Stomata control is changed in a chlorophyll b-free barley mutant

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 453
Author(s):  
Elena V. Tyutereva ◽  
Valeria A. Dmitrieva ◽  
Alexey L. Shavarda ◽  
Olga V. Voitsekhovskaja

The barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) chlorina f2 3613 mutant exhibits low photosynthesis and slow growth. This results from downregulation of the levels of photosynthetic antenna proteins caused by the absence of chl b, the major regulator of photosynthetic antennae in land plants. Here, we demonstrate that, when grown in the field in full sunlight, this mutant displays a changed pattern of stomatal responses compared with the parental wild-type cultivar Donaria. However, stomatal regulation of chlorina f2 3613 plants was restored when plants were placed under a shade cover for several days. The shade cover reduced incident PAR from 2000–2200 μmol m–2 s–1 to 800–880 μmol m–2 s–1 as measured at noon. Contents of ABA, the xanthophyll precursors of ABA biosynthesis and minor antenna proteins, as well as reactive oxygen species levels in stomata and the sensitivity of stomata to exogenously supplied ABA, were determined in leaves of wild-type Donaria and chlorina f2 3613 before and after shading. The results support the view that the restoration of stomatal control in barley chlorina f2 3613 is correlated with an increase in the levels of the minor antenna protein Lhcb6, which has recently been implicated in the enhancement of stomatal sensitivity to ABA in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh.

Author(s):  
M. H. Wheeler ◽  
W. J. Tolmsoff ◽  
A. A. Bell

(+)-Scytalone [3,4-dihydro-3,6,8-trihydroxy-l-(2Hj-naphthalenone] and 1,8-di- hydroxynaphthalene (DHN) have been proposed as intermediates of melanin synthesis in the fungi Verticillium dahliae (1, 2, 3, 4) and Thielaviopsis basicola (4, 5). Scytalone is enzymatically dehydrated by V. dahliae to 1,3,8-trihydroxynaphthalene which is then reduced to (-)-vermelone [(-)-3,4- dihydro-3,8-dihydroxy-1(2H)-naphthalenone]. Vermelone is subsequently dehydrated to DHN which is enzymatically polymerized to melanin.Melanin formation in Curvularia sp., Alternaria sp., and Drechslera soro- kiniana was examined by light and electron-transmission microscopy. Wild-type isolates of each fungus were compared with albino mutants before and after treatment with 1 mM scytalone or 0.1 mM DHN in 50 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0. Both chemicals were converted to dark pigments in the walls of hyphae and conidia of the albino mutants. The darkened cells were similar in appearance to corresponding cells of the wild types under the light microscope.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Kimberly J. Nelson ◽  
Terri Messier ◽  
Stephanie Milczarek ◽  
Alexis Saaman ◽  
Stacie Beuschel ◽  
...  

A central hallmark of tumorigenesis is metabolic alterations that increase mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS). In response, cancer cells upregulate their antioxidant capacity and redox-responsive signaling pathways. A promising chemotherapeutic approach is to increase ROS to levels incompatible with tumor cell survival. Mitochondrial peroxiredoxin 3 (PRX3) plays a significant role in detoxifying hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). PRX3 is a molecular target of thiostrepton (TS), a natural product and FDA-approved antibiotic. TS inactivates PRX3 by covalently adducting its two catalytic cysteine residues and crosslinking the homodimer. Using cellular models of malignant mesothelioma, we show here that PRX3 expression and mROS levels in cells correlate with sensitivity to TS and that TS reacts selectively with PRX3 relative to other PRX isoforms. Using recombinant PRXs 1–5, we demonstrate that TS preferentially reacts with a reduced thiolate in the PRX3 dimer at mitochondrial pH. We also show that partially oxidized PRX3 fully dissociates to dimers, while partially oxidized PRX1 and PRX2 remain largely decameric. The ability of TS to react with engineered dimers of PRX1 and PRX2 at mitochondrial pH, but inefficiently with wild-type decameric protein at cytoplasmic pH, supports a novel mechanism of action and explains the specificity of TS for PRX3. Thus, the unique structure and propensity of PRX3 to form dimers contribute to its increased sensitivity to TS-mediated inactivation, making PRX3 a promising target for prooxidant cancer therapy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biz R. Turnell ◽  
Luisa Kumpitsch ◽  
Klaus Reinhardt

