scholarly journals Heterologous microProtein expression identifies LITTLE NINJA, a dominant regulator of jasmonic acid signaling

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (42) ◽  
pp. 26197-26205
Author(s):  
Shin-Young Hong ◽  
Bin Sun ◽  
Daniel Straub ◽  
Anko Blaakmeer ◽  
Lorenzo Mineri ◽  
...  

MicroProteins are small, often single-domain proteins that are sequence-related to larger, often multidomain proteins. Here, we used a combination of comparative genomics and heterologous synthetic misexpression to isolate functional cereal microProtein regulators. Our approach identified LITTLE NINJA (LNJ), a microProtein that acts as a modulator of jasmonic acid (JA) signaling. Ectopic expression ofLNJinArabidopsisresulted in stunted plants that resembled the decupleJAZ(jazD) mutant. In fact, comparing the transcriptomes of transgenicLNJoverexpressor plants andjazDrevealed a large overlap of deregulated genes, suggesting that ectopicLNJexpression altered JA signaling. Transgenic Brachypodium plants with elevatedLNJexpression levels showed deregulation of JA signaling as well and displayed reduced growth and enhanced production of side shoots (tiller). This tillering effect was transferable between grass species, and overexpression ofLNJin barley and rice caused similar traits. We used a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) approach and created a LNJ-like protein inArabidopsisby deleting parts of the coding sentence of theAFP2gene that encodes a NINJA-domain protein. Theseafp2-crisprmutants were also stunted in size and resembledjazD. Thus, similar genome-engineering approaches can be exploited as a future tool to create LNJ proteins and produce cereals with altered architectures.

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjun Ruan ◽  
Yuexia Zhou ◽  
Meiliang Zhou ◽  
Jun Yan ◽  
Muhammad Khurshid ◽  
...  

Jasmonic acid (JA) and its precursors and dervatives, referred as jasmonates (JAs) are important molecules in the regulation of many physiological processes in plant growth and development, and especially the mediation of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. JAs biosynthesis, perception, transport, signal transduction and action have been extensively investigated. In this review, we will discuss the initiation of JA signaling with a focus on environmental signal perception and transduction, JA biosynthesis and metabolism, transport of signaling molecules (local transmission, vascular bundle transmission, and airborne transportation), and biological function (JA signal receptors, regulated transcription factors, and biological processes involved).


Planta ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 254 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bipin K. Pandey ◽  
Lokesh Verma ◽  
Ankita Prusty ◽  
Ajit Pal Singh ◽  
Malcolm J. Bennett ◽  
...  

Abstract Main conclusion OsJAZ11 regulates phosphate homeostasis by suppressing jasmonic acid signaling and biosynthesis in rice roots. Abstract Jasmonic Acid (JA) is a key plant signaling molecule which negatively regulates growth processes including root elongation. JAZ (JASMONATE ZIM-DOMAIN) proteins function as transcriptional repressors of JA signaling. Therefore, targeting JA signaling by deploying JAZ repressors may enhance root length in crops. In this study, we overexpressed JAZ repressor OsJAZ11 in rice to alleviate the root growth inhibitory action of JA. OsJAZ11 is a low phosphate (Pi) responsive gene which is transcriptionally regulated by OsPHR2. We report that OsJAZ11 overexpression promoted primary and seminal root elongation which enhanced Pi foraging. Expression studies revealed that overexpression of OsJAZ11 also reduced Pi starvation response (PSR) under Pi limiting conditions. Moreover, OsJAZ11 overexpression also suppressed JA signaling and biosynthesis as compared to wild type (WT). We further demonstrated that the C-terminal region of OsJAZ11 was crucial for stimulating root elongation in overexpression lines. Rice transgenics overexpressing truncated OsJAZ11ΔC transgene (i.e., missing C-terminal region) exhibited reduced root length and Pi uptake. Interestingly, OsJAZ11 also regulates Pi homeostasis via physical interaction with a key Pi sensing protein, OsSPX1. Our study highlights the functional connections between JA and Pi signaling and reveals JAZ repressors as a promising candidate for improving low Pi tolerance of elite rice genotypes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 100 (6) ◽  
pp. 573-581 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingquan Wu ◽  
An Guo ◽  
Yanying Zhao ◽  
Xiaomeng Wang ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
...  

