Cell division in the shoot apical meristem is a trigger for miR156 decline and vegetative phase transition in Arabidopsis

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (46) ◽  
pp. e2115667118
Author(s):  
Ying-Juan Cheng ◽  
Guan-Dong Shang ◽  
Zhou-Geng Xu ◽  
Sha Yu ◽  
Lian-Yu Wu ◽  
...  

What determines the rate at which a multicellular organism matures is a fundamental question in biology. In plants, the decline of miR156 with age serves as an intrinsic, evolutionarily conserved timer for the juvenile-to-adult phase transition. However, the way in which age regulates miR156 abundance is poorly understood. Here, we show that the rate of decline in miR156 is correlated with developmental age rather than chronological age. Mechanistically, we found that cell division in the apical meristem is a trigger for miR156 decline. The transcriptional activity of MIR156 genes is gradually attenuated by the deposition of the repressive histone mark H3K27me3 along with cell division. Our findings thus provide a plausible explanation of why the maturation program of a multicellular organism is unidirectional and irreversible under normal growth conditions and suggest that cell quiescence is the fountain of youth in plants.

Author(s):  
І. П. Студеняк ◽  
Д. Ш. Ковач ◽  
В. В. Митровцій ◽  
М. І. Гурзан ◽  
О. А. Микайло ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5739
Author(s):  
Joo Yeol Kim ◽  
Hyo-Jun Lee ◽  
Jin A Kim ◽  
Mi-Jeong Jeong

Sound waves affect plants at the biochemical, physical, and genetic levels. However, the mechanisms by which plants respond to sound waves are largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effect of sound waves on Arabidopsis thaliana growth. The results of the study showed that Arabidopsis seeds exposed to sound waves (100 and 100 + 9k Hz) for 15 h per day for 3 day had significantly longer root growth than that in the control group. The root length and cell number in the root apical meristem were significantly affected by sound waves. Furthermore, genes involved in cell division were upregulated in seedlings exposed to sound waves. Root development was affected by the concentration and activity of some phytohormones, including cytokinin and auxin. Analysis of the expression levels of genes regulating cytokinin and auxin biosynthesis and signaling showed that cytokinin and ethylene signaling genes were downregulated, while auxin signaling and biosynthesis genes were upregulated in Arabidopsis exposed to sound waves. Additionally, the cytokinin and auxin concentrations of the roots of Arabidopsis plants increased and decreased, respectively, after exposure to sound waves. Our findings suggest that sound waves are potential agricultural tools for improving crop growth performance.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 697
Author(s):  
Juan Mao ◽  
Wenxin Li ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
Jianming Li

The plant glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3)-like kinases are highly conserved protein serine/threonine kinases that are grouped into four subfamilies. Similar to their mammalian homologs, these kinases are constitutively active under normal growth conditions but become inactivated in response to diverse developmental and environmental signals. Since their initial discoveries in the early 1990s, many biochemical and genetic studies were performed to investigate their physiological functions in various plant species. These studies have demonstrated that the plant GSK3-like kinases are multifunctional kinases involved not only in a wide variety of plant growth and developmental processes but also in diverse plant stress responses. Here we summarize our current understanding of the versatile physiological functions of the plant GSK3-like kinases along with their confirmed and potential substrates.


1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 2615-2626 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Hickey ◽  
S E Brandon ◽  
G Smale ◽  
D Lloyd ◽  
L A Weber

