Defensin1 as a tumor sensitizer for improving chemotherapy: translation from anti-fungal agent to a potential anti-cancer agent.

Plant defensins including defensin 1 (MsDef1) are cysteine-rich antifungal peptides which are known for potent broad-spectrum antifungal activity against bacterial or fungal pathogens of plants. The antimicrobial activities of these cationic defensins are attributed to their capacity to bind to cell membranes to create potentially structural defects tin the cell membranes to interact with intracellular target (s) and mediates cytotoxic effects. Our earlier work identified Glucosylceramide (GlcCer) of fungus as a potential target for biological activity.

Pol V produced RNA facilitates transposable element excision site repair in .

The plant-specific RNA Polymerase V (Pol V) plays a key role in gene silencing, but its role in repair of double stranded DNA breaks is unclear. Excision of the transposable element creates double stranded breaks that are repaired by NHEJ. We measured excision site repair in multiple DNA methylation mutants including using an : reporter.

Sainfoin ( spp.) crop ontology: supporting germplasm characterization and international research collaborations.

Sainfoin ( spp.) is a perennial forage legume that is also attracting attention as a perennial pulse with potential for human consumption. The dual use of sainfoin underpins diverse research and breeding programs focused on improving sainfoin lines for forage and pulses, which is driving the generation of complex datasets describing high dimensional phenotypes in the post-omics era.

Control of cellularization, nuclear localization, and antipodal cell cluster development in maize embryo sacs.

The maize female gametophyte contains four cell types: two synergids, an egg cell, a central cell, and a variable number of antipodal cells. In maize, these cells are produced after three rounds of free-nuclear divisions followed by cellularization, differentiation, and proliferation of the antipodal cells. Cellularization of the eight-nucleate syncytium produces seven cells with two polar nuclei in the central cell.

Lineage specific extracellular vesicle-associated protein biomarkers for the early detection of high grade serous ovarian cancer.

High grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) accounts for ~ 70% of ovarian cancer cases. Non-invasive, highly specific blood-based tests for pre-symptomatic screening in women are crucial to reducing the mortality associated with this disease. Since most HGSOCs typically arise from the fallopian tubes (FT), our biomarker search focused on proteins found on the surface of extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by both FT and HGSOC tissue explants and representative cell lines.

Efficient protein tagging and cis-regulatory element engineering via precise and directional oligonucleotide-based targeted insertion in plants.

Efficient and precise targeted insertion holds great promise but remains challenging in plant genome editing. An efficient nonhomologous end-joining-mediated targeted insertion method was recently developed by combining clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Streptococcus pyogenes CRISPR-associated nuclease 9 (SpCas9) gene editing with phosphorothioate modified double-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (dsODNs). Yet, this approach often leads to imprecise insertions with no control over the insertion direction.

A second unveiling: Haplotig masking of the eastern oyster genome improves population-level inference.

Genome assembly can be challenging for species that are characterized by high amounts of polymorphism, heterozygosity, and large effective population sizes. High levels of heterozygosity can result in genome mis-assemblies and a larger than expected genome size due to the haplotig versions of a single locus being assembled as separate loci. Here, we describe the first chromosome-level genome for the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica.

High-efficiency prime editing enables new strategies for broad-spectrum resistance to bacterial blight of rice.

Using genetic resistance against bacterial blight (BB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae (Xoo) is a major objective in rice breeding programmes. Prime editing (PE) has the potential to create novel germplasm against Xoo. Here, we use an improved prime-editing system to implement two new strategies for BB resistance.

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Viral synergism suppresses R gene-mediated resistance by impairing downstream defense mechanisms in soybean.

Viral synergism occurs when mixed infection of a susceptible plant by 2 or more viruses leads to increased susceptibility to at least 1 of the viruses. However, the ability of 1 virus to suppress R gene-controlled resistance against another virus has never been reported. In soybean (Glycine max), extreme resistance (ER) against soybean mosaic virus (SMV), governed by the Rsv3 R-protein, manifests a swift asymptomatic resistance against the avirulent strain SMV-G5H.

