Desiccation sensitivity and cell cycle aspects in seeds of Inga vera subsp. affinis

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Marcio Rocha Faria ◽  
André A.M. van Lammeren ◽  
Henk W.M. Hilhorst

The desiccation sensitivity of seeds ofInga veraWilld. subsp.affinis, a recalcitrant-seeded tree from Brazil, was analysed, focusing on water relations and cell-cycle aspects, including DNA content and the microtubular cytoskeleton. Seeds were collected at four developmental stages, dried to different moisture contents (MCs), assessed regarding water activity and set to germinate. Samples of fresh (non-dried) developing and mature seeds were used for assessment of DNA content by flow cytometry. Immunohistochemical detection of microtubules (MTs) was done in mature seeds at different MCs. Slight desiccation of immature seeds increased germination, but further drying resulted in a quick decline of germinability. During seed development the desiccation sensitivity decreased slightly, but DNA content of the embryonic axis cells remained constant, suggesting no relation between those two parameters. Embryonic axis cells of mature seeds showed abundant cortical microtubule arrays, which were not affected by mild desiccation, but broken down by further drying. It appeared that, upon rehydration, damaged cells were not able to reconstitute the microtubular cytoskeleton. The failure of germination ofInga veraseeds after drying could not be attributed to cellular damage to DNA synthesis and mitosis, since the radicle protruded by means of cell elongation, without a need for cell division. However, the breakdown of MTs during desiccation, and their subsequent inability to reassemble upon rehydration, may be related to the decreased germination, since MTs are required for cell elongation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra M. Staszak ◽  
Monika Rewers ◽  
Elwira Sliwinska ◽  
Ewelina A. Klupczynska ◽  
Tomasz A. Pawlowski

Mature seeds of Norway maple exhibit desiccation tolerance and deep physiological dormancy. Flow cytometry, proteomics, and immunodetection have been combined to investigate seed development of this species. DNA content analysis revealed that cell cycle/endoreduplication activity differs between seed organs and developmental stages. In the embryo axis, the proportion of the nuclei with the highest DNA content (4C) increases at the beginning of maturation (17 weeks after flowering; WAF), and then is stable until the end of maturation, to increase again after drying. In cotyledons, during maturation endopolyploid nuclei (8C) occur and the intensity of endoreduplication increases up to 21 WAF, and then is stable until development is completed. In dry mature seeds, the proportion of 4C nuclei is high, and reaches 36% in the embryo axis and 52% in cotyledons. Proteomic studies revealed that energy and carbon metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, storage and antioxidant proteins are associated with seed development. Study of the ABI5 protein, a transcription factor involved in ABA signalling, and the RGL2 protein, a repressor of the GA signalling indicates that the highest accumulation of these proteins occurs in fully-matured and dried seeds. It is suggested that this increase in accumulation can be associated with completion of maturation, mainly with desiccation and dormancy acquisition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Berjak ◽  
Christina W. Vertucci ◽  
N. W. Pammenter

AbstractThe effect of rate of dehydration was assessed for embryonic axes from mature seeds of Camellia sinensis and the desiccation sensitivity of axes of different developmental stages was estimated using electrolyte leakage. Rapidly (flash) dried excised axes suffered desiccation damage at lower water contents (0.4 g H2O (g DW)−1) than axes dried more slowly in the whole seed (0.9 g H2O (g DW)−1). It is possible that flash drying of isolated axes imposes a stasis on deteriorative reactions that does not occur during slower dehydration. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) of the axes indicated that the enthalpy of the melting and the amount of non-freezable water were similar, irrespective of the drying rate.Very immature axes that had completed morphogenesis and histodifferentiation only were more sensitive to desiccation (damage at 0.7 g H2O (g DW)−1) than mature axes or axes that were in the growth and reserve accumulation phase (damage at 0.4 g H2O (g DW)−1). As axes developed from maturity to germination, their threshold desiccation sensitivity increased to a higher level (1.3−1.4 g H2O (g DW)−1). For the very immature axes, enthalpy of the melting of tissue water was much lower, and the level of non-freezable water considerably higher, than for any other developmental stage studied.There were no marked correlations between desiccation sensitivity and thermal properties of water. Desiccation sensitivity appears to be related more to the degree of metabolic activity evidenced by ultrastructural characteristics than to the physical properties of water.