Vertebrate cells synthesize two forms of the 82- to 90-kilodalton heat shock protein that are encoded by distinct gene families. In HeLa cells, both proteins (hsp89 alpha and hsp89 beta) are abundant under normal growth conditions and are synthesized at increased rates in response to heat stress. Only the larger form, hsp89 alpha, is induced by the adenovirus E1A gene product (M. C. Simon, K. Kitchener, H. T. Kao, E. Hickey, L. Weber, R. Voellmy, N. Heintz, and J. R. Nevins, Mol. Cell. Biol. 7:2884-2890, 1987). We have isolated a human hsp89 alpha gene that shows complete sequence identity with heat- and E1A-inducible cDNA used as a hybridization probe. The 5'-flanking region contained overlapping and inverted consensus heat shock control elements that can confer heat-inducible expression on a beta-globin reporter gene. The gene contained 10 intervening sequences. The first intron was located adjacent to the translation start codon, an arrangement also found in the Drosophila hsp82 gene. The spliced mRNA sequence contained a single open reading frame encoding an 84,564-dalton polypeptide showing high homology with the hsp82 to hsp90 proteins of other organisms. The deduced hsp89 alpha protein sequence differed from the human hsp89 beta sequence reported elsewhere (N. F. Rebbe, J. Ware, R. M. Bertina, P. Modrich, and D. W. Stafford (Gene 53:235-245, 1987) in at least 99 out of the 732 amino acids. Transcription of the hsp89 alpha gene was induced by serum during normal cell growth, but expression did not appear to be restricted to a particular stage of the cell cycle. hsp89 alpha mRNA was considerably more stable than the mRNA encoding hsp70, which can account for the higher constitutive rate of hsp89 synthesis in unstressed cells.


1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 3827-3836
Author(s):  
N P Williams ◽  
P P Mueller ◽  
A G Hinnebusch

Translational control of GCN4 expression in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is mediated by multiple AUG codons present in the leader of GCN4 mRNA, each of which initiates a short open reading frame of only two or three codons. Upstream AUG codons 3 and 4 are required to repress GCN4 expression in normal growth conditions; AUG codons 1 and 2 are needed to overcome this repression in amino acid starvation conditions. We show that the regulatory function of AUG codons 1 and 2 can be qualitatively mimicked by the AUG codons of two heterologous upstream open reading frames (URFs) containing the initiation regions of the yeast genes PGK and TRP1. These AUG codons inhibit GCN4 expression when present singly in the mRNA leader; however, they stimulate GCN4 expression in derepressing conditions when inserted upstream from AUG codons 3 and 4. This finding supports the idea that AUG codons 1 and 2 function in the control mechanism as translation initiation sites and further suggests that suppression of the inhibitory effects of AUG codons 3 and 4 is a general consequence of the translation of URF 1 and 2 sequences upstream. Several observations suggest that AUG codons 3 and 4 are efficient initiation sites; however, these sequences do not act as positive regulatory elements when placed upstream from URF 1. This result suggests that efficient translation is only one of the important properties of the 5' proximal URFs in GCN4 mRNA. We propose that a second property is the ability to permit reinitiation following termination of translation and that URF 1 is optimized for this regulatory function.


2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Todorova ◽  
I. Sergiev ◽  
V. Alexieva

Wheat cultivars were grown as soil culture under normal growth conditions. Twoweek- old seedlings were exposed to 4°C for 6 h and then transferred to −12°C for 24 h in the dark. Twenty-four hours before freezing stress, some of the plants were sprayed with aqueous solutions of spermine, spermidine, putrescine, 1,3-diaminopropane (1,3-DAP) and diethylenetriamine (DETA). The data showed that freezing stress caused a decrease in the fresh weight, chlorophyll content and plant survival rate, accompanied by a simultaneous accumulation of free proline and the enhanced leakage of electrolytes. Preliminary treatment with polyamines caused a decline in electrolyte leakage and a considerable augmentation in proline quantity, indicating that the compounds are capable of preventing frost injury. Additionally, the foliar application of polyamines retarded the destruction of chlorophyll, and lessened fresh weight losses due to freezing stress. The synthetic triamine DETA was the most effective, having the most pronounced action in all the experiments, followed by the tetraamine spermine. The application of polyamines to wheat crops could be a promising approach for improving plant growth under unfavourable growth conditions, including freezing temperatures. The results demonstrate that treatment with polyamines could protect winter wheat by reducing the stress injuries caused by subzero temperatures.


Genetics ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-464
Author(s):  
Y B Pan ◽  
P A Peterson

Abstract This study addresses the question of the activation of quiescent transposable elements in maize breeding lines. The a-ruq reporter allele of the Uq transposable element system expresses Uq activity (spots or sectors of spots in otherwise colorless aleurone tissue) when exposed to various genotypes of assorted maize inbred lines lacking any active Uq element. This activation of quiescent Uq elements occurs randomly during the growth of the endosperm. It is concluded that there are components in the genome that enhance the rare activation of quiescent Uq elements. Further, it seems that this activation occurs in the absence of any stress-inducing treatment, but that normal growth conditions provide sufficient stimulus for such activation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiahong Zhu ◽  
Wan Zhao ◽  
Rongshuang Li ◽  
Dong Guo ◽  
Huiliang Li ◽  
...  

