Cross species multi‐omics reveals cell wall sequestration and elevated global transcript abundance as mechanisms of boron tolerance in plants

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring of proteins is one of the most common posttranslational modifications of proteins in eukaryotic cells and is important for associating proteins with the cell surface. In fungi, GPI-anchored proteins play essential roles in cross-linking of β-glucan cell-wall polymers and cell-wall rigidity. GPI-anchor synthesis is successively performed at the cytoplasmic and the luminal face of the ER membrane and involves approximately 25 proteins. While mutagenesis of auxiliary genes of this pathway suggested roles of GPI-anchored proteins in hyphal growth and virulence, essential genes of this pathway have not been characterized. Taking advantage of RNA interference (RNAi) we analyzed the function of the three essential genes GPI12, GAA1 and GPI8, encoding a cytoplasmic N-acetylglucosaminylphosphatidylinositol deacetylase, a metallo-peptide-synthetase and a cystein protease, the latter two representing catalytic components of the GPI transamidase complex. RNAi strains showed drastic cell-wall defects, resulting in exploding infection cells on the plant surface and severe distortion of in planta–differentiated infection hyphae, including formation of intrahyphal hyphae. Reduction of transcript abundance of the genes analyzed resulted in nonpathogenicity. We show here for the first time that the GPI synthesis genes GPI12, GAA1, and GPI8 are indispensable for vegetative development and pathogenicity of the causal agent of maize anthracnose, Colletotrichum graminicola.

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Phloem fibres as motors of gravitropic behaviour of flax plants: level of transcriptome

Functional Plant Biology ◽

10.1071/fp16348 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 203 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Oleg Gorshkov ◽

Natalia Mokshina ◽

Nadezda Ibragimova ◽

Marina Ageeva ◽

Natalia Gogoleva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Large Scale ◽

Turgor Pressure ◽

Control Plant ◽

Transcriptome Profiling ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Regulatory Elements ◽

Wall Structure ◽

Vertical Position ◽

Genes Encoding

Restoration of stem vertical position after plant inclination is a widely spread version of plant orientation in accordance with gravity vector direction. Gravitropic behaviour of flax plants involves the formation of curvature in stem region that has ceased elongation long in advance of stem inclination. The important participants of such behaviour are phloem fibres with constitutively formed tertiary cell wall (G-layer). We performed the large-scale transcriptome profiling of phloem fibres isolated from pulling and opposite sides of gravitropic curvature and compared with control plant fibres. Significant changes in transcript abundance take place for genes encoding proteins of several ion channels, transcription factors and other regulating elements. The largest number of upregulated genes belonged to the cell wall category; many of those were specifically upregulated in fibres of pulling stem side. The obtained data permit to suggest the mechanism of fibre participation in gravitropic reaction that involves the increase of turgor pressure and the rearrangements of cell wall structure in order to improve contractile properties, and to identify the regulatory elements that operate specifically in the fibres of the pulling stem side making gelatinous phloem fibres an important element of gravitropic response in herbaceous plants.

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Transcriptome Responses of Ripe Cherry Tomato Fruit Exposed to Chilling and Rewarming Identify Reversible and Irreversible Gene Expression Changes

Frontiers in Plant Science ◽

10.3389/fpls.2021.685416 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Donald A. Hunter ◽

Nathanael J. Napier ◽

Zoe A. Erridge ◽

Ali Saei ◽

Ronan K. Y. Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Tomato Fruit ◽

Chilling Injury ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Differential Sensitivity ◽

