Evolutionary analysis of tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs) unraveling the role of TIP3s in plant seed development.

Tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs) are crucial in facilitating the transportation of water and various small solutes across biological membranes. The evolutionary path and functional roles of TIPs is poorly understood in plants. In the present study, a total of 976 TIPs were identified in 104 diverse species and subsequently studied to trace their lineage-specific evolutionary path and tissue-specific function.

Aquaporin mediated silicon-enhanced root hydraulic conductance is benefit to cadmium dilution in tobacco seedlings.

Numerous studies shown that silicon (Si) enhanced plants' resistance to cadmium (Cd). Most studies primarily focused on investigating the impact of Si on Cd accumulation. However, there is a lack of how Si enhanced Cd resistance through regulation of water balance.

Silicon, a quasi-essential element: Availability in soil, fertilizer regime, optimum dosage, and uptake in plants.

The essentiality of silicon (Si) has always been a matter of debate as it is not considered crucial for the lifecycles of most plants. But beneficial effects of endogenous Si and its supplementation have been observed in many plants. Silicon plays a pivotal role in alleviating the biotic and abiotic stress in plants by acting as a physical barrier as well as affecting molecular pathways involved in stress tolerance, thus widely considered as "quasi-essential".

Pinpointing Genomic Regions and Candidate Genes Associated with Seed Oil and Protein Content in Soybean through an Integrative Transcriptomic and QTL Meta-Analysis.

Soybean with enriched nutrients has emerged as a prominent source of edible oil and protein. In the present study, a meta-analysis was performed by integrating quantitative trait loci (QTLs) information, region-specific association and transcriptomic analysis. Analysis of about a thousand QTLs previously identified in soybean helped to pinpoint 14 meta-QTLs for oil and 16 meta-QTLs for protein content.

Understanding the role of SWEET genes in fruit development and abiotic stress in pomegranate (Punica granatum L.).

Background: The Sugar Will Eventually Be Exported Transporters (SWEET), consisting of the MtN3 and salvia domain, are sugar transporters having an active role in diverse activities in plants such as pollen nutrition, phloem loading, nectar secretion, reproductive tissue development, and plant-pathogen interaction. The SWEET genes have been characterized only in a few fruit crop species.

Methods And Results: In this study, a total of 15 SWEET genes were identified in the pomegranate (Punica granatum) genome.

Versatile role of silicon in cereals: Health benefits, uptake mechanism, and evolution.

Silicon (Si) is an omnipresent and second most abundant element in the soil lithosphere after oxygen. Silicon being a beneficial element imparts several benefits to the plants and animals. In many plant species, including the cereals the uptake of Si from the soil even exceeds the uptake of essential nutrients.

Significance of solute specificity, expression, and gating mechanism of tonoplast intrinsic protein during development and stress response in plants.

Tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs), belonging to the aquaporin family, are transmembrane channels located mostly at the tonoplast of plant cells. The TIPs are known to transport water and many other small solutes such as ammonia, urea, hydrogen peroxide, and glycerol. In the present review, phylogenetic distribution, structure, transport dynamics, gating mechanism, sub-cellular localization, tissue-specific expression, and co-expression of TIPs are discussed to define their versatile role in plants.

Fascinating role of silicon to combat salinity stress in plants: An updated overview.

Salt stress limits plant growth and productivity by severely impacting the fundamental physiological processes. Silicon (Si) supplementation is considered one of the promising methods to improve plant resilience under salt stress. Here, the role of Si in modulating physiological and biochemical processes that get adversely affected by high salinity, is discussed.

Targeting aquaporins to alleviate hazardous metal(loid)s imposed stress in plants.

Uptake of hazardous metal(loid)s adversely affects plants and imposes a threat to the entire food chain. Here, the role of aquaporins (AQPs) providing tolerance against hazardous metal(loid)s in plants is discussed to provide a perspective on the present understanding, knowledge gaps, and opportunities. Plants adopt complex molecular and physiological mechanisms for better tolerance, adaptability, and survival under metal(loid)s stress.

Inhibition of placental P-glycoprotein: impact on indinavir transfer to the foetus.

What Is Already Known About This Subject: We have shown previously using the dually perfused isolated human placenta model that the maternal to foetal transfer of the antiviral protease inhibitor drug indinavir is substantially lower than the transfer in the opposite direction. This finding is not consistent with passive diffusion and indicates that a carrier-mediated mechanism is involved in retarding the movement in the maternal to foetal direction. The efflux transporter P-gp located in the apical membrane domain of the placental trophoblast cells has been implicated as the likely cause of the differential bi-directional transport.

Differential protein binding of indinavir and saquinavir in matched maternal and umbilical cord plasma.

Aims: To determine whether lower umbilical cord than maternal binding of indinavir and saquinavir contributed to the low cord : maternal (C : M) total concentration ratios reported previously.

Methods: Indinavir and saquinavir unbound fraction (fu) was determined using equilibrium dialysis. Buffer solutions of human serum albumin (HSA) (20.

Differential bidirectional transfer of indinavir in the isolated perfused human placenta.

The protease inhibitor (PI) indinavir may be used in the management of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection during pregnancy. Poor maternal-to-fetal transfer of indinavir has been reported previously, but the mechanisms of transfer remain unknown. The bidirectional transfer of indinavir was assessed in dually perfused, isolated human placentae.