p-Type polymer-hybridized high-performance piezoelectric nanogenerators.

Enhancing the output power of a nanogenerator is essential in applications as a sustainable power source for wireless sensors and microelectronics. We report here a novel approach that greatly enhances piezoelectric power generation by introducing a p-type polymer layer on a piezoelectric semiconducting thin film. Holes at the film surface greatly reduce the piezoelectric potential screening effect caused by free electrons in a piezoelectric semiconducting material. Furthermore, additional carriers from a conducting polymer and a shift in the Fermi level help in increasing the power output. Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) was used as a p-type polymer on piezoelectric semiconducting zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film, and phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was added to P3HT to improve carrier transport. The ZnO/P3HT:PCBM-assembled piezoelectric power generator demonstrated 18-fold enhancement in the output voltage and tripled the current, relative to a power generator with ZnO only at a strain of 0.068%. The overall output power density exceeded 0.88 W/cm(3), and the average power conversion efficiency was up to 18%. This high power generation enabled red, green, and blue light-emitting diodes to turn on after only tens of times bending the generator. This approach offers a breakthrough in realizing a high-performance flexible piezoelectric energy harvester for self-powered electronics.

OsbHLH148, a basic helix-loop-helix protein, interacts with OsJAZ proteins in a jasmonate signaling pathway leading to drought tolerance in rice.

Jasmonates play important roles in development, stress responses and defense in plants. Here, we report the results of a study using a functional genomics approach that identified a rice basic helix-loop-helix domain gene, OsbHLH148, that conferred drought tolerance as a component of the jasmonate signaling module in rice. OsbHLH148 transcript levels were rapidly increased by treatment with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) or abscisic acid, and abiotic stresses including dehydration, high salinity, low temperature and wounding. Transgenic over-expression of OsbHLH148 in rice confers plant tolerance to drought stress. Expression profiling followed by DNA microarray and RNA gel-blot analyses of transgenic versus wild-type rice identified genes that are up-regulated by OsbHLH148 over-expression. These include OsDREB and OsJAZ genes that are involved in stress responses and the jasmonate signaling pathway, respectively. OsJAZ1, a rice ZIM domain protein, interacted with OsbHLH148 in yeast two-hybrid and pull-down assays, but it interacted with the putative OsCOI1 only in the presence of coronatine. Furthermore, the OsJAZ1 protein was degraded by rice and Arabidopsis extracts in the presence of coronatine, and its degradation was inhibited by MG132, a 26S proteasome inhibitor, suggesting 26S proteasome-mediated degradation of OsJAZ1 via the SCF(OsCOI1) complex. The transcription level of OsJAZ1 increased upon exposure of rice to MeJA. These results show that OsJAZ1 could act as a transcriptional regulator of the OsbHLH148-related jasmonate signaling pathway leading to drought tolerance. Thus, our study suggests that OsbHLH148 acts on an initial response of jasmonate-regulated gene expression toward drought tolerance, constituting the OsbHLH148-OsJAZ-OsCOI1 signaling module in rice.

Bifunctional recombinant fusion enzyme between maltooligosyltrehalose synthase and maltooligosyltrehalose trehalohydrolase of thermophilic microorganism Metallosphaera hakonensis.

MhMTS and MhMTH are trehalose (alpha-D-glucopyranosyl- [1,1]-alpha-D-glucopyranose) biosynthesis genes of the thermophilic microorganism Metallosphaera hakonensis, and encode a maltooligosyltrehalose synthase (MhMTS) and a maltooligosyltrehalose trehalohydrolase (MhMTH), respectively. In this study, the two genes were fused inframe in a recombinant DNA, and expressed in Escherichia coli to produce a bifunctional fusion enzyme, MhMTSH. Similar to the two-step reactions with MhMTS and MhMTH, the fusion enzyme catalyzed the sequential reactions on maltopentaose, maltotriosyltrehalose formation, and following hydrolysis, producing trehalose and maltotriose. Optimum conditions for the fusion enzyme-catalyzed trehalose synthesis were around 70 degrees and pH 5.0-6.0. The MhMTSH fusion enzyme exhibited a high degree of thermostability, retaining 80% of the activity when pre-incubated at 70 degrees for 48 h. The stability was gradually abolished by incubating the fusion enzyme at above 80 degrees . The MhMTSH fusion enzyme was active on various sizes of maltooligosaccharides, extending its substrate specificity to soluble starch, the most abundant natural source of trehalose production.

Molecular cloning and characterization of trehalose biosynthesis genes from hyperthermophilic archaebacterium Metallosphaera hakonesis.

