Publications by authors named "Zixian Zeng"

Crop breeding requires a balance of tradeoffs among key agronomic traits caused by gene pleiotropy. The molecular manipulation of genes can effectively improve target traits, but this may not reduce gene pleiotropy, potentially leading to undesirable traits or even lethal conditions. However, molecular editing of -regulatory elements (CREs) of target genes may facilitate the dissection of gene pleiotropy to fine-tune gene expression.

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Bacterial diseases pose significant threats to agriculture and natural ecosystems, causing substantial crop losses and impacting food security. Until now, there has been a less efficient control strategy against some bacterial diseases such as bacterial wilt, caused by . In this study, we screened a library of 58 microorganism-derived natural products for their antibacterial activity against .

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The pathogen Verticillium dahliae secreted effector V. dahliae Aspf2-like protein (VDAL) has been found to cause leaf wilting in cotton, but the ectopic expression of VDAL-encoding gene enhances the resistance to V. dahliae in cotton and Arabidopsis.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study identified a strain of Streptomyces, JL1001, from the rhizosphere soil of Polygonatum cyrtonema, possessing a leinamycin-type gene cluster, through genome mining.
  • - The complete genome of JL1001 was sequenced, revealing a large chromosome (7,943,495 bp) with a 71.71% G+C content and 7315 protein-coding genes, along with 36 biosynthetic gene clusters for secondary metabolites.
  • - The research features a comparison of JL1001's leinamycin-type gene cluster with other known clusters, setting the stage for future studies on bioactive metabolites with potential uses in medicine and agriculture.
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Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the third most important food crop in the world. Potato tubers must be stored at cold temperatures to minimize sprouting and losses due to disease. However, cold temperatures strongly induce the expression of the potato vacuolar invertase gene (VInv) and cause reducing sugar accumulation.

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Epigenetic regulation of gene expression plays a crucial role in plant development and environmental adaptation. The H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 have not only been discovered in the regulation of gene expression in multiple biological processes but also in responses to abiotic stresses in plants. However, evidence for the presence of both H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 on the same nucleosome is sporadic.

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Polyploidization plays important roles in the evolution and breeding of the common wheat. , the D-genome progenitor of the common wheat, provides a valuable pool of resistance genes to multiple diseases. Extensive studies focus on the exploration of these genes for wheat improvement.

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Polyploid plants typically display advantages on some agronomically important traits over their diploid counterparts. Extensive studies have shown genetic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic dynamics upon polyploidization in multiple plant species. However, few studies have unveiled those alternations imposed only by ploidy level, without any interference from heterozygosity.

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Background: Analysis of the relationship between chromosomal structural variation (synteny breaks) and 3D-chromatin architectural changes among closely related species has the potential to reveal causes and correlates between chromosomal change and chromatin remodeling. Of note, contrary to extensive studies in animal species, the pace and pattern of chromatin architectural changes following the speciation of plants remain unexplored; moreover, there is little exploration of the occurrence of synteny breaks in the context of multiple genome topological hierarchies within the same model species.

Results: Here we used Hi-C and epigenomic analyses to characterize and compare the profiles of hierarchical chromatin architectural features in representative species of the cotton tribe (Gossypieae), including Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium raimondii, and Gossypioides kirkii, which differ with respect to chromosome rearrangements.

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Associations between 3D chromatin architectures and epigenetic modifications have been characterized in animals. However, any impact of DNA methylation on chromatin architecture in plants is understudied, which is confined to Arabidopsis thaliana. Because plant species differ in genome size, composition, and overall chromatin packing, it is unclear to what extent findings from A.

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The quasi-consensus of a class of nonlinear time-varying multi-agent systems suffering from both external inputs and deception attacks is studied in this paper. This is different from a time-varying matrix, which is assumed to be bounded; further reasonable assumptions are supposed. In addition, impulsive deception attacks modeled with Bernoulli variables are considered.

