Sporobolus stapfianus, a model desiccation-tolerant grass

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald F. Gaff ◽  
Cecilia K. Blomstedt ◽  
Alan D. Neale ◽  
Tuan N. Le ◽  
John D. Hamill ◽  
...  

Sporobolus stapfianus Gandoger, one of ~40 known ‘anabiotic’grass species (i.e. ‘able to regain vital activity from a state of latent life’), is the most versatile tool for research into desiccation tolerance in vegetative grass tissue. Current knowledge on this species is presented, including the features that suit it for investigations into the plant’s ability to survive dehydration of its leaf protoplasm. The main contributors to desiccation tolerance in S. stapfianus leaves appear to be: accumulation during dehydration of protectants of membranes and proteins; mechanisms limiting oxidative damage; a retention of protein synthetic activity in late stages of drying that is linked with changes in gene expression and in the proteomic array; and an ability to retain net synthesis of ATP during drying. S. stapfianus exemplifies an advanced stage of an evolutionary trend in desiccation tolerant plants towards increased importance of the dehydration phase (for induction of tolerance, for synthesis of protectants and for proteomic changes).

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 435-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin J. Oliver ◽  
Jill M. Farrant ◽  
Henk W.M. Hilhorst ◽  
Sagadevan Mundree ◽  
Brett Williams ◽  
...  

Desiccation of plants is often lethal but is tolerated by the majority of seeds and by vegetative tissues of only a small number of land plants. Desiccation tolerance is an ancient trait, lost from vegetative tissues following the appearance of tracheids but reappearing in several lineages when selection pressures favored its evolution. Cells of all desiccation-tolerant plants and seeds must possess a core set of mechanisms to protect them from desiccation- and rehydration-induced damage. This review explores how desiccation generates cell damage and how tolerant cells assuage the complex array of mechanical, structural, metabolic, and chemical stresses and survive.Likewise, the stress of rehydration requires appropriate mitigating cellular responses. We also explore what comparative genomics, both structural and responsive, have added to our understanding of cellular protection mechanisms induced by desiccation, and how vegetative desiccation tolerance circumvents destructive, stress-induced cell senescence.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuan Ngoc Le ◽  
Cecilia K. Blomstedt ◽  
Jianbo Kuang ◽  
Jennifer Tenlen ◽  
Donald F. Gaff ◽  
...  

The desiccation tolerant grass Sporobolus stapfianus Gandoger can modulate cellular processes to prevent the imposition of irreversible damage to cellular components by water deficit. The cellular processes conferring this ability are rapidly attenuated by increased water availability. This resurrection plant can quickly restore normal metabolism. Even after loss of more than 95% of its total water content, full rehydration and growth resumption can occur within 24 h. To study the molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in S. stapfianus, a cDNA library constructed from dehydration-stressed leaf tissue, was differentially screened in a manner designed to identify genes with an adaptive role in desiccation tolerance. Further characterisation of four of the genes isolated revealed they are strongly up-regulated by severe dehydration stress and only in desiccation-tolerant tissue, with three of these genes not being expressed at detectable levels in hydrated or dehydrating desiccation-sensitive tissue. The nature of the putative proteins encoded by these genes are suggestive of molecular processes associated with protecting the plant against damage caused by desiccation and include a novel LEA-like protein, and a pore-like protein that may play an important role in peroxisome function during drought stress. A third gene product has similarity to a nuclear-localised protein implicated in chromatin remodelling. In addition, a UDPglucose glucosyltransferase gene has been identified that may play a role in controlling the bioactivity of plant hormones or secondary metabolites during drought stress.


1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 617 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.F. Gaff ◽  
D. Bartels ◽  
J.L. Gaff