The trehalose (alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-[1,1]-alpha-D-glucopyranose) biosynthesis genes MhMTS and MhMTH, encoding a maltooligosyltrehalose synthase (MhMTS) and a maltooligosyltrehalose trehalohydrolase (MhMTH), respectively, have been cloned from the hyperthermophilic archaebacterium Metallosphaera hakonesis. The ORF of MhMTS is 2,142 bp long, and encodes 713 amino acid residues constituting a 83.8 kDa protein. MhMTH is 1,677 bp long, and encodes 558 amino acid residues constituting a 63.7 kDa protein. The deduced amino acid sequences of MhMTS and MhMTH contain four regions highly conserved for MTSs and three for MTHs that are known to constitute substrate-binding sites of starch-hydrolyzing enzymes. Recombinant proteins obtained by expressing the MhMTS and MhMTH genes in E. coli catalyzed a sequential reaction converting maltooligosaccharides to produce trehalose. Optimum pH of the MhMTS/MhMTH enzyme reaction was around 5.0 and optimum temperature was around 70 degrees C. Trehalose-producing activity of the MhMTS/ MhMTH was notably stable, retaining 80% of the activity after preincubation of the enzyme mixture at 70 degrees C for 48 h, but was gradually abolished by incubating at above 85 degrees C. Addition of thermostable 4-alpha-glucanotransferase increased the yield of trehalose production from maltopentaose by 10%. The substrate specificity of the MhMTS/MhMTH-catalyzed reaction was extended to soluble starch, the most abundant maltodextrin in nature.

Oryza sativa COI homologues restore jasmonate signal transduction in Arabidopsis coi1-1 mutants.

CORONATINE INSENSITIVE 1 (COI1) encodes an E3 ubiquitin ligase complex component that interacts with JAZ proteins and targets them for degradation in response to JA signaling. The Arabidopsis genome has a single copy of COI1, but the Oryza sativa genome has three closely related COI homologs. To examine the functions of the three OsCOIs, we used yeast two-hybrid assays to examine their interactions with JAZ proteins and found that OsCOIs interacted with OsJAZs and with JAZs, in a coronatine dependent manner. We also tested whether OsCOI1a and OsCOI1b could complement Arabidopsis coi1-1 mutants and found that overexpression of either gene in the coi1-1 mutant resulted in restoration of JA signal transduction and production of seeds, indicating successful complementation. Although OsCOI2 interacted with a few OsJAZs, we were not able to successfully complement the coi1-1 mutant with OsCOI2. Molecular modeling revealed that the three OsCOIs adopt 3D structures similar to COI1. Structural differences resulting from amino acid variations, especially among amino acid residues involved in the interaction with coronatine and JAZ proteins, were tested by mutation analysis. When His-391 in OsCOI2 was substituted with Tyr-391, OsCOI2 interacted with a wider range of JAZ proteins, including OsJAZ1, 2, 5∼9 and 11, and complemented coi1-1 mutants at a higher frequency than the other OsCOIs and COI1. These results indicate that the three OsCOIs are orthologues of COI1 and play key roles in JA signaling.

Expression of a bifunctional fusion of the Escherichia coli genes for trehalose-6-phosphate synthase and trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase in transgenic rice plants increases trehalose accumulation and abiotic stress tolerance without stunting growth.

Trehalose plays an important role in stress tolerance in plants. Trehalose-producing, transgenic rice (Oryza sativa) plants were generated by the introduction of a gene encoding a bifunctional fusion (TPSP) of the trehalose-6-phosphate (T-6-P) synthase (TPS) and T-6-P phosphatase (TPP) of Escherichia coli, under the control of the maize (Zea mays) ubiquitin promoter (Ubi1). The high catalytic efficiency (Seo et al., 2000) of the fusion enzyme and the single-gene engineering strategy make this an attractive candidate for high-level production of trehalose; it has the added advantage of reducing the accumulation of potentially deleterious T-6-P. The trehalose levels in leaf and seed extracts from Ubi1::TPSP plants were increased up to 1.076 mg g fresh weight(-1). This level was 200-fold higher than that of transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants transformed independently with either TPS or TPP expression cassettes. The carbohydrate profiles were significantly altered in the seeds, but not in the leaves, of Ubi1::TPSP plants. It has been reported that transgenic plants with E. coli TPS and/or TPP were severely stunted and root morphology was altered. Interestingly, our Ubi1::TPSP plants showed no growth inhibition or visible phenotypic alterations despite the high-level production of trehalose. Moreover, trehalose accumulation in Ubi1::TPSP plants resulted in increased tolerance to drought, salt, and cold, as shown by chlorophyll fluorescence and growth inhibition analyses. Thus, our results suggest that trehalose acts as a global protectant against abiotic stress, and that rice is more tolerant to trehalose synthesis than dicots.