Genome-Wide Identification, Expression Analysis, and Subcellular Localization of Carthamus tinctorius bHLH Transcription Factors.

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family is the second largest superfamily of transcription factors that belongs to all three eukaryotic kingdoms. The key function of this superfamily is the regulation of growth and developmental mechanisms in plants. However, the bHLH gene family in Carthamus tinctorius has not yet been studied. Here, we identified 41 bHLH genes in Carthamus tinctorius that were classified into 23 subgroups. Further, we conducted a phylogenetic analysis and identified 10 conserved protein motifs found in the safflower bHLH family. We comprehensively analyzed a group of bHLH genes that could be associated with flavonoid biosynthesis in safflower by gene expression analysis, gene ontology annotation, protein interaction network prediction, subcellular localization of the candidate CtbHLH40 gene, and real-time quantitative expression analysis. This study provides genome-wide identification of the genes related to biochemical and physiological processes in safflower.

Overexpression of a Novel Cytochrome P450 Promotes Flavonoid Biosynthesis and Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Transgenic Arabidopsis.

Flavonoids are mainly associated with growth, development, and responses to diverse abiotic stresses in plants. A growing amount of data have demonstrated the biosynthesis of flavonoids through multienzyme complexes of which the membrane-bounded cytochrome P450 supergene family shares a crucial part. However, the explicit regulation mechanism of Cytochrome P450s related to flavonoid biosynthesis largely remains elusive. In the present study, we reported the identification of a stress-tolerant flavonoid biosynthetic CtCYP82G24 gene from Carthamus tinctorius. The transient transformation of CtCYP82G24 determined the subcellular localization to the cytosol. Heterologously expressed CtCYP82G24 was effective to catalyze the substrate-specific conversion, promoting the de novo biosynthesis of flavonoids in vitro. Furthermore, a qRT-PCR assay and the accumulation of metabolites demonstrated that the expression of CtCYP82G24 was effectively induced by Polyethylene glycol stress in transgenic Arabidopsis. In addition, the overexpression of CtCYP82G24 could also trigger expression levels of several other flavonoid biosynthetic genes in transgenic plants. Taken together, our findings suggest that CtCYP82G24 overexpression plays a decisive regulatory role in PEG-induced osmotic stress tolerance and alleviates flavonoid accumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis.

Dispersion and reduction of copper oxide supported on WO3-modified Ce(0.5)Zr(0.5)O2 solid solution.

XRD (X-ray diffraction), BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller), LRS (laser Raman spectra), XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy), and TPR (temperature-programmed reduction) are used to investigate the surface properties of CuO/WO3/Ce(0.5)Zr(0.5)O2 samples. The results indicate that (1) tungsten oxide can be highly dispersed on Ce(0.5)Zr(0.5)O2 (denoted as CZ hereafter) solid solution, with a dispersion capacity of about 0.8 mmol WO(3)/(100 m2 CZ), and comparatively, the supported tungsten oxide species are preferentially interacted with ceria component on the surface of CZ; (2) for CuO/WO3/CZ samples with a half-monolayer WO3 loading, i.e., xCu-0.4W-CZ series, the surface of CZ is only partially covered by the preloaded WO3) and the supported copper oxide species are dispersed on the remaining surface vacant sites on CZ as well as on top of the preloaded tungsten oxide, while for the samples preloaded with a full-monolayer WO3, i.e., xCu-0.8W-CZ series, only dispersed on the top of the preloaded tungsten oxide monolayer; (3) the effect of the loading amount of WO3 on the reduction property of Cu2+ ions in a series of CuO/WO3/CZ samples has been observed and tentatively attributed to the formation of WO3 monolayer on CZ and the different coordination environments of the dispersed Cu2+ ions are discussed on the basis of the consideration of the incorporation model proposed previously (Chen, Y.; Zhang, L. Catal. Lett. 1992, 12, 51).