Pollen viability as a potential trait for screening heat-tolerant wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

High temperature during reproductive stage of winter crops causes sterility of pollen grains and reduced yield. It is essential to find the genotypes with higher pollen viability, as it is most sensitive to temperature extremes. A field study was conducted with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes to understand the effect of high temperature on pollen viability and grain yield for 2years under timely (TS) and late sown (LS) conditions. A strong correlation was observed between higher pollen viability and higher grain yield under heat stress condition. Genotypes like K7903, HD2932, WH730 and RAJ3765 showed higher pollen viability, whereas DBW17, HUW468, RAJ4014 and UP2425 had lower pollen viability under LS condition. Further, the quantification of antioxidant enzymes activity mainly, Super oxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT), Peroxidase (POD) and Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) has showed significant variation among study genotypes. Thus, the identified high pollen viability genotypes can serve as a potential source for trait based breeding under heat stress in wheat. The present study is a first of its kind to assess more number of wheat genotypes for pollen viability and antioxidants activity under field condition. It also confirms that pollen viability can be used as a potential trait to screen genotypes for heat stress tolerance in wheat.

Combination of curcumin with N-n-butyl haloperidol iodide inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma malignant proliferation by downregulating enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) - lncRNA H19 to silence Wnt/ß-catenin signaling.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Curcumin (C) has been extensively investigated in different types of malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma, but its physicochemical properties have significantly influenced its clinical use. Several approaches are being explored to enhance curcumin's therapeutic response, including its combination with various drugs. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the anti-tumor effect of curcumin (C) in combination with F2 (N-n-butyl haloperidol iodide) on hepatocellular carcinoma and its potential underlying mechanism in vitro and in vivo. METHODS: Cell proliferation was evaluated by CCK-8 and colony formation assays, and apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry. The migratory and invasive abilities of Hep3B and SMMC-7721 cells were measured by wound-healing and matrigel transwell assays. In order to investigate the molecular pathways, various experiments such as western blotting, qPCR, RNA-seq, immunostaining and transfection were performed. To evaluate the anti-HCC effects in vivo, a xenograft tumor model was used. RESULTS: Our findings showed that the combination of curcumin (C) & F2 (F2C) strongly inhibited malignant proliferation and migration in SMMC-7721 and Hep3B cells. The F2C treatment downregulates enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) transcription and protein expression, which is key epigenetic regulator responsible for HCC development. Moreover, the inhibition of EZH2 by F2C led to Wnt/ß-catenin signaling inhibition by decreasing tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 27 (H3K27me3) and long non-coding RNA H19 expression. The inhibition of F2C was associated with the suppression of tumorigenicity in xenograft HCC models. CONCLUSION: These findings suggested that, F2C inhibited HCC formation, migration and its modulatory mechanism seemed to be associated with downregulation of EZH2, silencing Wnt/ß-catenin signaling by interacting with H19, suggesting that F2C may be a promising drug in the clinical treatment of HCC.