scholarly journals ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ interferes with the distribution and uptake of iron in tomato

BMC Genomics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Buoso ◽  
Laura Pagliari ◽  
Rita Musetti ◽  
Marta Martini ◽  
Fabio Marroni ◽  
...  

Abstract Background ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ is endemic in Europe and infects a wide range of weeds and cultivated plants. Phytoplasmas are prokaryotic plant pathogens that colonize the sieve elements of their host plant, causing severe alterations in phloem function and impairment of assimilate translocation. Typical symptoms of infected plants include yellowing of leaves or shoots, leaf curling, and general stunting, but the molecular mechanisms underlying most of the reported changes remain largely enigmatic. To infer a possible involvement of Fe in the host-phytoplasma interaction, we investigated the effects of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ infection on tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom) grown under different Fe regimes. Results Both phytoplasma infection and Fe starvation led to the development of chlorotic leaves and altered thylakoid organization. In infected plants, Fe accumulated in phloem tissue, altering the local distribution of Fe. In infected plants, Fe starvation had additive effects on chlorophyll content and leaf chlorosis, suggesting that the two conditions affected the phenotypic readout via separate routes. To gain insights into the transcriptional response to phytoplasma infection, or Fe deficiency, transcriptome profiling was performed on midrib-enriched leaves. RNA-seq analysis revealed that both stress conditions altered the expression of a large (> 800) subset of common genes involved in photosynthetic light reactions, porphyrin / chlorophyll metabolism, and in flowering control. In Fe-deficient plants, phytoplasma infection perturbed the Fe deficiency response in roots, possibly by interference with the synthesis or transport of a promotive signal transmitted from the leaves to the roots. Conclusions ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma solani’ infection changes the Fe distribution in tomato leaves, affects the photosynthetic machinery and perturbs the orchestration of root-mediated transport processes by compromising shoot-to-root communication.

Microbiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 166 (10) ◽  
pp. 936-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Castillo-Castañeda ◽  
S. J. Cañas-Duarte ◽  
M. Guevara-Suarez ◽  
J. Guarro ◽  
S. Restrepo ◽  
...  

Some species of fusaria are well-known pathogens of humans, animals and plants. Fusarium oxysporum and Neocosmospora solani (formerly Fusarium solani) cause human infections that range from onychomycosis or keratitis to severe disseminated infections. In general, these infections are difficult to treat due to poor therapeutic responses in immunocompromised patients. Despite that, little is known about the molecular mechanisms and transcriptional changes responsible for the antifungal resistance in fusaria. To shed light on the transcriptional response to antifungals, we carried out the first reported high-throughput RNA-seq analysis for F. oxysporum and N. solani that had been exposed to amphotericin B (AMB) and posaconazole (PSC). We detected significant differences between the transcriptional profiles of the two species and we found that some oxidation-reduction, metabolic, cellular and transport processes were regulated differentially by both fungi. The same was found with several genes from the ergosterol synthesis, efflux pumps, oxidative stress response and membrane biosynthesis pathways. A significant up-regulation of the C-22 sterol desaturase (ERG5), the sterol 24-C-methyltransferase (ERG6) gene, the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene and of several members of the major facilitator superfamily (MSF) was demonstrated in this study after treating F. oxysporum with AMB. These results offer a good overview of transcriptional changes after exposure to commonly used antifungals, highlights the genes that are related to resistance mechanisms of these fungi, which will be a valuable tool for identifying causes of failure of treatments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-60
Author(s):  
Mohamed E.I. Badawy ◽  
Entsar I. Rabea ◽  
Samir A.M. Abdelgaleil

Background:Monoterpenes are the main constituents of the essential oils obtained from plants. These natural products offered wide spectra of biological activity and extensively tested against microbial pathogens and other agricultural pests.Methods:Antifungal activity of 10 monoterpenes, including two hydrocarbons (camphene and (S)- limonene) and eight oxygenated hydrocarbons ((R)-camphor, (R)-carvone, (S)-fenchone, geraniol, (R)-linalool, (+)-menthol, menthone, and thymol), was determined against fungi of Alternaria alternata, Botrytis cinerea, Botryodiplodia theobromae, Fusarium graminearum, Phoma exigua, Phytophthora infestans, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum by the mycelia radial growth technique. Subsequently, Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) analysis using different molecular descriptors with multiple regression analysis based on systematic search and LOOCV technique was performed. Moreover, pharmacophore modelling was carried out using LigandScout software to evaluate the common features essential for the activity and the hypothetical geometries adopted by these ligands in their most active forms.Results:The results showed that the antifungal activities were high, but depended on the chemical structure and the type of microorganism. Thymol showed the highest effect against all fungi tested with respective EC50 in the range of 10-86 mg/L. The QSAR study proved that the molecular descriptors HBA, MR, Pz, tPSA, and Vp were correlated positively with the biological activity in all of the best models with a correlation coefficient (r) ≥ 0.98 and cross-validated values (Q2) ≥ 0.77.Conclusion:The results of this work offer the opportunity to choose monoterpenes with preferential antimicrobial activity against a wide range of plant pathogens.


