J Genet Genomics
September 2024
Embryo size is a critical trait determining not only grain yield but also the nutrition of the maize kernel. Up to the present, only a few genes have been characterized affecting the maize embryo/kernel ratio. Here, we identify 63 genes significantly associated with maize embryo/kernel weight ratio using a genome-wide association study (GWAS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) are synthesized from sucrose and subsequent addition of galactose moieties which was provided by galactinol. Galactinol is synthesized from UDP-galactose and myo-inositol. RFOs accumulate at late stage of seed development and play important roles in seed longevity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose mitigates plant heat, drought, and cold stresses; however, whether raffinose contributes to plant waterlogging tolerance is unknown. The maize raffinose synthase mutant zmrafs-1 had seedlings that lack raffinose, generated fewer and shorter adventitious roots, and were more sensitive to waterlogging stress, while overexpression of the raffinose synthase gene, ZmRAFS, increased raffinose content, stimulated adventitious root formation, and enhanced waterlogging tolerance of maize seedlings. Transcriptome analysis of null segregant seedlings compared with zmrafs-1, particularly when waterlogged, revealed that the expression of genes related to galactose metabolism and the auxin biosynthetic pathway were up-regulated by raffinose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPROTEIN l-ISOASPARTYL O-METHYLTRANSFERASE (PIMT) affects seed vigor by repairing damaged proteins. While PIMT is capable of isoaspartyl (isoAsp) repair in all proteins, those proteins most susceptible to isoAsp formation have not been well characterized, and the mechanisms by which PIMT affects seed vigor remain largely unknown. Using co-immunoprecipitation and LC-MS/MS, we found that maize (Zea mays) PIMT2 (ZmPIMT2) interacted predominantly with both subunits of maize 3-METHYLCROTONYL COA CARBOXYLASE (ZmMCC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is crucial for plant seed germination and abiotic stress tolerance. However, the association between ABA sensitivity and plant abiotic stress tolerance remains largely unknown. In this study, 436 rice accessions were assessed for their sensitivity to ABA during seed germination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDrought stress is one of the major constraints of global crop production. Raffinose, a non-reducing trisaccharide, has been considered to regulate positively the plant drought stress tolerance; however, evidence that augmenting raffinose production in leaves results in enhanced plant drought stress tolerance is lacking. The biochemical mechanism through which raffinose might act to mitigate plant drought stress remains unidentified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor various reasons, leaves are occasionally lyophilized prior to storage at -80 °C and preparing extracts. Soluble carbohydrate identity and quantity from maize leaf disks were ascertained in two separate years using anion exchange HPLC with pulsed electrochemical detection. Analyses were made from disks after freezing in liquid nitrogen with or without subsequent lyophilization (both years) or directly after removal from plants with or without lyophilization (only in the second year).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTransmembrane kinases (TMKs) play important roles in plant growth and signaling cascades of phytohormones. However, its function in the regulation of early leaf senescence (ELS) of plants remains unknown. Here, we report the molecular cloning and functional characterization of the gene which encodes a protein belongs to the TMK family and controls chloroplast development and leaf senescence in rice ( L.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong non-coding RNA (lncRNA) MRPS30 divergent transcript (also known as BRCAT54) is recently reported to promote lung cancer. The involvement of BRCAT54 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is unknown. This study investigated the role of BRCAT54 in TNBC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) are accumulated during the late stage of seed development and hydrolyzed during seed germination. The process of raffinose hydrolysis during seed germination and how this process affects seed vigor remains unknown. We report here that maize alkaline α-galactosidase 1 (ZmAGA1) protein is translationally induced and is capable of hydrolyzing RFOs as well as a precursor, galactinol, during seed germination.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeed aging tolerance and rapid seedling growth are important agronomic traits for crop production; however, how these traits are controlled at the molecular level remains largely unknown. The unaged seeds of two independent maize DEHYDRATION-RESPONSIVE ELEMENT-BINDING2A mutant (zmdreb2a) lines, with decreased expression of GRETCHEN HAGEN3.2 (ZmGH3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose and its precursor galactinol accumulate in plant leaves during abiotic stress. RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RAFS) catalyzes raffinose formation by transferring a galactosyl group of galactinol to sucrose. However, whether RAFS contributes to plant drought tolerance and, if so, by what mechanism remains unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose accumulation is positively correlated with plant chilling stress tolerance; however, the understanding of the function and regulation of raffinose metabolism under chilling stress remains in its infancy. RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RAFS) is the key enzyme for raffinose biosynthesis. In this study, we report that two independent maize (Zea mays) zmrafs mutant lines, in which raffinose was completely abolished, were more sensitive to chilling stress and their net photosynthetic product (total soluble sugars and starch) accumulation was significantly decreased compared with controls after chilling stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose is thought to play an important role in plant tolerance of abiotic stress. We report here that maize HEAT SHOCK FACTOR A2 (ZmHSFA2) and HEAT SHOCK BINDING PROTEIN 2 (ZmHSBP2) physically interact with each other and antagonistically modulate expression of GALACTINOL SYNTHASE2 (ZmGOLS2) and raffinose biosynthesis in transformed maize protoplasts and Arabidopsis plants. Overexpression of ZmHSFA2 in Arabidopsis increased the expression of Arabidopsis AtGOLS1, AtGOLS2 and AtRS5 (RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE), increased the raffinose content in leaves and enhanced plant heat stress tolerance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose, an oligosaccharide found in many seeds, plays an important role in seed vigor; however, the regulatory mechanism governing raffinose biosynthesis remains unclear. We report here that maize W22 wild type (WT) seeds, but not W22 viviparous1 ( zmvp1) mutant seeds, start accumulating galactinol and raffinose 28 days after pollination (DAP). Transcriptome analysis of the zmvp1 embryo showed that the expression of GALACTINOL SYNTHASE2 ( GOLS2) was down-regulated relative to WT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRaffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) accumulate in seeds during maturation desiccation in many plant species. However, it remains unclear whether RFOs have a role in establishing seed vigor. GALACTINOL SYNTHASE (GOLS), RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RS), and STACHYOSE SYNTHASE (STS) are the enzymes responsible for RFO biosynthesis in plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfections of pathogenic bacteria are very common in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. However, the biological effects of HIV-1 Tat on bacteria are incompletely understood. In this study, HIV-1 Tat was expressed in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA01) to investigate its biological effects on bacteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGALACTINOL SYNTHASE is the first committed enzyme in the raffinose biosynthetic pathway. We have previously characterized the maize (Zea mays) GALACTINOL SYNTHASE2 gene (ZmGOLS2) as abiotic stress induced. To further investigate the regulation of ZmGOLS2 gene expression, individual luciferase expression vectors,in which the luciferase gene was controlled by different lengths of the ZmGOLS2 promoter, were co-transfected into maize protoplasts with either a ZmDREB2A- or a GFP-expression vector.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe application of the luxCDABE operon of the bioluminescent bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens as a reporter has been published for bacteria, yeast and mammalian cells. We report here the optimization of fused luxAB (the bacterial luciferase heterodimeric enzyme) expression, quantum yield and its application as a reporter gene in plant protoplasts. The fused luxAB gene was mutated by error prone PCR or chemical mutagenesis and screened for enhanced luciferase activity utilizing decanal as substrate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman enterovirus 71 (EV71) belongs to the genus Enterovirus in the family Picornaviridae and has been recognized as one of the most important pathogens that cause emerging infectious disease. Despite of the importance of EV71, the nonstructural protein 3AB from this virus is little understood for its function during EV71 replication. Here we expressed EV71 3AB protein as recombinant protein in a eukaryotic expression system and uncovered that this protein possesses a nucleic acid helix-destabilizing and strand annealing acceleration activity in a dose-dependent manner, indicating that EV71 3AB is a nucleic acid chaperone protein.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaize (Zea mays) GALACTINOL SYNTHASE (GolS) is a key enzyme in the raffinose biosynthetic pathway. We have previously characterized the maize GolS2 (ZmGolS2) gene as heat shock induced in maize germinating seeds and cultured cells. Here we report the identification, isolation and characterization of the 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Doxorubicin-induced acute cardiotoxicity is associated with the Gly671Val (G671V; rs45511401) variant of multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1). Doxorubicin redox cycling causes lipid peroxidation and generation of the reactive electrophile, 4-hydroxy-2-trans-nonenal (HNE). Glutathione forms conjugates with HNE, yielding an MRP1 substrate, GS-HNE, whose intracellular accumulation can cause toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2; ABCC2) mediates the biliary excretion of glutathione, glucuronide, and sulfate conjugates of endobiotics and xenobiotics. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of MRP2 contribute to interindividual variability in drug disposition and ultimately in drug response.
Objectives: To characterize the transport function of human wild-type (WT) MRP2 and four SNP variants, S789F, A1450T, V417I, and T1477M.
Background: Lactation increases energy demands four- to five-fold, leading to a two- to three-fold increase in food consumption, requiring a proportional adjustment in the ability of the lactating dam to absorb nutrients and to synthesize critical biomolecules, such as cholesterol, to meet the dietary needs of both the offspring and the dam. The size and hydrophobicity of the bile acid pool increases during lactation, implying an increased absorption and disposition of lipids, sterols, nutrients, and xenobiotics. In order to investigate changes at the transcriptomics level, we utilized an exon array and calculated expression levels to investigate changes in gene expression in the liver, duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of lactating dams when compared against age-matched virgin controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase (Cyp7a1) and the bile acid pool size are increased 2 to 3-fold in lactating postpartum rats. We investigated the interaction of nuclear receptors with the Cyp7a1 proximal promoter and the expression of regulatory signaling pathways in postpartum rats at day 10 (PPd10) versus female controls to identify the mechanisms of increased expression of Cyp7a1, which is maximal at 16 hours. Liver X receptor (LXRalpha) and RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) recruitment to Cyp7a1 chromatin were increased 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF