ABA-mediated regulation of rice grain quality and seed dormancy via the NF-YB1-SLRL2-bHLH144 Module.

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a crucial role in promoting plant stress resistance and seed dormancy. However, how ABA regulates rice quality remains unclear. This study identifies a key transcription factor SLR1-like2 (SLRL2), which mediates the ABA-regulated amylose content (AC) of rice. Mechanistically, SLRL2 interacts with NF-YB1 to co-regulate Wx, a determinant of AC and rice quality. In contrast to SLR1, SLRL2 is ABA inducible but insensitive to GA. In addition, SLRL2 exhibits DNA-binding activity and directly regulates the expression of Wx, bHLH144 and MFT2. SLRL2 competes with NF-YC12 for interaction with NF-YB1. NF-YB1 also directly represses SLRL2 transcription. Genetic validation supports that SLRL2 functions downstream of NF-YB1 and bHLH144 in regulating rice AC. Thus, an NF-YB1-SLRL2-bHLH144 regulatory module is successfully revealed. Furthermore, SLRL2 regulates rice dormancy by modulating the expression of MFT2. In conclusion, this study revealed an ABA-responsive regulatory cascade that functions in both rice quality and seed dormancy.

The PPR-Domain Protein SOAR1 Regulates Salt Tolerance in Rice.

Previous studies in Arabidopsis reported that the PPR protein SOAR1 plays critical roles in plant response to salt stress. In this study, we reported that expression of the Arabidopsis SOAR1 (AtSOAR1) in rice significantly enhanced salt tolerance at seedling growth stage and promoted grain productivity under salt stress without affecting plant productivity under non-stressful conditions. The transgenic rice lines expressing AtSOAR1 exhibited increased ABA sensitivity in ABA-induced inhibition of seedling growth, and showed altered transcription and splicing of numerous genes associated with salt stress, which may explain salt tolerance of the transgenic plants. Further, we overexpressed the homologous gene of SOAR1 in rice, OsSOAR1, and showed that transgenic plants overexpressing OsSOAR1 enhanced salt tolerance at seedling growth stage. Five salt- and other abiotic stress-induced SOAR1-like PPRs were also identified. These data showed that the SOAR1-like PPR proteins are positively involved in plant response to salt stress and may be used for crop improvement in rice under salinity conditions through transgenic manipulation.

Inheritance and breeding of japonica rice with good eating quality in Jiangsu province.

In order to develop a variety of japonica rice with good eating quality suitable for planting in Jiangsu Province, the genetic basis of high quality, disease resistance and high yield japonica rice varieties in Jiangsu Province was systematically studied. The relationship among different rice qualities of cooking, nutrition, and eating was studied by association analysis. It was clear that amylose content was the key factor affecting eating quality. The semi waxy rice with amylose content of 10%~14% has bright surface, soft texture, and elasticity, combining the softness of glutinous rice and the elasticity of japonica rice. The cold rice is not hard, and the taste is excellent. It meets the taste requirements of people in Yangtze River Delta region who like to eat soft fragrant japonica rice. The semi waxy japonica rice variety "Kantou 194" with a low expression of amylose content gene Wx mp and an amylose content of about 10% was selected as the core germplasm for improving eating quality. Pyramiding breeding of japonica rice variety with good eating quality, disease resistance and high yield was carried out by examining the development of Wx mp gene molecular markers and the use of closely linked molecular markers with disease resistance and high yield genes. A series of new japonica rice varieties with good taste such as Nanjing 46, Nanjing 5055, Nanjing 9108, and Nanjing 5718, suitable for different rice areas of Jiangsu Province, have been bred and approved by Jiangsu Provincial Variety Approval Committee. The layout of japonica rice varieties with good taste covering different rice areas in Jiangsu Province has been formed. These varieties have been planted with an accumulated area of more than 5.3 million hectares, which has effectively promoted the development of high quality rice industry in Jiangsu Province and its surrounding areas, and made important contributions to the structural adjustment of the supply side of rice industry, improving quality and efficiency, and ensuring food security.

The Arabidopsis kinase-associated protein phosphatase KAPP, interacting with protein kinases SnRK2.2/2.3/2.6, negatively regulates abscisic acid signaling.

KEY MESSAGE: The kinase-associated protein phosphatase, KAPP, is negatively involved in abscisic acid (ABA) signaling. KAPP interacts physically with SnRK2.2, SnRK2.3 and SnRK2.6, and functionally acts upstream of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3. The kinase-associated protein phosphatase (KAPP) has been reported to be involved in the regulation of many developmental and signaling events, but it remains unknown whether KAPP is involved in ABA signaling. Here, we report that KAPP is negatively involved in ABA-mediated seed germination and early seedling growth in Arabidopsis thaliana. The two loss-of-function mutants of KAPP, kapp-1 and kapp-2, exhibit increased ABA sensitivity in ABA-induced seed germination inhibition and post-germination growth arrest. The three closely-related protein kinase, (SNF1)-related protein kinase SnRK2.2, SnRK2.3 and SnRK2.6, which play critical roles in ABA signaling, interact and co-localize with KAPP. Genetic evidence showed that the ABA-hypersensitive phenotypes caused by KAPP mutation were suppressed by the double mutation of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3, indicating that KAPP functions upstream of SnRK2.2 and SnRK2.3 in ABA signaling. RNA-sequencing analysis revealed that KAPP mutation affects expression of multiple ABA-responsive genes. These results demonstrated that KAPP is negatively involved in plant response to ABA, which help to understand the complicated ABA signaling mechanism.

[Effect of two manual mixing methods on the accuracy of alginate impression].

PURPOSE: The effect of clockwise mixing method and clockwise combined eight-shaped mixing method on the accuracy of alginate impression was compared. METHODS: From march to April 2018, 40 dental restoration cases in the Department of Stomatology, Zhoupu Hospital, Pudong District, Shanghai were selected. Two nurses and the same doctor treated 40 patients with single crown porcelain restoration. Two sets of models were taken by two kinds of mixing methods, which were divided into experimental group and control group. Clockwise manual mixing method was used in the control group to take the model, while clockwise combined eight-shaped mixing method was used in the experimental group to take the model. SPSS 24.0 software package was used for Mann-Whitney rank sum test. RESULTS: The same high-grade technician used a magnifying glass to observe the prepared impression, recorded the shoulder print, the sulcus wing and bubble generation, and comprehensively evaluated the impression quality. A comparison was made between the two groups, Z=-4.634, P<0.001, and the difference was statistically significant. Among them, the ratio of excellent quality of the clockwise combined eight-shaped mixing method (77.5%) was significantly higher than that of the clockwise mixing method (10%), and the proportion of level IV unqualification (2.5%) was significantly lower than that of the clockwise mixing method (27.5%). CONCLUSIONS: The quality of impression using clockwise combined eight-shaped mixing method is higher than that of the clockwise method, which improves the success rate of the mold and reduces the discomfort caused by repeated impression. Application of this technique is helpful to the promotion of occult knowledge among nurses.

[Characteristics of Denitrification Inhibiting Sulfate Reducing Process].

In this study, a set of two-stage UASB reactor was used to study the characteristics of denitrification inhibiting sulfate reduction in oil field gathering and transportation system and some high salt wastewater, and the characteristics of granular sludge and microbial characteristics were studied after the stable operation of the process. The results showed that the addition of NaNO2 increased the number of denitrifying bacteria (DNB) from 7.0×103 CFU·(100 mL)-1 to 7.3×105 CFU·(100 mL)-1 and remained stable in the process from start to mature. The competitive inhibition caused by DNB decreased the number of SRB from 8.0×105 CFU·(100 mL)-1 to 7.6×104 CFU·(100 mL)-1. Meanwhile, the sulfate reduction was inhibited, and the inhibition rate increased and finally stabilized to 82%. The study on mass ratio of microbial mass to nitrite effecting on denitrification efficiency showed that the inhibition rate of S2- was the highest, reaching 92%, when the mass ratio was 1200. The inhibition rate of the process could remain at about 92%, with good stability. The particle size and sedimentation rate of granular sludge were measured to determine whether the process conditions were favorable for the formation of granular sludge. The study showed that the denitrifying granular sludge formed was brown, basically ellipsoidal and spherical, with smooth surface and high density. Before the denitrification inhibition, the particle size of granular sludge was 1.0-1.4 mm and the average diameter was 1.17 mm, and after denitrification inhibition, the particle size distribution was 1.2-1.6 mm, the average particle size was 1.21 mm, which indicated that the denitrification inhibition increased the size of granular sludge. The average sedimentation velocity of denitrifying granular sludge was 47.6 m·h-1, which revealed the good settling performance of the granular sludge. The results of PCR-DGGE analysis showed that the denitrification inhibition reduced the number of microbial species from 18 to 14 and the number of dominant species decreased from 4 to 3, indicating the decreasing microbial diversity. The similarity of microbial population before and after nitrification was 62.6% and the population structure changed greatly from SRB to DNB. The number of dominant SRB species decreased from 4 to 2 after denitrification inhibition and the abundance of every species decreased obviously. The main functional bacterial species of the inhibition process was uncultured Sulfurimonas sp., which is a kind of autotrophic denitrifying bacteria. It dominated and competed with SRB for electrons, inhibiting the sulfate reduction and the production of sulfide.