Lumazine synthase (LS) catalyzes the penultimate reaction in the multistep riboflavin biosynthesis pathway, which is involved in plant defenses. Plant defenses are often subject to synergistic effects of jasmonic acid and ethylene whereas LS is a regulator of jasmonic acid signal transduction. However, little is known about whether the enzyme contributes to defense responses. To study the role of LS in plant pathogen defenses, we generated transgenic tobacco expressing the rice (Oryza sativa) LS gene, OsLS. OsLS was cloned and found to have strong identity with its homologues in higher plants and less homology to microbial orthologues. The OsLS protein localized to chloroplasts in three OsLS-expressing transgenic tobacco (LSETT) lines characterized as enhanced in growth and defense. Compared with control plants, LSETT had higher content of both riboflavin and the cofactors flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. In LSETT, jasmonic acid and ethylene were elevated, the expression of defense-related genes was induced, levels of resistance to pathogens were enhanced, and resistance was effective to viral, bacterial, and oomycete pathogens. Extents of OsLS expression correlated with increases in flavin, jasmonic acid, and ethylene content, and correlated with increases in resistance levels, suggesting a role for OsLS in defense responses.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mor Grinberg-Yaari ◽  
Jeyasankar Alagarmalai ◽  
Efraim Lewinsohn ◽  
Rafael Perl-Treves ◽  
Victoria Soroker

Planta ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 247 (5) ◽  
pp. 1217-1227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhangjian Hu ◽  
Shujun Shao ◽  
Chenfei Zheng ◽  
Zenghui Sun ◽  
Junying Shi ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Wang ◽  
Li Song ◽  
Xue Gong ◽  
Jinfan Xu ◽  
Minhui Li

Jasmonic acid (JA) is an endogenous growth-regulating substance, initially identified as a stress-related hormone in higher plants. Similarly, the exogenous application of JA also has a regulatory effect on plants. Abiotic stress often causes large-scale plant damage. In this review, we focus on the JA signaling pathways in response to abiotic stresses, including cold, drought, salinity, heavy metals, and light. On the other hand, JA does not play an independent regulatory role, but works in a complex signal network with other phytohormone signaling pathways. In this review, we will discuss transcription factors and genes involved in the regulation of the JA signaling pathway in response to abiotic stress. In this process, the JAZ-MYC module plays a central role in the JA signaling pathway through integration of regulatory transcription factors and related genes. Simultaneously, JA has synergistic and antagonistic effects with abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene (ET), salicylic acid (SA), and other plant hormones in the process of resisting environmental stress.


2015 ◽  
Vol 93 (9) ◽  
pp. 701-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.L. Campbell ◽  
M. Hofreiter

Anatomical changes in extinct mammalian lineages over evolutionary time, such as the loss of fingers and teeth and the rapid increase in body size that accompanied the late Miocene dispersal of the progenitors of Steller’s sea cows (Hydrodamalis gigas (Zimmermann, 1780)) into North Pacific waters and the convergent development of a thick pelage and accompanying reductions in ear and tail surface area of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius (Blumenbach, 1799)) and woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799)), are prime examples of adaptive evolution underlying the exploitation of new habitats. It is likely, however, that biochemical specializations adopted during these evolutionary transitions were of similar or even greater biological importance. As these “living” processes do not fossilize, direct information regarding the physiological attributes of extinct species has largely remained beyond the range of scientific inquiry. However, the ability to retrieve genomic sequences from ancient DNA samples, combined with ectopic expression systems, now permit the evolutionary origins and structural and functional properties of authentic prehistoric proteins to be examined in great detail. Exponential technical advances in ancient DNA retrieval, enrichment, and sequencing will soon permit targeted generation of complete genomes from hundreds of extinct species across the last one million years that, in combination with emerging in vitro expression, genome engineering, and cell differentiation techniques, promises to herald an exciting new trajectory of evolutionary research at the interface of biochemistry, genomics, palaeontology, and cell biology.


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