Overexpression of OsHsp 18.0 in rice enhanced tolerance to heavy metal stress.

OsHsp18.0 plays a key role in cross-protection of rice seedlings from damages to photochemical systems and cellular membranes, caused by Cd and Cu stresses.

Deciphering endemic rhizosphere microbiome community's structure towards the host-derived heavy metals tolerance and plant growth promotion functions in serpentine geo-ecosystem.

Environmental microbes in rhizosphere soil and surrounding plants have the potential to alter ecosystem functions. We investigated the microbial communities inhabiting the rhizosphere soils of both serpentine and non-serpentine rhizosphere zones to evaluate their heavy metal tolerance and ability to promote plant growth, utilizing 16S rRNA metabarcoding. The Biolog-EcoPlate technique was employed to determine how abiotic stress factors affect carbon utilization capacity by rhizospheric microbial communities in the serpentine geo-ecosystem.

Exploration of pristine plate-tectonic plains and mining exposure areas for indigenous microbial communities and its impact on the mineral-microbial geochemical weathering process in ultramafic setting.

Heavy metal release from harsh ultramafic settings influences microbial diversity and function in soil ecology. This study aimed to determine how serpentine mineralosphere bacterial assemblies and their functions differed in two different plate-tectonic plains and mining exposure sites under heavy metal release conditions. The results showed that the Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Chloroflexi were the most abundant bacterial groups among all the sites.

Mapping and identification of potential target genes from short-RNA seq for the control of Pieris rapae larvae.

Pieris rapae is a serious pest of brassicas worldwide. We performed de novo assembly of P. rapae transcriptome by next-generation sequencing and assembled approximately 65,727,422 clean paired-end reads into 32,118 unigenes, of which 13,585 were mapped to 255 pathways in the KEGG database.

Plant Cytosolic Ascorbate Peroxidase with Dual Catalytic Activity Modulates Abiotic Stress Tolerances.

Ascorbic acid-glutathione (AsA-GSH) cycle represents important antioxidant defense system in planta. Here we utilized Oncidium cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase (OgCytAPX) as a model to demonstrate that CytAPX of several plants possess dual catalytic activity of both AsA and GSH, compared with the monocatalytic activity of Arabidopsis APX (AtCytAPX). Structural modeling and site-directed mutagenesis identified that three amino acid residues, Pro, Asp, and Tyr, are required for oxidization of GSH in dual substrate catalytic type.

Metabolomic compounds identified in Piriformospora indica-colonized Chinese cabbage roots delineate symbiotic functions of the interaction.

Root colonization by endophytic fungus Piriformospora indica facilitating growth/development and stress tolerance has been demonstrated in various host plants. However, global metabolomic studies are rare. By using high-throughput gas-chromatography-based mass spectrometry, 549 metabolites of 1,126 total compounds observed were identified in colonized and uncolonized Chinese cabbage roots, and hyphae of P.

Nitric oxide participates in plant flowering repression by ascorbate.

In Oncidium, redox homeostasis involved in flowering is mainly due to ascorbic acid (AsA). Here, we discovered that Oncidium floral repression is caused by an increase in AsA-mediated NO levels, which is directed by the enzymatic activities of nitrate reductase (NaR) and nitrite reducatase (NiR). Through Solexa transcriptomic analysis of two libraries, 'pseudobulb with inflorescent bud' (PIB) and 'pseudobulb with axillary bud' (PAB), we identified differentially expressed genes related to NO metabolism.

Prolonged exposure to elevated temperature induces floral transition via up-regulation of cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase 1 and subsequent reduction of the ascorbate redox ratio in Oncidium hybrid orchid.

The bolting time of the Oncidium hybrid orchid is not season dependent and so it is a useful year-round model system to study thermal-induced flowering mechanisms in planta. Previously, we reported that a low ascorbate (AsA) content is essential for floral transition in Oncidium; however, the environmental factors governing initiation of the flowering process remained to be elucidated. The current study revealed that a prolonged elevated temperature treatment (30°C over a 14 d period) induces floral transition.

In vivo measurement of tissue oxygenation by time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy: advantageous properties of dichlorotris(1, 10-phenanthroline)-ruthenium(II) hydrate.

Measuring tissue oxygenation in vivo is of interest in fundamental biological as well as medical applications. One minimally invasive approach to assess the oxygen partial pressure in tissue (pO2) is to measure the oxygen-dependent luminescence lifetime of molecular probes. The relation between tissue pO2 and the probes’ luminescence lifetime is governed by the Stern-Volmer equation.

Differential activation of sporamin expression in response to abiotic mechanical wounding and biotic herbivore attack in the sweet potato.

Background: Plants respond differently to mechanical wounding and herbivore attack, using distinct pathways for defense. The versatile sweet potato sporamin possesses multiple biological functions in response to stress. However, the regulation of sporamin gene expression that is activated upon mechanical damage or herbivore attack has not been well studied.

Novel action modality of the diterpenoid anisomelic acid causes depletion of E6 and E7 viral oncoproteins in HPV-transformed cervical carcinoma cells.

Cervical cancer, the second most common malignancy among women, is mainly caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. In HPV-positive cervical cancer cells, the activity of p53 and the induction of p21 are inhibited by the HPV oncoproteins E6 and E7. Therefore, blocking the activity of E6 and E7 would serve as an important therapeutic target in these cancer cells.

The maturation zone is an important target of Piriformospora indica in Chinese cabbage roots.

The mutualistic symbiont Piriformospora indica exhibits a great potential in agriculture. The interaction between P. indica and Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris cv.