For the first time in the grasses, a desiccation-tolerant species (Sporobolus stapfianus) was examined for evidence of drought-induced changes in gene transcription. Desiccation tolerance (the ability of this species to recover from a water potential of –540 MPa) is induced in the resurrection grass during the drying process itself. Specific mRNA was compared in extracts of air-dry, drying and fully hydrated leaves by comparisons of the encoded proteins translated in vitro and partitioned by 2- dimensional electrophoresis. Forty-one genes, that were not expressed in hydrated leaves, were transcribed during drying, whereas only 25 novel polypeptides (translated in vitro) were detected; this suggests that gene expression was controlled mainly at the transcriptional level, but possibly also at the translational level. Leaves of S. stapfianus become desiccation tolerant as they dry on intact plants with mechanically undisturbed roots, whereas leaves on plants whose roots have been disturbed die during drying. Complements of mRNA from live S. stapfianus leaves changed markedly from full hydration to 70% RWC and to air-dryness; they also differed markedly from drought-sensitive leaves (on plants with disturbed roots) at 70% RWC and dead air-dry S. stapfianus leaves and from leaves of the desiccation sensitive grass S. pyramidalis at the same water contents. Drought-induced injury could not be attributed to low abundance of mRNA in either species. Five criteria which might be involved in desiccation tolerance were applied to specific in vitro proteins of S. stapfianus; 12 novel proteins correlated with desiccation tolerance in a least four of the five criteria.


2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid R. Ghasempour ◽  
Esther M. Anderson ◽  
Donald F. Gaff

Hydrated leaves of the resurrection grass Sporobolus stapfianus Gandoger are not desiccation tolerant, but moderate to severe drought stress can induce their desiccation tolerance while the leaves remain attached to drying intact plants. Free-cell suspensions prepared from fully turgid leaves of S. stapfianus were also found to be desiccation-sensitive. In this study a sensitive assay was developed to determine the effect of exogenous substances on the protoplasmic drought tolerance (PDT) of cell suspensions. Suspended cells were incubated with a wide variety of individual plant growth substances over a range of concentrations. After the incubation, the protoplasmic drought tolerance at each concentration of each substance was determined osmotically. Brassinolide (BR) and methyljasmonic acid (MJA), applied separately, gave the greatest effect — each improved PDT by approximately 6 MPa, compared with controls incubated without growth substances. Exogenous abscisic acid (ABA) improved the PDT of S. stapfianus only slightly (about 1 MPa). Salicylic acid (SA), 1-aminocyclopropane–1-carboxylic acid (ACC), ethephon, gibberellic acid (GA), kinetin (KN) andN 6 -(2-isopentyl)adenine (2ip) each improved PDT by ca 1.5 MPa. Indoleacetic acid (IAA) had no effect, and zeatin (ZN) had a deleterious effect on PDT. Incubation of suspended cells in combinations of two growth substances (MJA with ABA, ACC, BR, GA, IAA or KN; BR with ABA) produced no evidence of synergism, or in most cases, even of additive effects of the tested substances. ABA, BR and MJA (applied separately) stimulated the synthesis of numerous specific proteins. Each growth substance stimulated the synthesis of differing proteins, with four exceptions. This investigation raises the possibility that BR and MJA may play a role in a chain of events which leads eventually to the induction of desiccation tolerance in leaves of S. stapfianus. The effects on cell PDT observed in this study, while large, were insufficient to account for the remarkable improvement observed in the PDT of S. stapfianus leaves attached to drying plants.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1231-1248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin J. Oliver ◽  
Lining Guo ◽  
Danny C. Alexander ◽  
John A. Ryals ◽  
Bernard W.M. Wone ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Draghiciu ◽  
Hans W. Nijman ◽  
Toos Daemen

Unraveling the mechanisms used by the immune system to fight cancer development is one of the most ambitious undertakings in immunology. Detailed knowledge regarding the mechanisms of induction of tolerance and immunosuppression within the tumor microenvironment will contribute to the development of highly effective tumor eradication strategies. Research within the last few decades has shed more light on the matter. This paper aims to give an overview on the current knowledge of the main tolerance and immunosuppression mechanisms elicited within the tumor microenvironment, with the focus on development of effective immunotherapeutic strategies to improve homing and activity of immune effector cells to tumors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinícius Lopes Braga ◽  
Wladimir Bocca Vieira de Rezende Pinto ◽  
Bruno de Mattos Lombardi Badia ◽  
José Marcos Vieira de Albuquerque Filho ◽  
Igor Braga Farias ◽  
...  