Author(s):  
Lucia De Marchi ◽  
Carlo Pretti ◽  
Alessia Cuccaro ◽  
Matteo Oliva ◽  
Federica Tardelli ◽  
...  

AbstractThe phylum Porifera and their symbionts produce a wide variety of bioactive compounds, playing a central role in their ecology and evolution. In this study, four different extracts (obtained by non-polar and semi-polar extraction methodologies) of the Mediterranean sponge Ircinia oros were tested through a multi-bioassay integrated approach to assess their antifouling potential. Tests were performed using three common species, associated with three different endpoints: the marine bacterium Aliivibrio fischeri (inhibition of bioluminescence), the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum (inhibition of growth), and different development stages of the brackish water serpulid Ficopomatus enigmaticus (gametes: sperm motion, vitality inhibition and cellular damage; larvae: development; adults: AChE (acetylcholinesterase)-inhibitory activity). The effects of extracts were species specific and did not vary among different extraction methodologies. In particular, no significant reduction of bioluminescence of A. fischeri was observed for all tested samples. By contrast, extracts inhibited P. tricornutum growth and had toxic effects on different F. enigmaticus’ developmental stages. Our results suggest that the proposed test battery can be considered a suitable tool as bioactivity screening of marine natural products.


Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 155 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-631
Author(s):  
Junko Kanoh ◽  
Paul Russell

Abstract In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, as in other eukaryotic cells, Cdc2/cyclin B complex is the key regulator of mitosis. Perhaps the most important regulation of Cdc2 is the inhibitory phosphorylation of tyrosine-15 that is catalyzed by Wee1 and Mik1. Cdc25 and Pyp3 phosphatases dephosphorylate tyrosine-15 and activate Cdc2. To isolate novel activators of Cdc2 kinase, we screened synthetic lethal mutants in a cdc25-22 background at the permissive temperature (25°). One of the genes, slm9, encodes a novel protein of 807 amino acids. Slm9 is most similar to Hir2, the histone gene regulator in budding yeast. Slm9 protein level is constant and Slm9 is localized to the nucleus throughout the cell cycle. The slm9 disruptant is delayed at the G2-M transition as indicated by cell elongation and analysis of DNA content. Inactivation of Wee1 fully suppressed the cell elongation phenotype caused by the slm9 mutation. The slm9 mutant is defective in recovery from G1 arrest after nitrogen starvation. The slm9 mutant is also UV sensitive, showing a defect in recovery from the cell cycle arrest after UV irradiation.


1993 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. de la Hoz ◽  
A. Baroja

The presence of high-ploidy cells in malignant tumours has long been documented. However, the biological significance of these cells is not known and there is a great deal of controversy over their proliferative potential. We have analysed the behaviour of these cells in two murine tumour lines, B16F10 melanoma and 3T3A31M angiosarcoma, determining their DNA content by microspectrophotometry and using time-lapse film studies. We have found a discrepancy between the presence of high-ploidy cells in metaphase and the absence of hyperploid telophases. High-ploidy metaphases may be aborted (mitotic polyploidization), prolonged in time or evolve in the form of multipolar, generally tripolar, mitoses. Our results suggest that high-ploidy cells are capable of proliferating, despite certain peculiarities in their cell cycle, and constitute a tumour subpopulation whose role in neoplasia merits further study.


Development ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 699-709 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.M. Schroeder ◽  
D.L. Gard

