide derived from the human receptor 3 of the vascular endothelial growth factor), and the non-functionalized VLP. Previous experimental results showed that VIP-VLP was the only construct of the three that was not viable. VLPs subjected to our MD study were modeled by four complete turns of the particle involving 35 subunits of the coat protein (CP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe viability of viral-derived nanoparticles (virions and VLPs) aimed to nanobiotechnological functionalizations of the coat protein (CP) of turnip mosaic virus has been studied by means of advanced computational methodologies that include molecular dynamics. The study has allowed to model the structure of the complete CP and its functionalization with three different peptides and obtain essential structural features such as order/disorder, interactions, and electrostatic potentials of their constituent domains. The results provide for the first time a dynamic view of a complete potyvirus CP, since experimental available structures so far obtained lack N- and C-terminal segments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant J
February 2023
The plant immune system perceives a diversity of carbohydrate ligands from plant and microbial cell walls through the extracellular ectodomains (ECDs) of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which activate pattern-triggered immunity (PTI). Among these ligands are oligosaccharides derived from mixed-linked β-1,3/β-1,4-glucans (MLGs; e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTwo different polyglycine-rich fragments were selected as representatives of major ampullate gland spidroins (MaSp) 1 and 2 types, and their behavior in a water-saturated environment was simulated within the framework of molecular dynamics (MD). The selected fragments are found in the sequences of the proteins MaSp1a and MaSp2.2a of with respective lengths of 36 amino acids (MaSp1a) and 50 amino acids (MaSp2.
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