ABSTRACT
Grasslands, the largest carbon pool in China, possess enormous potential for carbon sequestration. Increasing the stomatal aperture to increase the CO2 absorption capacity is a potential method to improve plant photosynthetic efficiency and ultimately enhance the carbon sequestration capacity of grass plants. Research on stomatal aperture regulation has focused mostly on Arabidopsis or crops, while research on grass plants in these areas is scarce, which seriously restricts the implementation of this grassland carbon sequestration strategy. Here, a widely used ecological grass, centipedegrass, was used as the experimental material. First, a convenient method for observing the stomatal aperture was developed. The leaves were floated in a potassium ion-containing open solution (67 mM KCl, pH 6.0) with the adaxial surface rather than the abaxial surface in contact with the solution and were cultivated under light for 1.5 h. Then, nail polish was applied on the adaxial surface, and a large number of open stomata were imprinted. Second, with the help of this improved method, the concentrationâresponse characteristics of the stomatal aperture to eleven environmental stimuli were tested. The stomatal aperture is dependent on these environmental stimuli in a concentration-dependent manner. The addition of 100 µM brassinolide led to the maximal stomatal aperture. This study provided a technical basis for manipulating stomatal opening to increase the carbon sequestration capacity of centipedegrass.
Subject(s)
Plant Stomata , Poaceae , Plant Stomata/physiology , Poaceae/physiology , Poaceae/metabolism , Plant Leaves/physiology , Plant Leaves/metabolism , Brassinosteroids/metabolismABSTRACT
Reasonable nitrogen fertilizer application is an important strategy to maintain optimal growth of grasslands, thereby enabling them to better fulfil their ecological functions while reducing environmental pollution caused by high nitrogen fertilizer production and application. Optimizing the ammonium (NH4 +):nitrate (NO3 -) ratio is a common approach for growth promotion in crops and vegetables, but research on this topic in grass plants has not received sufficient attention. Centipedegrass, which is widely used in landscaping and ecological protection, was used as the experimental material. Different NH4 +:NO3 - ratios (0: 100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, 100:0) were used as the experimental treatments under hydroponic conditions. By monitoring the physiological and morphological changes under each treatment, the appropriate NH4 +:NO3 - ratio for growth and its underlying mechanism were determined. As the proportion of ammonium increased, the growth showed a "bell-shaped" response, with the maximum biomass and total carbon and nitrogen accumulation achieved with the NH4 +:NO3 - ratio of 50:50 treatment. Compared with the situation where nitrate was supplied alone, increasing the ammonium proportion increased the whole plant biomass by 93.2%, 139.7%, 59.0%, and 30.5%, the whole plant nitrogen accumulation by 44.9%, 94.6%, 32.8%, and 54.8%, and the whole plant carbon accumulation by 90.4%, 139.9%, 58.7%, and 26.6% in order. As a gateway for nitrogen input, the roots treated with an NH4 +:NO3 - ratio of 50:50 exhibited the highest ammonium and nitrate uptake rate, which may be related to the maximum total root length, root surface area, average root diameter, root volume, and largest root xylem vessel. As a gateway for carbon input, leaves treated with an NH4 +:NO3 - ratio of 50:50 exhibited the highest stomatal aperture, stomatal conductance, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, and photosynthetic products. The NH4 +:NO3 - ratio of 50:50 treatment had the largest stem xylem vessel area. This structure and force caused by transpiration may synergistically facilitate root-to-shoot nutrient translocation. Notably, the change in stomatal opening occurred in the early stage (4 hours) of the NH4 +:NO3 - ratio treatments, indicating that stomates are structures that are involved in the response to changes in the root NH4 +:NO3 - ratio. In summary, we recommend 50:50 as the appropriate NH4 +:NO3 - ratio for the growth of centipedegrass, which not only improves the nitrogen use efficiency but also enhances the carbon sequestration capacity.
