Insights into Plant Extracellular ATP Signaling Revealed by the Discovery of an ATP-Regulated Transcription Factor

Highly-ordered assembled organic fluorescent materials for high-resolution bio-sensing: a review

Organic fluorescent materials (OFMs) play a crucial role in the development of biosensors, enabling the extraction of biochemical information within cells and organisms, extending to the human body. Concurrently, OFM biosensors contribute significantly to the progress of modern medical and biological research. However, the practical applications of OFM biosensors face challenges, including issues related to low resolution, dispersivity, and stability. To overcome these challenges, scientists have introduced interactive elements to enhance the order of OFMs. Highly-ordered assembled OFMs represent a novel material type applied to biosensors. In comparison to conventional fluorescent materials, highly-ordered assembled OFMs typically exhibit robust anti-diffusion properties, high imaging contrast, and excellent stability. This approach has emerged as a promising method for effectively tracking bio-signals, particularly in the non-invasive monitoring of chronic diseases. This review introduces several highly-ordered assembled OFMs used in biosensors and also discusses various interactions that are responsible for their assembly, such as hydrogen bonding, π-π interaction, dipole-dipole interaction, and ion electrostatic interaction. Furthermore, it delves into the various applications of these biosensors while addressing the drawbacks that currently limit their commercial application. This review aims to provide a theoretical foundation for designing high-performance, highly-ordered assembled OFM biosensors suitable for practical applications. Additionally, it sheds light on the evolving trends in OFM biosensors and their application fields, offering valuable insights into the future of this dynamic research area.

Isolation of Arabidopsis extracellular ATP binding proteins by affinity proteomics and identification of PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 as an extracellular protein essential for fumonisin B1 toxicity

ATP is secreted to the extracellular matrix, where it activates plasma membrane receptors for controlling plant growth and stress-adaptive processes. DOES NOT RESPOND TO NUCLEOTIDES 1 (DORN1), was the first plant ATP receptor to be identified but key downstream proteins remain sought after. Here, we identified 120 proteins secreted by Arabidopsis cell cultures and screened them for putative stress-responsive proteins using ATP-affinity purification. We report three Arabidopsis proteins isolated by ATP-affinity: PEROXIDASE 52, SUBTILASE-LIKE SERINE PROTEASE 1.7 and PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1. In wild-type Arabidopsis, the expression of genes encoding all three proteins responded to fumonisin B1, a cell death-activating mycotoxin. The expression of PEROXIDASE 52 and PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 was altered in fumonisin B1-resistant salicylic acid induction-deficient (sid2) mutants. Exposure to fumonisin B1 suppressed PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 expression in sid2 mutants, suggesting that the inactivation of this gene might provide mycotoxin tolerance. Accordingly, gene knockout mutants of PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 were resistant to fumonisin B1-induced death. The activation of PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 gene expression by exogenous ATP was not blocked in dorn1 loss-of-function mutants, indicating that DORN1 is not required. Furthermore, exogenous ATP rescued both the wild type and the dorn1 mutants from fumonisin-B1 toxicity, suggesting that different ATP receptor(s) are operational in this process. Our results point to the existence of additional plant ATP receptor(s) and provide crucial downstream targets for use in designing screens to identify these receptors. Finally, PHOSPHOLIPASE C-LIKE 1 serves as a convergence point for fumonisin B1 and extracellular ATP signalling, and functions in the Arabidopsis stress response to fumonisin B1.

Recent Advances Clarifying the Structure and Function of Plant Apyrases (Nucleoside Triphosphate Diphosphohydrolases)

Studies implicating an important role for apyrase (NTPDase) enzymes in plant growth and development began appearing in the literature more than three decades ago. After early studies primarily in potato, Arabidopsis and legumes, especially important discoveries that advanced an understanding of the biochemistry, structure and function of these enzymes have been published in the last half-dozen years, revealing that they carry out key functions in diverse other plants. These recent discoveries about plant apyrases include, among others, novel findings on its crystal structures, its biochemistry, its roles in plant stress responses and its induction of major changes in gene expression when its expression is suppressed or enhanced. This review will describe and discuss these recent advances and the major questions about plant apyrases that remain unanswered.

AIEgen-based nanoprobe for the ATP sensing and imaging in cancer cells and embryonic stem cells

A turn-on fluorescent nanoprobe (named AAP-1), based on an aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen), is disclosed for the detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is an essential element in the biological system. Organic fluorophore (named TPE-TA) consists of tetraphenylethylene (TPE, sensing and signaling moiety) and mono-triamine (TA, sensing moiety), and it forms an aggregated form in aqueous media as a nanoprobe AAP-1. The nanoprobe AAP-1 has multiple electrostatic interactions as well as hydrophobic interactions with ATP, and it displays superior selectivity toward ATP, reliable sensitivity, with a detection limit around 0.275 ppb, and fast responsive (signal within 10 s). Such a fluorescent probe to monitor ATP has been actively pursued throughout fundamental and translational research areas. In vitro assay and a successful cellular ATP imaging application was demonstrated in cancer cells and embryonic stem cells. We expect that our work warrants further ATP-related studies throughout a variety of fields.