[Experiment of inhibiting growth and metastasis of xenograft transplanted human nasopharyngeal carcinoma in nude mice by interferon alpha-1b].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the growth and metastasis effect of interferon alpha-1b (IFN-alpha-1b) on nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2 in xenografted model of mice liver. Comparing rAAV-mediated IFN-alpha-1b gene therapy with the IFN-alpha-1b protein therapy. METHODS: The xenografted model of liver nasopharyngeal carcinoma was established by injecting the human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2 under liver capsule of nude mice. Forty nude mice were randomly divided into four groups by means of random number table method, with ten mice in each one. (Group A: rAAV-IFN-alpha-1b, Group B: IFN-alpha-1b; Group C: rAAV-EGFP; Group D: PBS). After 24 hours, A, C and D group was injected with rAAV-IFN-alpha-1b encoding human IFN-alpha-1b, rAAV-EGFP and phosphate buffer saline via tail vein injection. After 5 days, mice in group B was injected with human IFN-alpha-1b protein once per two days. Three weeks later five nude mice were sacrificed and then observed their liver tumor formation and pulmonary metastasis. Tumor size was measured and tumor inhibition ratios was calculated, and apoptotic index (AI) was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end-labeling (TUNEL). The contents of human IFN-alpha contained in peripheral blood and mice IL-12 was determined by high performance liquid chromatography chip techniques. And another five mice were randomly chosen for the observation of surviving study. RESULTS: After human nasopharyngeal carcinoma implants in nude mice liver 3 weeks, the average volume of A group (0.114 +/- 0.116) cm3 and B group (0.422 +/- 0.137) cm3 were significantly lower than that of C group (2.476 +/- 0.637) cm3 and D group (2.677 +/- 0.704) cm3 (F = 38.536, P < 0.01). Compared with D group, the restrained percentage of tumor in group A was 95.74% and group B was 84.24%. The percentage of lung metastases in group A, B, C and D were 0.0%, 0.0%, 40.0%, 60.0% respectively. The apoptotic index increased significantly in group A (21. 88 +/- 3.29)% and group B (19.85 +/- 1.96)% versus group C (4.37 +/- 0.50)% and group D (3.40 +/- 1.05)% (F = 120.964, P < 0.01). The average content of human interferon-alpha in serum increased significantly in group A (101.50 +/- 11.33) pg/ml and group B (91.55 +/- 9.80) pg/ml versus group C (23.06 +/- 4.36) pg/ml and group D (16.93 +/- 9.96) pg/ml (F = 69.128, P < 0.01). The average content of IL-12 increased significantly in group A (80.36 +/- 13.35) pg/ml and group B (51.15 +/- 9.72) pg/ml versus group C (19.44 +/- 7.03) pg/ml and group D (14.49 +/- 4.21) pg/ml (F = 57.116, P < 0.01). The survival time of tumor bearing mice in group A (55.80 +/- 2.77) d and group B (48.20 +/- 2.39) d was significantly longer than group C (35.40 +/- 2.61) d and group D (36.80 +/- 1.92) d (chi2 = 25.623, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: IFN-alpha-1b can inhibit the growth and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-2 in xenografted model of mice liver. rAAV-mediated IFN-alpha-1b gene therapy indicated more effect than the IFN-alpha-1b protein therapy by comparing content of human IFN-alpha in serum and the survival time of tumor bearing mice.