Transcript Accumulation ◽

Cell Wall Modification ◽

Cellular Protection ◽

Cell Wall Disassembly ◽

Shock Proteins

Tomato fruit stored below 12°C lose quality and can develop chilling injury upon subsequent transfer to a shelf temperature of 20°C. The more severe symptoms of altered fruit softening, uneven ripening and susceptibility to rots can cause postharvest losses. We compared the effects of exposure to mild (10°C) and severe chilling (4°C) on the fruit quality and transcriptome of ‘Angelle’, a cherry-type tomato, harvested at the red ripe stage. Storage at 4°C (but not at 10°C) for 27 days plus an additional 6 days at 20°C caused accelerated softening and the development of mealiness, both of which are commonly related to cell wall metabolism. Transcriptome analysis using RNA-Seq identified a range of transcripts encoding enzymes putatively involved in cell wall disassembly whose expression was strongly down-regulated at both 10 and 4°C, suggesting that accelerated softening at 4°C was due to factors unrelated to cell wall disassembly, such as reductions in turgor. In fruit exposed to severe chilling, the reduced transcript abundances of genes related to cell wall modification were predominantly irreversible and only partially restored upon rewarming of the fruit. Within 1 day of exposure to 4°C, large increases occurred in the expression of alternative oxidase, superoxide dismutase and several glutathione S-transferases, enzymes that protect cell contents from oxidative damage. Numerous heat shock proteins and chaperonins also showed large increases in expression, with genes showing peak transcript accumulation after different times of chilling exposure. These changes in transcript abundance were not induced at 10°C, and were reversible upon transfer of the fruit from 4 to 20°C. The data show that genes involved in cell wall modification and cellular protection have differential sensitivity to chilling temperatures, and exhibit different capacities for recovery upon rewarming of the fruit.

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Low-Boron Tolerance Strategies Involving Pectin-Mediated Cell Wall Mechanical Properties in Brassica napus

Plant and Cell Physiology ◽

10.1093/pcp/pcx130 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 58 (11) ◽

pp. 1991-2005 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ting Zhou ◽

Yingpeng Hua ◽

Baocai Zhang ◽

Xiuqing Zhang ◽

Yihua Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Cell Wall ◽

Brassica Napus ◽

Boron Tolerance

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Transcriptional Induction of the Penicillin-Binding Protein 2 Gene in Staphylococcus aureus by Cell Wall-Active Antibiotics Oxacillin and Vancomycin

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy ◽

10.1128/aac.47.3.1028-1036.2003 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 47 (3) ◽

pp. 1028-1036 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Susan Boyle-Vavra ◽

Shaohui Yin ◽

Mamatha Challapalli ◽

Robert S. Daum

Keyword(s):

Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Cell Wall ◽

Growth Phase ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Promoter Sequence ◽

Phase Variable ◽

Penicillin Binding Protein ◽

Promoter Regions ◽

Putative Transcription Factor ◽

Transcriptional Induction

ABSTRACT We found an increased abundance of pbpB-specific transcripts in vancomycin intermediate-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) isolates compared with that found in paired, genetically identical, susceptible isolates. This difference in expression cannot be explained by differences in the pbpB promoter sequence. Since the factors controlling pbpB gene expression have remained largely unexplored, various conditions that might affect pbpB transcript abundance were examined. In both vancomycin-susceptible and VISA strains, pbpB expression varied with the growth phase, with the highest abundance of pbpB-specific transcripts detected during mid-log phase. Interestingly, both vancomycin and oxacillin were able to induce pbpB transcription above a constitutive level. When vancomycin was absent, one of the three pbpB-specific transcripts that were usually faintly detected in non-VISA strains was more readily detected in VISA strains during mid-log but not stationary phase. This transcript was enhanced in non-VISA strains by vancomycin induction. Gel shift assays indicated that an increased amount of the putative transcription factor that binds to both P1 and P1′ promoter regions is present in the cytosol of vancomycin-induced cells. Neither the SigB sigma factor nor the quorum-sensing agr locus was required for growth phase-variable pbpB expression or transcriptional induction of pbpB by vancomycin or oxacillin. Also, MecI, MecR1, BlaI, and BlaR1, regulatory proteins that mediate β-lactam-inducible expression of mecA and β-lactamase, were not required for antibiotic induction of pbpB transcription. These data support the idea that pbpB expression is modulated by a trans-acting factor in response to the presence of the cell wall-active antibiotics vancomycin and oxacillin.

