Genome-wide identification of JAZ gene family in sugarcane and function analysis of ScJAZ1/2 in drought stress response and flowering regulation.

The JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN (JAZ) proteins are a key inhibitors of the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway that play an important role in the regulation of plant growth and development and environmental stress responses. However, there is no systematic identification and functional analysis of JAZ gene family members in sugarcane. In this study, a total of 49 SsJAZ genes were identified from the wild sugarcane species Saccharum spontaneum genome that were unevenly distributed on 13 chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all SsJAZ members can be divided into six groups, and most of the SsJAZ genes contained photoreactive and ABA-responsive elements. RNA-seq analysis revealed that SsJAZ1-1/2/3/4 and SsJAZ7-1 were significantly upregulated under drought stress. The transcript level of ScJAZ1 which is the homologous gene of SsJAZ1 in modern sugarcane cultivars was upregulated by JA, PEG, and abscisic acid (ABA). Moreover, ScJAZ1 can interact with three other JAZ proteins to form heterodimers. The spatial and temporal expression analysis showed that SsJAZ2-1/2/3/4 were highly expressed in different tissues and growth stages and during the day-night rhythm between 10:00 and 18:00. Overexpression of ScJAZ2 in Arabidopsis accelerated flowering through activating the expression of AtSOC1, AtFT, and AtLFY. Moreover, the transcription level of ScJAZ2 was about 30-fold in the early-flowering sugarcane variety than that of the non-flowering variety, indicating ScJAZ2 positively regulated flowering. This first systematic analysis of the JAZ gene family and function analysis of ScJAZ1/2 in sugarcane provide key candidate genes and lay the foundation for sugarcane breeding.

Genome-wide identification of GTE family proteins in sugarcane (Saccharum spontaneum) reveals that SsGTEL3a confers drought tolerance.

The bromodomain is a highly conserved protein domain that specifically binds to acetylated lysine residues in histones, thereby activating transcription of target genes. Although some progress in Global Transcription Factor Group E (GTE) has been achieved in numerous animals and a few plant species, no systematic analysis of GTE gene families has been reported yet in sugarcane. In our study, 37 GTE and GTE-Like (GTEL) genes were characterized in the Saccharum spontaneum. All SsGTE/SsGTEL members were heterogeneously located on all chromosomes of the sugarcane genome and divided into five groups. Transcriptome data showed that SsGTEL3a was expressed at significantly higher levels under drought stress in drought-resistant varieties than in drought-sensitive varieties. Moreover, the overexpression of SsGTEL3a significantly improved the drought tolerance in Arabidopsis through improving the scavenging ability of reactive oxygen species. Additionally, an interaction between ScFAR1 and SsGTEL3a was identified, with ScFAR1 showing a positive response to drought stress in bacterium. In summary, this systematic analysis of GTE gene family in sugarcane and functional research of SsGTEL3a broadened deeper insight into their evolutionary dynamics and functional properties and provided new candidate genes for drought-resistant molecular breeding of sugarcane.

RNA Interference: Promising Approach to Combat Plant Viruses.

Plant viruses are devastating plant pathogens that severely affect crop yield and quality. Plants have developed multiple lines of defense systems to combat viral infection. Gene silencing/RNA interference is the key defense system in plants that inhibits the virulence and multiplication of pathogens. The general mechanism of RNAi involves (i) the transcription and cleavage of dsRNA into small RNA molecules, such as microRNA (miRNA), or small interfering RNA (siRNA), (ii) the loading of siRNA/miRNA into an RNA Induced Silencing Complex (RISC), (iii) complementary base pairing between siRNA/miRNA with a targeted gene, and (iv) the cleavage or repression of a target gene with an Argonaute (AGO) protein. This natural RNAi pathway could introduce transgenes targeting various viral genes to induce gene silencing. Different RNAi pathways are reported for the artificial silencing of viral genes. These include Host-Induced Gene Silencing (HIGS), Virus-Induced Gene Silencing (VIGS), and Spray-Induced Gene Silencing (SIGS). There are significant limitations in HIGS and VIGS technology, such as lengthy and time-consuming processes, off-target effects, and public concerns regarding genetically modified (GM) transgenic plants. Here, we provide in-depth knowledge regarding SIGS, which efficiently provides RNAi resistance development against targeted genes without the need for GM transgenic plants. We give an overview of the defense system of plants against viral infection, including a detailed mechanism of RNAi, small RNA molecules and their types, and various kinds of RNAi pathways. This review will describe how RNA interference provides the antiviral defense, recent improvements, and their limitations.

