Permeabilized Arabidopsis protoplasts provide new insight into the chromatin structure of plant alcohol dehydrogenase genes

Glucose-regulated protein 94 facilitates the proliferation of the Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus via inhibiting apoptosis

Glucose regulatory protein 94 (GRP94) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident member of the heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) family, that plays an important role in secreted protein folding. Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) is one of the main pathogens in sericulture, causing serious economic losses every year. Previous studies showed that HSP90 members promote BmNPV replication in silkworm, but the function of BmGRP94 in BmNPV infection and proliferation is still not understood. In this study, we investigated the interplay between BmGRP94 and BmNPV infection in silkworm. We first identified a single gene of BmGRP94 in the Bombyx mori genome, which encodes a polypeptide with 810 amino acids in length. Spatio-temporal expression profiles showed that BmGRP94 was highly expressed in hemocytes and midgut, and was significantly induced by BmNPV infection. Furthermore, overexpression of BmGRP94 facilitates viral proliferation, while BmGRP94 inhibition evidently decreased BmNPV proliferation in BmN cells and in silkworm midgut. Mechanistically, BmGRP94 inhibition triggers ER stress, as judged by increased expression of PERK/ATF4/ERO1, H2O2 production, and ER calcium efflux, which promotes cell apoptosis to restrict BmNPV replication in silkworm. These results suggest that BmGRP94 plays an important role in facilitating BmNPV proliferation, and provides a potential molecular target for BmNPV prevention.

A novel zinc-binding alcohol dehydrogenase 2 from Arachis diogoi, expressed in resistance responses against late leaf spot pathogen, induces cell death when transexpressed in tobacco

A novel zinc-binding alcohol dehydrogenase 2 (AdZADH2) was significantly upregulated in a wild peanut, Arachis diogoi treated with conidia of late leaf spot (LLS) pathogen, Phaeoisariopsis personata. This upregulation was not observed in a comparative analysis of cultivated peanut, which is highly susceptible to LLS. This zinc-binding alcohol dehydrogenase possessed a Rossmann fold containing NADB domain in addition to the MDR domain present in all previously characterized plant ADH genes/proteins. Transient over-expression of AdZADH2 under an estradiol inducible promoter (XVE) resulted in hypersensitive response (HR)-like cell death in tobacco leaf. However, the same level of cell death was not observed when the domains were transiently expressed individually. Cell death observed in tobacco was associated with overexpression of cell death related proteins, antioxidative enzymes such as SOD, CAT and APX and pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins. In A. diogoi, AdZADH2 expression was significantly upregulated in response to the plant signaling hormones salicylic acid, methyl jasmonate, and sodium nitroprusside.

Agrobacterium T-DNA integration in Arabidopsis is correlated with DNA sequence compositions that occur frequently in gene promoter regions

Mobile insertion elements such as transposons and T-DNA generate useful genetic variation and are important tools for functional genomics studies in plants and animals. The spectrum of mutations obtained in different systems can be highly influenced by target site preferences inherent in the mechanism of DNA integration. We investigated the target site preferences of Agrobacterium T-DNA insertions in the chromosomes of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The relative frequencies of insertions in genic and intergenic regions of the genome were calculated and DNA composition features associated with the insertion site flanking sequences were identified. Insertion frequencies across the genome indicate that T-strand integration is suppressed near centromeres and rDNA loci, progressively increases towards telomeres, and is highly correlated with gene density. At the gene level, T-DNA integration events show a statistically significant preference for insertion in the 5' and 3' flanking regions of protein coding sequences as well as the promoter region of RNA polymerase I transcribed rRNA gene repeats. The increased insertion frequencies in 5' upstream regions compared to coding sequences are positively correlated with gene expression activity and DNA sequence composition. Analysis of the relationship between DNA sequence composition and gene activity further demonstrates that DNA sequences with high CG-skew ratios are consistently correlated with T-DNA insertion site preference and high gene expression. The results demonstrate genomic and gene-specific preferences for T-strand integration and suggest that DNA sequences with a pronounced transition in CG- and AT-skew ratios are preferred targets for T-DNA integration.

Chromatin remodeling in plants

In the past two years, a variety of forward genetic screens have revealed predicted plant chromatin remodeling components that are involved in either differential histone acetylation or ATP-dependent SWI2/SNF2-related complexes. Combined with the results of recent reverse genetic studies, these findings have begun to provide the groundwork for determining the function of chromatin-based control in plants.

Chromatin and chromosomal controls in development

Chromatin and chromosomes have major regulatory roles in development. Nucleosome positioning and modification, chromatin structural transitions and domain organization all contribute to the regulation of individual genes and gene families. Chromosomal position and nuclear compartmentalization represent important contributory factors in determining cell fate. These controls may explain many interesting and unexplored features of developmental systems.