2008 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 577-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constanze Will ◽  
Michael Fromm ◽  
Dominik Müller

Claudins are essential components of the intercellular tight junction and major determinants of paracellular solute fluxes across epithelia and endothelia. Many members of this family display a distinct charge or size specificity, whereas others render the epithelium impermeable to transport. Due to intercellular localization, claudin-mediated transport processes are passive and driven by an electrochemical gradient. In epithelial tissues, claudins exhibit a temporal–spatial expression pattern corresponding with regional and local solute transport profiles. Whereas paracellular transport mechanisms in organs such as intestine and kidney have been extensively investigated, little is known about the molecular mechanisms determining solute transport in the peritoneum, and thus the determinants of peritoneal dialysis. Given the ubiquitous expression of claudins in endothelia and epithelia, it is predictable that claudins also contribute to pore formation and determination in the peritoneum, and that they are involved in solute flux. Therefore, we review the basic characteristics of claudin family members and their function as exemplified in renal tubular transport and give an outlook to what extent claudin family members might be of importance for solute reabsorption across the peritoneal membrane.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Pennisi ◽  
Giuseppe Lanza ◽  
Luca Falzone ◽  
Francesco Fisicaro ◽  
Raffaele Ferri ◽  
...  

Increasing evidence suggests that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) can also invade the central nervous system (CNS). However, findings available on its neurological manifestations and their pathogenic mechanisms have not yet been systematically addressed. A literature search on neurological complications reported in patients with COVID-19 until June 2020 produced a total of 23 studies. Overall, these papers report that patients may exhibit a wide range of neurological manifestations, including encephalopathy, encephalitis, seizures, cerebrovascular events, acute polyneuropathy, headache, hypogeusia, and hyposmia, as well as some non-specific symptoms. Whether these features can be an indirect and unspecific consequence of the pulmonary disease or a generalized inflammatory state on the CNS remains to be determined; also, they may rather reflect direct SARS-CoV-2-related neuronal damage. Hematogenous versus transsynaptic propagation, the role of the angiotensin II converting enzyme receptor-2, the spread across the blood-brain barrier, the impact of the hyperimmune response (the so-called “cytokine storm”), and the possibility of virus persistence within some CNS resident cells are still debated. The different levels and severity of neurotropism and neurovirulence in patients with COVID-19 might be explained by a combination of viral and host factors and by their interaction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 404-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrdad Alizadeh ◽  
Yalda Vasebi ◽  
Naser Safaie

AbstractThe purpose of this article was to give a comprehensive review of the published research works on biological control of different fungal, bacterial, and nematode plant diseases in Iran from 1992 to 2018. Plant pathogens cause economical loss in many agricultural products in Iran. In an attempt to prevent these serious losses, chemical control measures have usually been applied to reduce diseases in farms, gardens, and greenhouses. In recent decades, using the biological control against plant diseases has been considered as a beneficial and alternative method to chemical control due to its potential in integrated plant disease management as well as the increasing yield in an eco-friendly manner. Based on the reported studies, various species of Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, and Bacillus were the most common biocontrol agents with the ability to control the wide range of plant pathogens in Iran from lab to the greenhouse and field conditions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruijuan Du ◽  
Chuntian Huang ◽  
Kangdong Liu ◽  
Xiang Li ◽  
Zigang Dong

AbstractAurora kinase A (AURKA) belongs to the family of serine/threonine kinases, whose activation is necessary for cell division processes via regulation of mitosis. AURKA shows significantly higher expression in cancer tissues than in normal control tissues for multiple tumor types according to the TCGA database. Activation of AURKA has been demonstrated to play an important role in a wide range of cancers, and numerous AURKA substrates have been identified. AURKA-mediated phosphorylation can regulate the functions of AURKA substrates, some of which are mitosis regulators, tumor suppressors or oncogenes. In addition, enrichment of AURKA-interacting proteins with KEGG pathway and GO analysis have demonstrated that these proteins are involved in classic oncogenic pathways. All of this evidence favors the idea of AURKA as a target for cancer therapy, and some small molecules targeting AURKA have been discovered. These AURKA inhibitors (AKIs) have been tested in preclinical studies, and some of them have been subjected to clinical trials as monotherapies or in combination with classic chemotherapy or other targeted therapies.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1328
Author(s):  
Noushin Jahan ◽  
Yang Lv ◽  
Mengqiu Song ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Liangguang Shang ◽  
...  