AbstractSperm aging is accelerated by the buildup of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which cause oxidative damage to various cellular components. Aging can be slowed by limiting the production of mitochondrial ROS and by increasing the production of antioxidants, both of which can be generated in the sperm cell itself or in the surrounding somatic tissues of the male and female reproductive tracts. However, few studies have compared the separate contributions of ROS production and ROS scavenging to sperm aging, or to cellular aging in general. We measured reproductive fitness in two lines of Drosophila melanogaster genetically engineered to (1) produce fewer ROS via expression of alternative oxidase (AOX), an alternative respiratory pathway; or (2) scavenge fewer ROS due to a loss-of-function mutation in the antioxidant gene dj-1β. Wild-type females mated to AOX males had increased fecundity and longer fertility durations, consistent with slower aging in AOX sperm. Contrary to expectations, fitness was not reduced in wild-type females mated to dj-1β males. Fecundity and fertility duration were increased in AOX and decreased in dj-1β females, indicating that female ROS levels may affect aging rates in stored sperm and/or eggs. Finally, we found evidence that accelerated aging in dj-1β sperm may have selected for more frequent mating. Our results help to clarify the relative roles of ROS production and ROS scavenging in the male and female reproductive systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Biz R. Turnell ◽  
Luisa Kumpitsch ◽  
Anne-Cécile Ribou ◽  
Klaus Reinhardt

Abstract Objective Sperm ageing has major evolutionary implications but has received comparatively little attention. Ageing in sperm and other cells is driven largely by oxidative damage from reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the mitochondria. Rates of organismal ageing differ across species and are theorized to be linked to somatic ROS levels. However, it is unknown whether sperm ageing rates are correlated with organismal ageing rates. Here, we investigate this question by comparing sperm ROS production in four lines of Drosophila melanogaster that have previously been shown to differ in somatic mitochondrial ROS production, including two commonly used wild-type lines and two lines with genetic modifications standardly used in ageing research. Results Somatic ROS production was previously shown to be lower in wild-type Oregon-R than in wild-type Dahomey flies; decreased by the expression of alternative oxidase (AOX), a protein that shortens the electron transport chain; and increased by a loss-of-function mutation in dj-1β, a gene involved in ROS scavenging. Contrary to predictions, we found no differences among these four lines in the rate of sperm ROS production. We discuss the implications of our results, the limitations of our study, and possible directions for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yağmur Demircan Yalçın ◽  
Taylan Berkin Töral ◽  
Sertan Sukas ◽  
Ender Yıldırım ◽  
Özge Zorlu ◽  
...  

AbstractWe report the development of a lab-on-a-chip system, that facilitates coupled dielectrophoretic detection (DEP-D) and impedimetric counting (IM-C), for investigating drug resistance in K562 and CCRF-CEM leukemia cells without (immuno) labeling. Two IM-C units were placed upstream and downstream of the DEP-D unit for enumeration, respectively, before and after the cells were treated in DEP-D unit, where the difference in cell count gave the total number of trapped cells based on their DEP characteristics. Conductivity of the running buffer was matched the conductivity of cytoplasm of wild type K562 and CCRF-CEM cells. Results showed that DEP responses of drug resistant and wild type K562 cells were statistically discriminative (at p = 0.05 level) at 200 mS/m buffer conductivity and at 8.6 MHz working frequency of DEP-D unit. For CCRF-CEM cells, conductivity and frequency values were 160 mS/m and 6.2 MHz, respectively. Our approach enabled discrimination of resistant cells in a group by setting up a threshold provided by the conductivity of running buffer. Subsequent selection of drug resistant cells can be applied to investigate variations in gene expressions and occurrence of mutations related to drug resistance.


Genetics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Mitsuzawa

Abstract The Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain P-28-24C, from which cAMP requiring mutants derived, responded to exogenously added cAMP. Upon the addition of cAMP, this strain showed phenotypes shared by mutants with elevated activity of the cAMP pathway. Genetic analysis involving serial crosses of this strain to a strain with another genetic background revealed that the responsiveness to cAMP results from naturally occurring loss-of-function alleles of PDE1 and PDE2, which encode low and high affinity cAMP phosphodiesterases, respectively. In addition, P-28-24C was found to carry a mutation conferring slow growth that lies in CYR1, which encodes adenylate cyclase, and the slow growth phenotype caused by the cyr1 mutation was suppressed by the pde2 mutation. Therefore P-28-24C is fortuitously a pde1 pde2 cyr1 triple mutant. Responsiveness to cAMP conferred by pde mutations suggests that S. cerevisiae cells are permeable to cAMP to some extent and that the apparent absence of effect of exogenously added cAMP on wild-type cells is due to immediate degradation by cAMP phosphodiesterases.


Molecules ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Guberman-Pfeffer ◽  
José Gascón

Multichromophoric interactions control the initial events of energy capture and transfer in the light harvesting peridinin-chlorophyll a protein (PCP) from marine algae dinoflagellates. Due to the van der Waals association of the carotenoid peridinin (Per) with chlorophyll a in a unique 4:1 stoichiometric ratio, supramolecular quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations are essential to accurately describe structure, spectroscopy, and electronic coupling. We show that, by enabling inter-chromophore electronic coupling, substantial effects arise in the nature of the transition dipole moment and the absorption spectrum. We further hypothesize that inter-protein domain Per-Per interactions are not negligible, and are needed to explain the experimental reconstruction features of the spectrum in wild-type PCP.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Song ◽  
Feng Chen ◽  
Xi Wu ◽  
Min Hu ◽  
Qingliu Geng ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract Iron (Fe) is an indispensable mineral element for normal growth of plants. Fe deficiency induces a complex series of responses in plants, involving physiological and developmental changes, to increase Fe uptake from soil. However, the molecular mechanism involved in plant Fe-deficiency is not well understood. Here, we found that the MNB1 gene is involved in modulating Fe-deficiency response in Arabidopsis thaliana . The expression of MNB1 was inhabited by Fe-deficiency stress. Knockout of MNB1 led to enhanced Fe accumulation and tolerance, whereas the MNB1-overexpressing plants were sensitive to Fe-deficiency stress. Lower H 2 O 2 concentrations in mnb1 mutant plants were examined under Fe deficiency circumstances compared to wild-type. On the contray, higher H 2 O 2 concentrations were found in MNB1-overexpressing plants, which was adversely linked with malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations. Furthermore, in mnb1 mutants, the transcription level of the Fe-uptake and translocation genes, FIT , IRT1 , FRO2 , Z IF , FRD3 , NAS4 , PYE and MYB72 , were considerably elevated during Fe-deficiency stress, resulting in higher Fe accumulation. Together, our findings show that the MNB1 gene negatively controls the Fe-deficiency response in Arabidopsis via modulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and the ROS-mediated signaling pathway, thereby affecting the expression of Fe-uptake and translocation genes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge C.G. Blanco ◽  
Lori McGinnes-Cullen ◽  
Arash Kamali ◽  
Fatoumata Sylla ◽  
Marina Boukhavalova ◽  
...  

Maternal anti-respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) antibodies acquired by the fetus through the placenta protect neonates from RSV disease through the first weeks of life.  In the cotton rat model of RSV infections, we previously reported that immunization of dams during pregnancy with virus-like particles assembled with mutation stabilized pre-fusion F protein as well as the wild type G protein resulted in robust protection of their offspring from RSV challenge (Blanco, et al Journal of Virology 93: e00914-19, https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00914-19).  Here we describe the durability of those protective responses in dams, the durability of protection in offspring, and the transfer of that protection to offspring of two consecutive pregnancies without a second boost immunization.  We report that four weeks after birth, offspring of the first pregnancy were significantly protected from RSV replication in both lungs and nasal tissues after RSV challenge, but protection was reduced in pups at 6 weeks after birth.   However, the overall protection of offspring of the second pregnancy was considerably reduced, even at four weeks of age.  This drop in protection occurred even though the levels of total anti-pre-F IgG and neutralizing antibody titers in dams remained at similar, high levels before and after the second pregnancy.  The results are consistent with an evolution of antibody properties in dams to populations less efficiently transferred to offspring or the less efficient transfer of antibodies in elderly dams.


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