ABSTRACT
Enhanced carotenoid accumulation in plants is crucial for the nutritional and health demands of the human body since these beneficial substances are acquired through dietary intake. Plastids are the major organelles to accumulate carotenoids in plants and it is reported that manipulation of a single plastid phosphate transporter gene enhances carotenoid accumulation. Amongst all phosphate transport proteins including phosphate transporters (PHTs), plastidial phosphate translocators (pPTs), PHOSPHATE1 (PHO1), vacuolar phosphate efflux transporter (VPE), and Sulfate transporter [SULTR]-like phosphorus distribution transporter (SPDT) in plants, plastidic PHTs (PHT2 & PHT4) are found as the only clade that is plastid located, and manipulation of which affects carotenoid accumulation. Manipulation of a single chromoplast PHT (PHT4;2) enhances carotenoid accumulation, whereas manipulation of a single chloroplast PHT has no impact on carotenoid accumulation. The underlying mechanism is mainly attributed to their different effects on plastid orthophosphate (Pi) concentration. PHT4;2 is the only chromoplast Pi efflux transporter, and manipulating this single chromoplast PHT significantly regulates chromoplast Pi concentration. This variation subsequently modulates the carotenoid accumulation by affecting the supply of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate, a substrate for carotenoid biosynthesis, by modulating the transcript abundances of carotenoid biosynthesis limited enzyme genes, and by regulating chromoplast biogenesis (facilitating carotenoid storage). However, at least five orthophosphate influx PHTs are identified in the chloroplast, and manipulating one of the five does not substantially modulate the chloroplast Pi concentration in a long term due to their functional redundancy. This stable chloroplast Pi concentration upon one chloroplast PHT absence, therefore, is unable to modulate Pi-involved carotenoid accumulation processes and finally does affect carotenoid accumulation in photosynthetic tissues. Despite these advances, several cases including the precise location of plastid PHTs, the phosphate transport direction mediated by these plastid PHTs, the plastid PHTs participating in carotenoid accumulation signal pathway, the potential roles of these plastid PHTs in leaf carotenoid accumulation, and the roles of these plastid PHTs in other secondary metabolites are waiting for further research. The clarification of the above-mentioned cases is beneficial for breeding high-carotenoid accumulation plants (either in photosynthetic or non-photosynthetic edible parts of plants) through the gene engineering of these transporters.
ABSTRACT
To explore the role of matching water affinities between the oppositely charged headgroups, the micellization of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTA+Br-)/sodium dodecanoate (Na+L-) mixed system and the CTA+Br-/sodium dodecylsulfonate (Na+AS-) mixed system has been investigated by the surface tension method and molecular dynamic (MD) simulation. In comparison with the CTA+Br-/Na+L- system, the CTA+Br-/Na+AS- system shows stronger micelle formation ability, smaller critical micelle concentration (cmc), and stronger synergistic effect arising from the higher degree of matching water affinities between the headgroups CTA+ and AS-. To explore the role of matching water affinities between the oppositely charged constituent counterions, the micellization of CTA+X-/Y+L- mixed systems with various counterions has been investigated. The higher degree of matching water affinities between counterions X- and Y+ and the higher degree of mismatching water affinities between headgroups and counterions are unfavorable to the screening effect of counterions on the electrostatic attraction between headgroups CTA+ and L-, leading to stronger micelle formation ability and smaller cmc and vice versa. MD simulation results also indicate that, for the mixed micellization of cationic/anionic surfactants, the role of matching water affinities between oppositely charged headgroups is more important than that between oppositely charged constituent counterions.
ABSTRACT
The modification of Wnt and Notch signaling pathways by hypoxia, and its association with osteoblast proliferation and apoptosis remain to be fully elucidated. To investigate Wnt-Notch crosstalk, and its role in hypoxia-induced osteoblast proliferation and apoptosis regulation, the present study investigated the effects of cobaltmimicked hypoxia on the mouse pre-osteoblast-like cell line, MC3T3E1, when the Notch signals were repressed using a γsecretase inhibitor DAPT. The data showed that the cobaltmimicked hypoxia suppressed cell proliferation under normal conditions, but increased cell proliferation under conditions of Notch repression, in a concentrationdependent manner. The results of western blot and reverse transcriptionquantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses showed that the cobalt treatment increased the levels of activated ßcatenin protein and the expression levels of the target genes, axis inhibition protein 2 and myelocytomatosis oncogene, under DAPTinduced Notch repression. However, no significant changes were found in the expression levels of the Notch intracellular domain protein or the Notch target gene, hes1. In a ßcatenin geneknockdown experiment, the proliferation of the MC3T3E1 cells under hypoxia were decreased by DAPT treatment, and knockdown of the expression of hypoxiainducible factor1α (HIF1α) suppressed the cobaltinduced increase in Wnt target gene levels. No significant difference in cell proliferation rate was found following DAPT treatment when the expression of HIF1α was knocked down. The results of the present study showed the opposing effects of Wnt and Notch signaling under cobaltmimicked hypoxia, which were partially regulated by HIF1α, The results also showed that osteoblast proliferation was dependent on Wnt-Notch signal crosstalk.