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Pattern of Deposition of Cell Wall Polysaccharides and Transcript Abundance of Related Cell Wall Synthesis Genes during Differentiation in Barley Endosperm

PLANT PHYSIOLOGY ◽

10.1104/pp.111.192682 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 159 (2) ◽

pp. 655-670 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Sarah M. Wilson ◽

Rachel A. Burton ◽

Helen M. Collins ◽

Monika S. Doblin ◽

Filomena A. Pettolino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Cell Wall Synthesis ◽

Cell Wall Polysaccharides ◽

Barley Endosperm ◽

Related Cell

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Chitin in Diatoms and Its Association with the Cell Wall

Eukaryotic Cell ◽

10.1128/ec.00079-09 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. 1038-1050 ◽

Cited By ~ 99

Author(s):

Colleen A. Durkin ◽

Thomas Mock ◽

E. Virginia Armbrust

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Silicic Acid ◽

Expression Patterns ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Thalassiosira Pseudonana ◽

Protein Domain ◽

Chitin Synthase ◽

Short Term ◽

Chitin Synthases ◽

Genes Encoding

ABSTRACT Chitin is a globally abundant polymer widely distributed throughout eukaryotes that has been well characterized in only a few lineages. Diatoms are members of the eukaryotic lineage of stramenopiles. Of the hundreds of diatom genera, two produce long fibers of chitin that extrude through their cell walls of silica. We identify and describe here genes encoding putative chitin synthases in a variety of additional diatom genera, indicating that the ability to produce chitin is more widespread and likely plays a more central role in diatom biology than previously considered. Diatom chitin synthases fall into four phylogenetic clades. Protein domain predictions and differential gene expression patterns provide evidence that chitin synthases have multiple functions within a diatom cell. Thalassiosira pseudonana possesses six genes encoding three types of chitin synthases. Transcript abundance of the gene encoding one of these chitin synthase types increases when cells resume division after short-term silicic acid starvation and during short-term limitation by silicic acid or iron, two nutrient conditions connected in the environment and known to affect the cell wall. During long-term silicic acid starvation transcript abundance of this gene and one additional chitin synthase gene increased at the same time a chitin-binding lectin localized to the girdle band region of the cell wall. Together, these results suggest that the ability to produce chitin is more widespread in diatoms than previously thought and that a subset of the chitin produced by diatoms is associated with the cell wall.

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Infection Structure-Specific Reductive Iron Assimilation Is Required for Cell Wall Integrity and Full Virulence of the Maize Pathogen Colletotrichum graminicola

Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions ◽

10.1094/mpmi-01-13-0003-r ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 26 (6) ◽

pp. 695-708 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Emad Albarouki ◽

Holger B. Deising

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Fluorescent Protein ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Colletotrichum Graminicola ◽

Specific Expression ◽

Infection Structure ◽

Double Deletion ◽

Iron Assimilation ◽

Essential Components ◽

Green Fluorescent

Ferroxidases are essential components of the high-affinity reductive iron assimilation pathway in fungi. Two ferroxidase genes, FET3-1 and FET3-2, have been identified in the genome of the maize anthracnose fungus Colletotrichum graminicola. Complementation of growth defects of the ferroxidase-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain Δfet3fet4 showed that both Fet3-1 and Fet3-2 of C. graminicola represent functional ferroxidases. Expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein fusions in yeast and C. graminicola indicated that both ferroxidase proteins localize to the plasma membrane. Transcript abundance of FET3-1 increased dramatically under iron-limiting conditions but those of FET3-2 were hardly detectable. Δfet3-1 and Δfet3-2 single as well as Δfet3-1/2 double-deletion strains were generated. Under iron-sufficient or deficient conditions, vegetative growth rates of these strains did not significantly differ from that of the wild type but Δfet3-1 and Δfet3-1/2 strains showed increased sensitivity to reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, under iron-limiting conditions, appressoria of Δfet3-1 and Δfet3-1/2 strains showed significantly reduced transcript abundance of a class V chitin synthase and exhibited severe cell wall defects. Infection assays on intact and wounded maize leaves, quantitative data of infection structure differentiation, and infection stage-specific expression of FET3-1 showed that reductive iron assimilation is required for appressorial penetration, biotrophic development, and full virulence.