Dragon’s blood is a traditional medicine in which flavonoids are the main bioactive compounds; however, the underlying formation mechanism of dragon’s blood remains largely poorly understood. Chalcone isomerase (CHI) is the key enzyme in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway. However, CHI family genes are not well understood in Dracaena cambodiana Pierre ex Gagnep, an important source plant of dragon’s blood. In this study, 11 CHI family genes were identified from D. cambodiana, and they were classified into three types. Evolutionary and transcriptional profiling analysis revealed that DcCHI1 and DcCHI4 might be involved in flavonoid production. Both DcCHI1 and DcCHI4 displayed low expression levels in stem under normal growth conditions and were induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA), 6-benzyl aminopurine (6-BA, synthetic cytokinin), ultraviolet-B (UV-B), and wounding. The recombinant proteins DcCHI1 and DcCHI4 were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified by His-Bind resin chromatography. Enzyme activity assay indicated that DcCHI1 catalyzed the formation of naringenin from naringenin chalcone, while DcCHI4 lacked this catalytic activity. Overexpression of DcCHI1 or DcCHI4 enhanced the flavonoid production in D. cambodiana and tobacco. These findings implied that DcCHI1 and DcCHI4 play important roles in flavonoid production. Thus, our study will not only contribute to better understand the function and expression regulation of CHI family genes involved in flavonoid production in D. cambodiana but also lay the foundation for developing the effective inducer of dragon’s blood.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhui Li ◽  
Mark Hochstrasser

The proteasome is central to proteolysis by the ubiquitin-proteasome system under normal growth conditions but is itself degraded through macroautophagy under nutrient stress. A recently described AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase)-regulated ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport)-dependent microautophagy pathway also regulates proteasome trafficking and degradation in low glucose conditions in yeast. Aberrant proteasomes are more prone to microautophagy, suggesting the ESCRT system fine-tunes proteasome quality control under low glucose stress. Here we uncover additional features of the selective microautophagy of proteasomes. Genetic or pharmacological induction of aberrant proteasomes is associated with increased mono- or oligo-ubiquitylation of proteasome components, which appear to be recognized by ESCRT-0. AMPK controls this pathway in part by regulating the trafficking of ESCRT-0 to the vacuole surface, which also leads to degradation of the Vps27 subunit of ESCRT-0. The Rsp5 ubiquitin ligase contributes to proteasome subunit ubiquitylation, and multiple ubiquitin-binding elements in Vps27 are involved in their recognition. We propose that ESCRT-0 at the vacuole surface recognizes ubiquitylated proteasomes and initiates their microautophagic elimination during glucose depletion.


Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 371 (6536) ◽  
pp. 1350-1355
Author(s):  
Weibing Yang ◽  
Sandra Cortijo ◽  
Niklas Korsbo ◽  
Pawel Roszak ◽  
Katharina Schiessl ◽  
...  

Mitogens trigger cell division in animals. In plants, cytokinins, a group of phytohormones derived from adenine, stimulate cell proliferation. Cytokinin signaling is initiated by membrane-associated histidine kinase receptors and transduced through a phosphorelay system. We show that in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem (SAM), cytokinin regulates cell division by promoting nuclear shuttling of Myb-domain protein 3R4 (MYB3R4), a transcription factor that activates mitotic gene expression. Newly synthesized MYB3R4 protein resides predominantly in the cytoplasm. At the G2-to-M transition, rapid nuclear accumulation of MYB3R4—consistent with an associated transient peak in cytokinin concentration—feeds a positive feedback loop involving importins and initiates a transcriptional cascade that drives mitosis and cytokinesis. An engineered nuclear-restricted MYB3R4 mimics the cytokinin effects of enhanced cell proliferation and meristem growth.


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