Context: Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) represent an expanding group of neurodegenerative diseases characterized mainly by progressive spastic paraparesis of the lower limbs. More than 80 different genetic loci have been associated with HSPs. In 2015, heterozygous pathogenic variants in the CPT1C gene were first associated with SPG73, not yet described in Brazilian patients. Objective: We present clinical, neuroimaging and genetic features of three Brazilian patients with SPG73. Cases reports: We report one male and two female patients, age range 36 to 78 years old. Case 1 presented with a 4-year-history of spasticity, predominantly crural tetraplegia, bladder incontinence, dysphagia and dysphonia. Family history disclosed a sister with epilepsy. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) disclosed a heterozygosis variant c.863G>A (p.Arg288His) in exon 9 of the CPT1C. Cases 2 and 3 are first degree relatives (mother and son). Both presented with long-standing slowly progressive spastic paraplegia. Case 3 presented bladder incontinence, constipation, dysphagia and dysphonia at late stages. Cases 2 and 3 WES disclosed the heterozygosis variant c.196T>G (p.Phe66Val) in exon 4 of the CPT1C. Discussion: Previous literature described six patients from an Italian family with pure HSPs phenotype and the pathogenic variant c.109C>G (p.Arg3. 7Cys) in CPT1C gene. Another group described three patients associated with pure HSPs phenotype and the pathogenic variant (c.226C>T) in the CPT1C gene. All previous reported cases had benign clinical course and bulbar involvement was not described before. One of our cases presented with a de novo variant and rapidly progressive motor and bulbar compromise. Conclusion: our cases expand the current knowledge about SPG73, including a rapidly progressive phenotype with bulbar involvement and cognitive compromise at late stages of disease course.


Author(s):  
Tsanko Gechev ◽  
Rafe Lyall ◽  
Veselin Petrov ◽  
Dorothea Bartels

AbstractPlant species that exhibit vegetative desiccation tolerance can survive extreme desiccation for months and resume normal physiological activities upon re-watering. Here we survey the recent knowledge gathered from the sequenced genomes of angiosperm and non-angiosperm desiccation-tolerant plants (resurrection plants) and highlight some distinct genes and gene families that are central to the desiccation response. Furthermore, we review the vast amount of data accumulated from analyses of transcriptomes and metabolomes of resurrection species exposed to desiccation and subsequent rehydration, which allows us to build a systems biology view on the molecular and genetic mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in plants.


Author(s):  
Rui Ren ◽  
Wanjie Hu ◽  
Jianjun Dong ◽  
Bo Sun ◽  
Yicun Chen ◽  
...  

Ever-growing globalization and industrialization put forward impending requirements for green and sustainable logistics (G&SL). Over the past decades, G&SL initiatives triggered worldwide deliberations, aiming at easing negative transport externalities and improving supply chain performance. This review-based paper attempts to offer a joint quantitative and qualitative understanding for the overall evolutionary trend, knowledge structure, and literature gaps of the G&SL research field. Employing the science mapping approach, a total of 306 major paper published from 1999 to 2019 were retrieved, elaborated on, and synthesized. Visualized statistics regarding publication years, journal allocation/co-citation, inter-country/institution collaboration, influential articles, co-occurred keywords, and time view clusters of research themes were analyzed bibliographically. On this basis, a total of 50 sub-branches of G&SL knowledge were classified and thematically discussed based on five alignments, namely (i) social-environmental-economic research, (ii) planning, policy and management, (iii) application and practice, (iv) technology, and (v) operations research. Finally, the current knowledge obstacles and the future research opportunities were suggested. The findings contribute to portray a systematic intellectual prospect for the state quo, hotspots, and academic frontiers of G&SL research. Moreover, it provides researchers and practitioners with heuristic thoughts to govern transportation ecology and logistics service quality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman Liebe ◽  
Piotr Milkiewicz ◽  
Marek Krawczyk ◽  
Leonilde Bonfrate ◽  
Piero Portincasa ◽  
...  

Gallbladder cancer (GbCa) is the most frequent malignancy of the biliary tract. It is also the 6th most common gastrointestinal tumor. It is associated with very high lethality, mainly due to the lack of symptoms up to a very late and thus incurable state. As many as 80% of patients are diagnosed at very late stages of disease, which allow only palliative therapy. As a result, most of the patients with GbCa will die within 6 months of the diagnosis, hence the average 5-year survival does not exceed 5%. Currently, surgical resection represents the only curative option in GbCa, but this approach is feasible only at an early stage of the disease. Other oncologic therapies are of limited use. The incidence of GbCa is remarkably increased in certain populations such as Native North Americans, South Indian females and, in Europe, in the Polish population. It is not clear to date if these enhanced risk populations are the result of common environmental exposure or of shared genetic risk factors. In this review we provide an overview of the state-of-art in GbCa research with the focus on the current knowledge concerning genetic and environmental triggers of this tumor.


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