Salinity is a major abiotic stressor that leads to productivity losses in rice (Oryza sativa L.). In this study, transcriptome profiling and heterosis-related genes were analyzed by ribonucleic acid sequencing (RNA-Seq) in seedlings of a mega rice hybrid, Liang-You-Pei-Jiu (LYP9), and its two parents 93–11 and Pei-ai64s (PA64s), under control and two different salinity levels, where we found 8292, 8037, and 631 salt-induced differentially expressed genes (DEGs), respectively. Heterosis-related DEGs were obtained higher after 14 days of salt treatment than after 7 days. There were 631 and 4237 salt-induced DEGs related to heterosis under 7-day and 14-day salt stresses, respectively. Gene functional classification showed the expression of genes involved in photosynthesis activity after 7-day stress treatment, and in metabolic and catabolic activity after 14 days. In addition, we correlated the concurrence of an expression of DEGs for the bHLH transcription factor and a shoot length/salinity-related quantitative trait locus qSL7 that we fine-mapped previously, providing a confirmed case of heterosis-related genes. This experiment reveals the transcriptomic divergence of the rice F1 hybrid and its parental lines under control and salt stress state, and enlightens about the significant molecular mechanisms developed over time in response to salt stress.


Biomedicines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Baolong Liu ◽  
Jiujiu Yu

The nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat related (NLR) family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a multimeric protein complex that recognizes various danger or stress signals from pathogens, the host, and the environment, leading to activation of caspase-1 and inducing inflammatory responses. This pro-inflammatory protein complex plays critical roles in pathogenesis of a wide range of diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, autoinflammatory diseases, and metabolic disorders. Therefore, intensive efforts have been devoted to understanding its activation mechanisms and to searching for its specific inhibitors. Approximately forty natural compounds with anti-NLRP3 inflammasome properties have been identified. Here, we provide an update about new natural compounds that have been identified within the last three years to inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome and offer an overview of the underlying molecular mechanisms of their anti-NLRP3 inflammasome activities.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 576
Author(s):  
Yanru Fan ◽  
Wanfeng Li ◽  
Zhexin Li ◽  
Shaofei Dang ◽  
Suying Han ◽  
...  

The study of somatic embryogenesis can provide insight into early plant development. We previously obtained LaMIR166a-overexpressing embryonic cell lines of Larix kaempferi (Lamb.) Carr. To further elucidate the molecular mechanisms associated with miR166 in this species, the transcriptional profiles of wild-type (WT) and three LaMIR166a-overexpressing transgenic cell lines were subjected to RNA sequencing using the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 system. In total, 203,256 unigenes were generated using Trinity de novo assembly, and 2467 differentially expressed genes were obtained by comparing transgenic and WT lines. In addition, we analyzed the cleaved degree of LaMIR166a target genes LaHDZ31–34 in different transgenic cell lines by detecting the expression pattern of LaHdZ31–34, and their cleaved degree in transgenic cell lines was higher than that in WT. The downstream genes of LaHDZ31–34 were identified using Pearson correlation coefficients. Yeast one-hybrid and dual-luciferase report assays revealed that the transcription factors LaHDZ31–34 could bind to the promoters of LaPAP, LaPP1, LaZFP5, and LaPHO1. This is the first report of gene expression changes caused by LaMIR166a overexpression in Japanese larch. These findings lay a foundation for future studies on the regulatory mechanism of miR166.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 4617
Author(s):  
Styliana Kyriakoudi ◽  
Anthi Drousiotou ◽  
Petros P. Petrou

Mitochondria are dynamic organelles, the morphology of which is tightly linked to their functions. The interplay between the coordinated events of fusion and fission that are collectively described as mitochondrial dynamics regulates mitochondrial morphology and adjusts mitochondrial function. Over the last few years, accruing evidence established a connection between dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics and disease development and progression. Defects in key components of the machinery mediating mitochondrial fusion and fission have been linked to a wide range of pathological conditions, such as insulin resistance and obesity, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Here, we provide an update on the molecular mechanisms promoting mitochondrial fusion and fission in mammals and discuss the emerging association of disturbed mitochondrial dynamics with human disease.


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