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FtMYB18 plays a role in the repression of anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins accumulation by strongly down-regulating the CHS and DFR genes in Tartary buckwheat, and the C5 motif plays an important role in this process. Anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins (PAs) are important flavonoids in Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.), which provides various vibrant color and stronge abiotic stress resistance.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cold stress affects plant growth, prompting adaptations and responses that involve specific genes and chromatin dynamics.
  • Researchers created high-resolution maps of DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHSs) in potatoes under cold and room temperatures, finding increased chromatin accessibility for many active genes during cold storage.
  • The study highlights that these accessible genes, marked by bivalent histone modifications, play a crucial role in stress responses and developmental processes when plants face cold stress.
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Recombination plays an integral role in the creation of novel genetic variation in sexually reproducing species. Despite this important role, the determinants and evolution of crossover hotspots have remained poorly understood in plants. Here, we present a comparative analysis of two rice () historical recombination maps from two subspecies ( and ) using 150 resequenced genomes.

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Centromeres in most higher eukaryotes are composed of long arrays of satellite repeats from a single satellite repeat family. Why centromeres are dominated by a single satellite repeat and how the satellite repeats originate and evolve are among the most intriguing and long-standing questions in centromere biology. We identified eight satellite repeats in the centromeres of tetraploid switchgrass (Panicum virgatum).

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Background: Meiotic recombination is the foundation for genetic variation in natural and artificial populations of eukaryotes. Although genetic maps have been developed for numerous plant species since the late 1980s, few of these maps have provided the necessary resolution needed to investigate the genomic and epigenomic features underlying meiotic crossovers.

Results: Using a whole genome sequencing-based approach, we developed two high-density reference-based haplotype maps using diploid potato clones as parents.

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Centromeres can arise de novo from non-centromeric regions, which are often called "neocentromeres." Neocentromere formation provides the best evidence for the concept that centromere function is not determined by the underlying DNA sequences, but controlled by poorly understood epigenetic mechanisms. Numerous neocentromeres have been reported in several plant and animal species.

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Identification of proteins that are directly or indirectly associated with a specific DNA sequence is often an important goal in molecular biology research. Proteomics of isolated chromatin fragments (PICh) is a technique used to isolate chromatin that contains homologous DNA sequence to a specific nucleic acid probe. All proteins directly and indirectly associated with the DNA sequences that hybridize to the probe are then identified by proteomics.

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Clonally reproducing plants have the potential to bear a significantly greater mutational load than sexually reproducing species. To investigate this possibility, we examined the breadth of genome-wide structural variation in a panel of monoploid/doubled monoploid clones generated from native populations of diploid potato (Solanum tuberosum), a highly heterozygous asexually propagated plant. As rare instances of purely homozygous clones, they provided an ideal set for determining the degree of structural variation tolerated by this species and deriving its minimal gene complement.

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Article Synopsis
  • Acrylamide forms in carbohydrate-rich foods, especially french fries and potato chips, when cooked at high temperatures, raising health concerns as a potential carcinogen.
  • Researchers developed potato lines with reduced acrylamide precursors (asparagine, glucose, and fructose) by silencing specific genes, leading to a significant decrease in acrylamide levels during frying.
  • The findings suggest that improving potato cultivars to have lower reducing sugars can effectively reduce acrylamide formation in fried potato products.
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We report discoveries of different haplotypes associated with the centromeres of three potato chromosomes, including haplotypes composed of long arrays of satellite repeats and haplotypes lacking the same repeats. These results are in favor of the hypothesis that satellite repeat-based centromeres may originate from neocentromeres that lack repeats.

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Gene expression is controlled by the complex interaction of transcription factors binding to promoters and other regulatory DNA elements. One common characteristic of the genomic regions associated with regulatory proteins is a pronounced sensitivity to DNase I digestion. We generated genome-wide high-resolution maps of DNase I hypersensitive (DH) sites from both seedling and callus tissues of rice (Oryza sativa).

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Stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis) occurs annually in most wheat-growing areas of the world. Thinopyrum ponticum has provided novel rust resistance genes to protect wheat from this fungal disease. Wheat - Th.

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