Anti-tubulin antibodies and confocal immunofluorescence microscopy were used to examine the organization and regulation of cytoplasmic and cortical microtubules during the first cell cycle of fertilized Xenopus eggs. Appearance of microtubules in the egg cortex temporally coincided with the outgrowth of the sperm aster. Microtubules of the sperm aster first reached the animal cortex at 0.25, (times normalized to first cleavage), forming a radially organized array of cortical microtubules. A disordered network of microtubules was apparent in the vegetal cortex as early as 0.35. Cortical microtubule networks of both animal and vegetal hemispheres were reorganized at times corresponding to the cortical rotation responsible for specification of the dorsal-ventral (D-V) axis. Optical sections suggest that the cortical microtubules are continuous with the microtubules of the sperm aster in fertilized eggs, or an extensive activation aster in activated eggs. Neither assembly and organization, nor disassembly of the cortical microtubules coincided with MPF activation during mitosis. However, cycloheximide or 6-dimethylaminopurine, which arrest fertilized eggs at interphase, blocked cortical microtubule disassembly. Injection of p13, a protein that specifically inhibits MPF activation, delayed or inhibited cortical microtubule breakdown. In contrast, eggs injected with cyc delta 90, a truncated cyclin that arrest eggs in M-phase, showed normal microtubule disassembly. Finally, injection of partially purified MPF into cycloheximide-arrested eggs induced cortical microtubule breakdown. These results suggest that, despite a lack of temporal coincidence, breakdown of the cortical microtubules is dependent on the activation of MPF.


Many components of cell and nuclear size and mass are correlated with nuclear DNA content in plants, as also are the durations and rates of such developmental processes as mitosis and meiosis. It is suggested that the multiple effects of the mass of nuclear DNA which affect all cells and apply throughout the life of the plant can together determine the minimum generation time for each species. The durations of mitosis and of meiosis are both positively correlated with nuclear DNA content and, therefore, species with a short minimum generation time might be expected to have a shorter mean cell cycle time and mean meiotic duration, and a lower mean nuclear DNA content, than species with a long mean minimum generation time. In tests of this hypothesis, using data collated from the literature, it is shown that the mean cell cycle time and the mean meiotic duration in annual species is significantly shorter than in perennial species. Furthermore, the mean nuclear DNA content of annual species is significantly lower than for perennial species both in dicotyledons and monocotyledons. Ephemeral species have a significantly lower mean nuclear DNA content than annual species. Among perennial monocotyledons the mean nuclear DNA content of species which can complete a life cycle within one year (facultative perennials) is significantly lower than the mean nuclear DNA content of those which cannot (obligate perennials). However, the mean nuclear DNA content of facultative perennials does not differ significantly from the mean for annual species. It is suggested that the effects of nuclear DNA content on the duration of developmental processes are most obvious during its determinant stages, and that the largest effects of nuclear DNA mass are expressed at times when development is slowest, for instance, during meiosis or at low temperature. It has been suggested that DNA influences development in two ways, directly through its informational content, and indirectly by the physical-mechanical effects of its mass. The term 'nucleotype' is used to describe those conditions of the nucleus which effect the phenotype independently of the informational content of the DNA. It is suggested that cell cycle time, meiotic duration, and minimum generation time are determined by the nucleotype. In addition, it may be that satellite DNA is significant in its nucleotypic effects on developmental processes.


Development ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 253-266
Author(s):  
P. P. L. Tam

The caudal end of the embryonic axis consists of the primitive streak and the tail bud. Small fragments of this caudal tissue were transplanted from mouse embryos of various developmental stages to the kidney capsule in order to test their histogenetic capacity. The variety of mature tissues obtained from these small fragments was similar to that obtained by grafting a larger caudal portion of the embryo. Initially, the grafted tissue broke up into loose masses of embryonic mesenchyme and this was later re-organized into more compact tissues and into cysts that were lined with various types of epithelia. After 14 days in the ectopic site, grafted tissues coming from embryos of the primitive-streak, the early-somite and the forelimb-bud stages differentiated into structures that has presumably originated from the three embryonic germ layers. Many of these structures were related to the caudal region of the adult body, such as the mid- and hindgut segments and urogenital derivatives. The histogenetic capacity for endodermal tissues and urogenital organs was lost when the grafted tissue consisted entirely of the tail bud of the hindlimb-bud-stage embryos. The behaviour of the caudal tissues suggested that (1) the primordia for the various parts of embryonic body were derived from a small progenitor population in the primitive streak and the tail bud, and (2) the histogenetic capacity of this population changed during development.


PROTOPLASMA ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. González-Bernáldez ◽  
J. F. López-Sáez ◽  
G. García-Ferrero

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