First report of stalk bacterial soft rot of sugarcane caused by Dickeya zeae in China.

In late September 2019, seven stalks of about 1400 stalks of sugarcane cultivar Zhongzhe 1 exhibited soft rot symptoms in a trial plot in Beihai city, Guangxi province of China. Symptoms included scorched and collapsed leaves, maceration of stalks, and sour smelling exudates from the stalks (Supplementary Fig. S1). Severely diseased stalks had collapsed and were dead. Internal stalk fragments of 5 × 5 mm were collected at the junction of healthy and diseased tissue after surface-sterilization of stalks with 70% ethanol for one minute, and three times rinsing with sterile distilled water. Stalk fragments were placed on Luria-Bertani agar medium (1 % w/v tryptone, 0.5 % w/v yeast extract, 1 % w/v NaCl, 1 % w/v agar, pH7.0) and plates were put in an incubator at 30°C for 48h. Four types of bacterial colonies were obtained, and small and white colonies with irregular margins were the most dominant. A single colony of each type was diluted in sterile distilled water and aliquots of each suspension were streaked on fresh medium plates to obtain pure cultures. Ten eight-week-old stalks (11 th leaf stage) of sugarcane plants, which derived from cuttings of symptomless cultivar Zhongzhe 1, were inoculated by injection of 300 µl of bacterial suspension (3.5x108 CFU/ml) into the stalks. Another 10 stalks were injected with pure water and served as control. The inoculated plants were kept in a greenhouse at 25-37℃.Among the four types of bacteria, only strain BH9 induced symptoms that were identical to those of diseased canes observed in the field (Supplementary Fig. S1). Elongated water-soaked lesions were observed around the inoculation sites three days post inoculation. Five of the 10 BH9-inoculated plants had collapsed two days later. Water-soaked stalks had a sour smell similar to the filed diseased plants. Eight days post inoculation, all BH9-inoculated plants exhibited symptoms but control plants remained symptomless up to 30 days after inoculation. Uniform white colonies with irregular margins were isolated from the inoculated stalks that developed soft rot symptom, and these bacteria caused again stalk soft rot symptoms when inoculated to a new batch of 10 healthy plants. The 16S rRNA gene of strain BH9 was amplified by PCR with primer pair fD2/rP1 and the PCR amplicons from three independent colonies were sequenced. The sequences of the three amplicons were identical (Accession No. MT723897). BLAST alignments of the 16S rDNA sequence from BH9 strain with the GenBank database revealed that BH9 belonged to the genus Dickeya (98.5% identity between D. zeae BH9 and D. zeae EC1). Further PCR assays and sequencing of three genes, DNA polymerase III gamma subunit gene dnaX with primers dnaXf/dnaXr, DNA gyrase gene gyrB with primers gyrBf1/gyrBr1, and recombinase A gene recA with primers recAf/recAr, were performed to identify the species within the genus Dickeya (Zhang et al., 2014). BH9 sequences of these genes (Accession No. MT723898 to MT723900) had highest identity (97.5%, 97.6%, and 97.7%, respectively) with those from D. zeae EC1 (GenBank accession No. CP006929.1). To determine the evolutionary relationship of BH9 to other Dickeya species and strains, a phylogenetic analysis was performed using dnaX, gyrB, and recA sequences. As shown in Supplementary Fig. S2, BH9 clustered with D. zeae strains and formed a lineage distinguishable from other Dickeya species. Among the closest strains, D. zeae NCPPB3531 (Accession No. CM001980.1) was isolated from potato and D. zeae CSL RW192 (Accession No. CM001972.1) from river water (Pritchard et al., 2013). Consequently, strain BH9 was identified as D. zeae. This bacterial species has been reported to cause soft rot in rice (Pu et al., 2012), banana (Zhang et al., 2014), maize (Martinez-Cisneros et al., 2014), and clivia (Hu et al., 2018). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a bacterial stalk rot caused by D. Zeae in sugarcane. In fact, low incidence of D. zeae-caused stalk soft rot was recently found in sugarcane fields in Fusui County, about 150 km north to Beihai. Given the potential threat of this disease to the local sugarcane industry, the mode of transmission, cultivar resistance, and measures to control the disease should be investigated.

