Orphan gene PpARDT positively involved in drought tolerance potentially by enhancing ABA response in Physcomitrium (Physcomitrella) patens.

Almost all genomes have orphan genes, the majority of which are not functionally annotated. There is growing evidence showed that orphan genes may play important roles in the environmental stress response of Physcomitrium patens. We identified PpARDT (ABA-responsive drought tolerance) as a moss-specific and ABA-responsive orphan gene in P. patens. PpARDT is mainly expressed during the gametophytic stage of the life cycle, and the expression was induced by different abiotic stresses. A PpARDT knockout (Ppardt) mutant showed reduced dehydration-rehydration tolerance, and the phenotype could be rescued by exogenous ABA. Meanwhile, transgenic Arabidopsis lines exhibiting heterologous expression of PpARDT were more sensitive to exogenous ABA than wild-type (Col-0) plants and showed enhanced drought tolerance. These indicate that PpARDT confers drought tolerance among land plants potentially by enhancing ABA response. Further, we identified genes encoding abscisic acid receptor PYR/PYL family proteins, and ADP-ribosylation factors (Arf) as hub genes associated with the Ppardt phenotype. Given the lineage-specific characteristics of PpARDT, our results provide insights into the roles of orphan gene in shaping lineage-specific adaptation possibly by recruiting common pre-existed pathway components.

Alternative oxidase pathway is involved in the exogenous SNP-elevated tolerance of Medicago truncatula to salt stress.

Exogenous application of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) would enhance the tolerance of plants to stress conditions. Some evidences suggested that nitric oxide (NO) could induce the expression of alternative oxidase (AOX). In this study, Medicago truncatula (Medicago) was chosen to study the role of AOX in the SNP-elevated resistance to salt stress. Our results showed that the expression of AOX genes (especially AOX1 and AOX2b1) and cyanide-resistant respiration rate (Valt) could be significantly induced by salt stress. Exogenous application of SNP could further enhance the expression of AOX genes and Valt. Exogenous application of SNP could alleviate the oxidative damage and photosynthetic damage caused by salt stress. However, the stress resistance was significantly decreased in the plants which were pretreated with n-propyl gallate (nPG). More importantly, the damage in nPG-pretreated plants could not be alleviated by application of SNP. Further study showed that effects of nPG on the activities of antioxidant enzymes were minor. These results showed that AOX pathway played an important role in the SNP-elevated resistance of Medicago to salt stress. AOX could contribute to regulating the accumulation of reactive oxygen (ROS) and protect of photosystem, and we proposed that all these were depend on the ability of maintaining the homeostasis of redox state.

Mitochondrial energy-dissipation pathway and cellular redox disruption compromises Arabidopsis resistance to turnip crinkle virus infection.

Members of the plant mitochondrial energy-dissipation pathway (MEDP) coordinate cellular energy metabolism, redox homeostasis and the balance of ROS production. However, the roles of MEDP members, particularly uncoupling protein (UCP), in resistance to turnip crinkle virus infection (TCV) are poorly understood. Here, we showed that disrupting some MEDP genes compromises plant resistance to TCV viral infection and this is partly associated with damaged photosynthetic characteristics, altered cellular redox and increased ROS production. Experiments using mutant plants with impaired cellular compartment redox poising further demonstrated that impaired chloroplast/mitochondria and cystosol redox increases the susceptibility of plants to viral infection. Our results illustrate a mechanism by which MEDP and cellular compartment redox act in concert to regulate plant resistance to viral infections.

Unraveling the evolution and regulation of the alternative oxidase gene family in plants.

Alternative oxidase (AOX) is a diiron carboxylate protein present in all plants examined to date that couples the oxidation of ubiquinol with the reduction of oxygen to water. The predominant structure of AOX genes is four exons interrupted by three introns. In this study, by analyzing the genomic sequences of genes from different plant species, we deduced that intron/exon loss/gain and deletion of fragments are the major mechanisms responsible for the generation and evolution of AOX paralogous genes. Integrating gene duplication and structural information with expression profiles for various AOXs revealed that tandem duplication/block duplication contributed greatly to the generation and maintenance of the AOX gene family. Notably, the expression profiles based on public microarray database showed highly diverse expression patterns among AOX members in different developmental stages and tissues and that both orthologous and paralogous genes did not have the same expression profiles due to their divergence in regulatory regions. Comparative analysis of genes in six plant species under various perturbations indicated a large number of protein kinases, transcription factors and antioxidant enzymes are co-expressed with AOX. Of these, four sets of transcription factors--WRKY, NAC, bZIP and MYB--are likely involved in the regulating the differential responses of AOX1 genes to specific stresses. Furthermore, divergence of AOX1 and AOX2 subfamilies in regulation might be the main reason for their differential stress responses.

Spatio-temporal analysis of malaria vectors in national malaria surveillance sites in China.

BACKGROUND: To reveal the spatio-temporal distribution of malaria vectors in the national malaria surveillance sites from 2005 to 2010 and provide reference for the current National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) in China. METHODS: A 6-year longitudinal surveillance on density of malaria vectors was carried out in the 62 national malaria surveillance sites. The spatial and temporal analyses of the four primary vectors distribution were conducted by the methods of kernel k-means and the cluster distribution of the most widely distribution vector of An.sinensis was identified using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD). RESULTS: Totally 4 species of Anopheles mosquitoes including An.sinensis, An.lesteri, An.dirus and An.minimus were captured with significant difference of distribution as well as density. An. sinensis was the most widely distributed, accounting for 96.25% of all collections, and its distribution was divided into three different clusters with a significant increase of density observed in the second cluster which located mostly in the central parts of China. CONCLUSION: This study first described the spatio-temporal distribution of malaria vectors based on the nationwide surveillance during 2005-2010, which served as a baseline for the ongoing national malaria elimination program.