Monitoring lipid-protein interactions in planta using Förster resonance energy transfer.

Phospholipids are not only the major structural components of cellular membranes but also important signaling molecules regulating various cellular and physiological processes. One mode of action by lipid mediators is via lipid-protein interactions to modulate the downstream cellular events. An increasing number of lipid-binding proteins have been identified using in vitro lipid-protein binding assays, but it has been challenging to monitor lipid-protein interactions in vivo.

Grapevine scion gene expression is driven by rootstock and environment interaction.

Background: Grafting is a horticultural practice used widely across woody perennial crop species to fuse together the root and shoot system of two distinct genotypes, the rootstock and the scion, combining beneficial traits from both. In grapevine, grafting is used in nearly 80% of all commercial vines to optimize fruit quality, regulate vine vigor, and enhance biotic and abiotic stress-tolerance. Rootstocks have been shown to modulate elemental composition, metabolomic profiles, and the shape of leaves in the scion, among other traits.

Focus on the Plant Endomembrane System in Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions.

Interactions between plants and microbes are ubiquitous. The outcomes of these interactions involve interkingdom communication, with myriad, diverse signals moving between microbes and their potential plant hosts. Years of biochemical, genetic, and molecular biology research have provided an overview of the landscape of the repertoires of effectors and elicitors encoded by microbes that allow them to stimulate and manipulate responses from their potential plant hosts.

Plant defensin MtDef4-derived antifungal peptide with multiple modes of action and potential as a bio-inspired fungicide.

Chemical fungicides have been instrumental in protecting crops from fungal diseases. However, increasing fungal resistance to many of the single-site chemical fungicides calls for the development of new antifungal agents with novel modes of action (MoA). The sequence-divergent cysteine-rich antifungal defensins with multisite MoA are promising starting templates for design of novel peptide-based fungicides.

COLD REGULATED GENE 27 and 28 antagonize the transcriptional activity of the RVE8/LNK1/LNK2 circadian complex.

Many molecular and physiological processes in plants occur at a specific time of day. These daily rhythms are coordinated in part by the circadian clock, a timekeeper that uses daylength and temperature to maintain rhythms of ∼24 h in various clock-regulated phenotypes. The circadian MYB-like transcription factor REVEILLE 8 (RVE8) interacts with its transcriptional coactivators NIGHT LIGHT-INDUCIBLE AND CLOCK-REGULATED 1 (LNK1) and LNK2 to promote the expression of evening-phased clock genes and cold tolerance factors.

CRISPR-Cas9-mediated knockout of and in cassava attenuates toxic cyanogen production.

Cassava () is a starchy root crop that supports over a billion people in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This staple, however, produces the neurotoxin cyanide and requires processing for safe consumption. Excessive consumption of insufficiently processed cassava, in combination with protein-poor diets, can have neurodegenerative impacts.

A happy accident: a novel turfgrass reference genome.

Poa pratensis, commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass, is a popular cool-season grass species used as turf in lawns and recreation areas globally. Despite its substantial economic value, a reference genome had not previously been assembled due to the genome's relatively large size and biological complexity that includes apomixis, polyploidy, and interspecific hybridization. We report here a fortuitous de novo assembly and annotation of a P.

Pan-cancer analysis identifies tumor-specific antigens derived from transposable elements.

Cryptic promoters within transposable elements (TEs) can be transcriptionally reactivated in tumors to create new TE-chimeric transcripts, which can produce immunogenic antigens. We performed a comprehensive screen for these TE exaptation events in 33 TCGA tumor types, 30 GTEx adult tissues and 675 cancer cell lines, and identified 1,068 TE-exapted candidates with the potential to generate shared tumor-specific TE-chimeric antigens (TS-TEAs). Whole-lysate and HLA-pulldown mass spectrometry data confirmed that TS-TEAs are presented on the surface of cancer cells.