Subject(s)
Cobalt/pharmacology , Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit/metabolism , Osteoblasts/drug effects , Osteoblasts/metabolism , Receptors, Notch/metabolism , Signal Transduction , Wnt Signaling Pathway , Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/metabolism , Animals , Cell Line , Cell Proliferation/drug effects , Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects , Humans , Hypoxia/metabolism , Mice , Wnt Proteins/metabolism , beta Catenin/metabolismABSTRACT
Cold tolerance and the green period are key traits in the breeding of zoysiagrass (Zoysia Willd.). Identification of molecular markers associated with cold tolerance and the green period of zoysiagrass will contribute to efficient selection of elite cultivars. These two traits were measured in 96 zoysiagrass accessions in 2004 and 2005-2006, respectively. The mapping population was screened with 29 pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers and 54 pairs of sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) primers. A multi-loci in silico mapping approach implemented with an empirical Bayes method was applied for association mapping of cold tolerance and green period. We detected 254 SSR polymorphic loci and 338 SRAP polymorphic loci, among which three SSR loci (Xgwm131-3B-187, Xgwm469-6D-194 and Xgwm234-5B-244) and one SRAP locus (Me11Em7-406) were significantly associated with cold tolerance with effect values of 57.83%, 38.05%, 36.92% and 37%, respectively. Three SSR loci (Xgwm132-6B-225, Xgwm111-7D-34 and Xgwm102-2D-97) and two SRAP loci (Me19Em5-359 and Me16Em8-483) were significantly associated with the green period with effect values of 79.54%, 62.59%, 99.04%, 49.01% and 82.57%. These markers will be useful for genetic improvement of the cold tolerance and green period of zoysiagrass by marker-assisted breeding.
ABSTRACT
The hydrostannation of allenes 1 with tributylstannyl hydride in the presence of B(C(6)F(5))(3) catalyst produced vinylstannanes 2 regioselectively, whereas the hydrostannation of 1 with tributylstannyl and triphenylstannyl hydride in the presence of Pd(PPh(3))(4) catalyst gave allylstannanes 5,6 regio- and stereo (in certain cases)-selectively. The mechanisms for these catalytic reactions were proposed.
ABSTRACT
Lewis acids such as ZrCl(4) or HfCl(4) catalyze the hydrostannation of acetylenes 1 by tributyltin hydride to produce the cis vinylstannanes 2 by regio- and stereoselective anti-hydrostannation. The hydrostannation of acetylenes using dibutyltin dihydride was also catalyzed by ZrCl(4) to give the stereodefined Z-Z divinyltin derivatives 4 by an anti-hydrostannation pathway. The use of nonpolar solvents such as toluene or hexane was essential for obtaining high stereoselectivity and chemical yield. Since ZrCl(4) and HfCl(4) are not soluble in such solvents, the hydrostannations were carried out in a heterogeneous system. The reactions of internal acetylenes with Bu(3)SnH proceeded smoothly, although the use of stoichiometric amounts of ZrCl(4) gave better results. The ZrCl(4)-catalyzed hydrostannation at 0 degrees C gave better yields and stereoselectivities than the reaction at room temperature. To help clalify the reason, the reaction of Bu(3)SnH with ZrCl(4) was monitored by (1)H and (119)Sn NMR spectroscopy, and it was found that Bu(3)SnH reacted with ZrCl(4) at room temperature to afford a mixture of tributyltin hydride, dibutyltin dihydride, and tetrabutyltin.