Iron supplementation effectively suppresses gastrocnemius muscle lesions to improve exercise capacity in chronic heart failure rats with anemia.

OBJECTIVE: For patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), exertional fatigue is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms. However, the poor relationship between heart dysfunction and exercise capacity has been ascribed to peripheral abnormalities. Several previous studies confirmed that iron supplementation could significantly improve the exercise capacity of patients with CHF, although they did not analyze effects in the musculoskeletal system. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of iron treatment on gastrocnemius muscles of CHF rats with anemia. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to coronary ligation to induce heart failure. At the same time, blood (1-1.5 mL) was withdrawn from the retro-orbital plexus once every week to induce anemia. After 6 wk of this process, iron dextran was administered to the CHF rats with anemia (CHFa rats) at the dose of 8, 16, 32, or 64 mg/kg every 2 d for 2 wk. RESULTS: Iron dextran (8 mg/kg every 2 d) effectively improved hemodynamic parameters (P < 0.05) compared with CHFa rats. Similarly, this dose of iron dextran significantly reduced the ratio of heart weight to body weight (P < 0.01), whereas it significantly increased the distance run (m) to exhaustion (P < 0.01). Iron dextran effectively inhibited sarcoplasmic vacuolation and muscle atrophy of gastrocnemius muscles in CHFa rats, as evaluated by pathologic examinations. Other iron treatments, however, were found to be ineffective on the same parameters, so particular focus was placed on the iron dextran (8 mg/kg every 2 d) group in subsequent analyses. Consistently, phospho-p38 in gastrocnemius muscles of CHFa rats was markedly suppressed by iron dextran. Additionally, iron dextran significantly decreased c-fos and c-jun and up-regulated cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein expression levels.

Heat treatment eliminates 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' from infected citrus trees under controlled conditions.

Huanglongbing (HLB) is one of the most destructive diseases of citrus worldwide. The three known causal agents of HLB are species of α-proteobacteria: 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus', 'Ca. L. africanus', and 'Ca. L. americanus'. Previous studies have found distinct variations in temperature sensitivity and tolerance among these species. Here, we describe the use of controlled heat treatments to cure HLB caused by 'Ca. L. asiaticus', the most prevalent and heat-tolerant species. Using temperature-controlled growth chambers, we evaluated the time duration and temperature required to suppress or eliminate the 'Ca. L. asiaticus' bacterium in citrus, using various temperature treatments for time periods ranging from 2 days to 4 months. Results of quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) after treatment illustrate significant decreases in the 'Ca. L. asiaticus' bacterial titer, combined with healthy vigorous growth by all surviving trees. Repeated qPCR testing confirmed that previously infected, heat-treated plants showed no detectable levels of 'Ca. L. asiaticus', while untreated control plants remained highly infected. Continuous thermal exposure to 40 to 42°C for a minimum of 48 h was sufficient to significantly reduce titer or eliminate 'Ca. L. asiaticus' bacteria entirely in HLB-affected citrus seedlings. This method may be useful for the control of 'Ca. Liberibacter'-infected plants in nursery and greenhouse settings.

[Research progress of ethanologenic Zymomonas mobilis].

Zymomonas mobilis is one of the natural ethanologenic microbes. With the unique Entner-Doudoroff pathway and some other special pathways of glycolytic and energetic metabolism, Z. mobilis has remarkable characters of higher rate of ethanol production and higher tolerance to ethanol. Glycolytic and energetic metabolism, tolerances (e.g., to ethanol, osmotic stress, etc.) and genetic improvements of Z. mobilis are reviewed to elucidate the huge potential of Z. mobilis in fuel ethanol production.