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The transcript abundance of an expansin gene in ripe sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) fruit is negatively regulated by ethylene

Functional Plant Biology ◽

10.1071/fp08168 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 35 (12) ◽

pp. 1205 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sutin Kunyamee ◽

Saichol Ketsa ◽

Wachiraya Imsabai ◽

Wouter G. van Doorn

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Fruit Softening ◽

Fruit Firmness ◽

Mature Fruit ◽

Cell Wall Loosening ◽

Manilkara Zapota ◽

Genes Encoding ◽

Low Threshold ◽

Wall Loosening

After harvest, mature fruit of sapodilla (Manilkara zapota van Royen) exhibit rapid softening. The decrease in fruit firmness was hastened by ethylene and delayed by 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Two genes encoding expansins (called MzEXP1 and MzEXP2) were isolated. In both cultivars studied (Makok-Yai and Kra-Suay), MzEXP1 was transiently expressed early during fruit development on the plant. This suggests that it is involved in cell wall loosening during early fruit growth. In cv. Makok-Yai, MzEXP2 was expressed between 1 day before harvest and day 4 after harvest. In cv. Kra-Suay, the expression of MzEXP2 started 8 weeks before the normal harvest stage, and ended on day 3 after harvest. When the fruit of both cultivars was treated with ethylene (50 µL L−1 for 20 h at 25°C) just after harvest, the expression of MzEXP2 became undetectable. After treatment with 1-MCP MzEXP2 mRNA was highly abundant until day 5 after harvest, when in controls the transcript abundance had become undetectable. The onset of MzEXP2 expression seems not regulated by ethylene, as the concomitant ethylene levels are very low. The data strongly indicate that the decrease of MzEXP2 transcript abundance is due to ethylene production by the fruit, which is by then high. The expression of MzEXP2 ceased, both in controls and in ethylene-treated material, when the fruit had reached a rather low threshold firmness. The data suggest that the protein has a supporting and cooperative role in fruit softening.

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Knockdown of Arabidopsis ROOT UVB SENSITIVE4 Disrupts Anther Dehiscence by Suppressing Secondary Thickening in the Endothecium

Plant and Cell Physiology ◽

10.1093/pcp/pcz127 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 60 (10) ◽

pp. 2293-2306 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shu-Qing Zhao ◽

Wen-Chao Li ◽

Yi Zhang ◽

Alison C Tidy ◽

Zoe A Wilson

Keyword(s):

Cell Wall ◽

Secondary Wall ◽

Secondary Cell Wall ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Myb Transcription Factor ◽

Wall Thickening ◽

Floral Buds ◽

Highly Active ◽

Secondary Thickening ◽

Secondary Wall Thickening

Abstract ROOT UV-B SENSITIVE4 (RUS4) encodes a protein with no known function that contains a conserved Domain of Unknown Function 647 (DUF647). The DUF647-containing proteins RUS1 and RUS2 have previously been associated with root UV-B-sensing pathway that plays a major role in Arabidopsis early seedling morphogenesis and development. Here, we show that RUS4 knockdown Arabidopsis plants, referred to as amiR-RUS4, were severely reduced in male fertility with indehiscent anthers. Light microscopy of anther sections revealed a significantly reduced secondary wall thickening in the endothecium of amiR-RUS4 anthers. We further show that the transcript abundance of the NAC domain genes NAC SECONDARY WALL THICKENING PROMOTING FACTOR1 (NST1) and NST2, which have been shown to regulate the secondary cell wall thickenings in the anther endothecium, were dramatically reduced in the amiR-RUS4 floral buds. Expression of the secondary cell wall-associated MYB transcription factor genes MYB103 and MYB85 were also strongly reduced in floral buds of the amiR-RUS4 plants. Overexpression of RUS4 led to increased secondary thickening in the endothecium. However, the rus4-2 mutant exhibited no obvious phenotype. Promoter-GUS analysis revealed that the RUS4 promoter was highly active in the anthers, supporting its role in anther development. Taken together, these results suggest that RUS4, probably functions redundantly with other genes, may play an important role in the secondary thickening formation in the anther endothecium by indirectly affecting the expression of secondary cell wall biosynthetic genes.

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