Enhancing Photosynthetic Carbon Transport in Rice Plant Optimizes Rhizosphere Bacterial Community in Saline Soil.

Saline soils exert persistent salt stress on plants that inhibits their ability to carry out photosynthesis and leads to photosynthetic carbon (C) scarcity in plant roots and the rhizosphere. However, it remains unclear how a rhizosphere environment is shaped by photosynthetic C partitioning under saline conditions. Given that sucrose is the primary form of photosynthetic C transport, we, respectively, created sucrose transport distorted (STD) and enhanced (STE) rice lines through targeted mutation and overexpression of the sucrose transporter gene .

The rectification control and physiological relevance of potassium channel OsAKT2.

AKT2 potassium (K+) channels are members of the plant Shaker family which mediate dual-directional K+ transport with weak voltage-dependency. Here we show that OsAKT2 of rice (Oryza sativa) functions mainly as an inward rectifier with strong voltage-dependency and acutely suppressed outward activity. This is attributed to the presence of a unique K191 residue in the S4 domain.

The functional polymorphisms linked with interleukin-1β gene expression are associated with bipolar disorder.

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a severe psychiatric illness attributable to multifactorial risk components (e.g. environmental stimuli, neuroinflammation, etc.

Functional and Regulatory Characterization of Three AMTs in Maize Roots.

Maize grows in nitrate-dominated dryland soils, but shortly upon localized dressing of nitrogen fertilizers, ammonium is retained as a noticeable form of nitrogen source available to roots. Thus in addition to nitrate, the absorption of ammonium can be an important strategy that promotes rapid plant growth at strong nitrogen demanding stages. The present study reports the functional characterization of three root-expressed ammonium transporters (AMTs), aiming at finding out functional and regulatory properties that correlate with efficient nitrogen acquisition of maize.

Functional Characterization of the Ammonium Transporter AtAMT1;3 With the Emphasis on Structural Determinants of Substrate Binding and Permeation Properties.

AtAMT1;3 is a major contributor to high-affinity ammonium uptake in roots. Using a stable electrophysiological recording strategy, we demonstrate in oocytes that AtAMT1;3 functions as a typical high-affinity NH uniporter independent of protons and Ca. The findings that AtAMT1;3 transports methylammonium (MeA, a chemical analog of NH ) with extremely low affinity ( in the range of 2.

Function and Regulation of Ammonium Transporters in Plants.

Ammonium transporter (AMT)-mediated acquisition of ammonium nitrogen from soils is essential for the nitrogen demand of plants, especially for those plants growing in flooded or acidic soils where ammonium is dominant. Recent advances show that AMTs additionally participate in many other physiological processes such as transporting ammonium from symbiotic fungi to plants, transporting ammonium from roots to shoots, transferring ammonium in leaves and reproductive organs, or facilitating resistance to plant diseases via ammonium transport. Besides being a transporter, several AMTs are required for the root development upon ammonium exposure.

Internal ammonium excess induces ROS-mediated reactions and causes carbon scarcity in rice.

Background: Overuse of nitrogen fertilizers is often a major practice to ensure sufficient nitrogen demand of high-yielding rice, leading to persistent NH excess in the plant. However, this excessive portion of nitrogen nutrient does not correspond to further increase in grain yields. For finding out the main constraints related to this phenomenon, the performance of NH excess in rice plant needs to be clearly addressed beyond the well-defined root growth adjustment.

An unusual strategy of stomatal control in the desert shrub Ammopiptanthus mongolicus.

Water deficit is one of the main environmental constraints that limit plant growth. Accordingly, plants evoke rather complex strategies to respond and/or acclimate to such frustrating circumstances. Due to insufficient understandings of acclimatory mechanisms of plants' tolerance to persistent water deficit, a desert shrub of an ancient origin, Ammopiptanthus mongolicus, has recently attracted growing attentions.

Identification of structural elements involved in fine-tuning of the transport activity of the rice ammonium transporter OsAMT1;3.

Ammonium transporters (AMTs) are major routes for plant uptake of the NH-form nitrogen. Plant AMTs mediate predominantly the uptake of NH and to a lesser extent, its organic analog methylammonium (MeA). Mutagenesis studies on potential phosphorylation residues have achieved solid recognition that alteration of the phosphorylation status can result in allosteric regulation and impair the functionality of plant AMTs.

The S1-S2 linker determines the distinct pH sensitivity between ZmK2.1 and KAT1.

Efficient stomatal opening requires activation of KAT-type K(+) channels, which mediate K(+) influx into guard cells. Most KAT-type channels are functionally facilitated by extracellular acidification. However, despite sequence and structural homologies, the maize counterpart of Arabidopsis KAT1 (ZmK2.

The rice OsAMT1;1 is a proton-independent feedback regulated ammonium transporter.

Functional identification of a relatively lower affinity ammonium transporter, OsAMT1;1, which is a proton-independent feedback regulated ammonium transporter in rice. Rice genome contains at least 12 ammonium transporters, though their functionality has not been clearly resolved. Here, we demonstrate the functional properties of OsAMT1;1 applying functional complementation and (15)NH4 (+) uptake determination in yeast cells in combination with electrophysiological measurements in Xenopus oocytes.

Heterologous expression of an alligatorweed high-affinity potassium transporter gene enhances salinity tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Unlabelled: •

Premise Of The Study: The potassium cation (K(+)), one of the most abundant cations in cells, improves plant tolerance to various abiotic stresses. Alligatorweed (Alternanthera philoxeroides) is well known for its strong capacity to accumulate K(+) The distinctive K(+) accumulation capability of alligatorweed is linked to a high-affinity K(+) transport facilitated by K(+)-uptake transporters (ApKUPs).•

Methods: A putative K(+) transporter gene, ApKUP4, was isolated from alligatorweed using degenerate primers and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques.

Association of RELN promoter SNPs with schizophrenia in the Chinese population.

Previous research on gene expression analysis and association tests have suggested that RELN is a risk gene for schizophrenia in world populations. Based on the reported down-regulation of RELN in schizophrenia patients compared with normal subjects, we speculated that variants in the RELN promoter region may confer risk for schizophrenia. In this study, we investigated the associations of three SNPs in the promoter region of RELN with schizophrenia in a case-control sample from southwestern China (940 cases and 1 369 controls).

[Association of RELN SNP rs7341475 with schizophrenia in the Chinese population].

Schizophrenia is a common and complex psychiatric disorder. Significant evidence has suggested that genetic factors play pivotal roles in the etiology of schizophrenia. More than 100 schizophrenia candidate genes have been reported; however, many of them do not have satisfactory replications among different populations.

Analysis of common genetic variants identifies RELN as a risk gene for schizophrenia in Chinese population.

Unlabelled: Abstract Objectives. Several lines of evidence have shown that both RELN mRNA and protein are possibly down-regulated in the brain of schizophrenia patients. Recent association studies in European populations suggested RELN as a risk gene for schizophrenia.

[Smoking prevention and control among elementary school students in Xuhui district, Shanghai].

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based smoking prevention and control intervention program among elementary school students.

Methods: Through two phase cluster sampling, 566 pupils in grade 4 and grade 5 of two schools were assigned to intervention group and control group. One year comprehensive smoking intervention was conducted in the intervention group.