OsMFT1 Inhibits Seed Germination by Modulating Abscisic Acid Signaling and Gibberellin Biosynthesis under Salt Stress in Rice.

Seed dormancy and germination are regulated by endogenous gene expression as well as hormonal and environmental conditions, such as salinity, which greatly inhibits seed germination. MOTHER OF FT AND TFL1 (MFT), which encodes a phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein, is a key regulator of seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana. There are two orthologous genes of AtMFT in rice (Oryza sativa), namely, OsMFT1 and OsMFT2. However, the functions of these two genes in regulating rice seed germination under salt stress remain unknown. In this study, we found that seeds of loss-of-function osmft1 mutants germinated faster than wild-type (WT) seeds under salt stress, but this was not the case for loss-of-function osmft2 mutants. Overexpression of OsMFT1 (OsMFT1OE) or OsMFT2 increased the sensitivity to salt stress during seed germination. Transcriptome comparisons of osmft1 vs WT in the absence and presence of salt stress yielded several differentially expressed genes, which were associated with salt stress, plant hormone metabolism and signaling pathways, such as B-BOX ZINC FINGER 6, O. sativa bZIP PROTEIN 8 and GIBBERELLIN (GA) 20-oxidase 1. In addition, the sensitivity of OsMFT1OE seeds to GA and osmft1 seeds to abscisic acid (ABA) during seed germination increased under salt stress. Overall, our results indicate that ABA and GA metabolism and their signaling pathways are regulated by OsMFT1, modulating seed germination in rice under salt stress.

Nitrogen removal from micro-polluted reservoir water by indigenous aerobic denitrifiers.

Treatment of micro-polluted source water is receiving increasing attention because of environmental awareness on a global level. We isolated and identified aerobic denitrifying bacteria Zoogloea sp. N299, Acinetobacter sp. G107, and Acinetobacter sp. 81Y and used these to remediate samples of their native source water. We first domesticated the isolated strains in the source water, and the 48-h nitrate removal rates of strains N299, G107, and 81Y reached 33.69%, 28.28%, and 22.86%, respectively, with no nitrite accumulation. We then conducted a source-water remediation experiment and cultured the domesticated strains (each at a dry cell weight concentration of 0.4 ppm) together in a sample of source water at 20-26 °C and a dissolved oxygen concentration of 3-7 mg/L for 60 days. The nitrate concentration of the system decreased from 1.57 ± 0.02 to 0.42 ± 0.01 mg/L and that of a control system decreased from 1.63 ± 0.02 to 1.30 ± 0.01 mg/L, each with no nitrite accumulation. Total nitrogen of the bacterial system changed from 2.31 ± 0.12 to 1.09 ± 0.01 mg/L, while that of the control system changed from 2.51 ± 0.13 to 1.72 ± 0.06 mg/L. The densities of aerobic denitrification bacteria in the experimental and control systems ranged from 2.8 × 10(4) to 2 × 10(7) cfu/mL and from 7.75 × 10(3) to 5.5 × 10(5) cfu/mL, respectively. The permanganate index in the experimental and control systems decreased from 5.94 ± 0.12 to 3.10 ± 0.08 mg/L and from 6.02 ± 0.13 to 3.61 ± 0.11 mg/L, respectively, over the course of the experiment. Next, we supplemented samples of the experimental and control systems with additional bacteria or additional source water and cultivated the systems for another 35 days. The additional bacteria did little to improve the water quality. The additional source water provided supplemental carbon and brought the nitrate removal rate in the experimental system to 16.97%, while that in the control system reached only 3.01%, with no nitrite accumulation in either system. Our results show that aerobic denitrifying bacteria remain highly active after domestication and demonstrate the applicability of such organisms in the bioremediation of oligotrophic ecosystems.

Culturing primary human osteoblasts on electrospun poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)/nanohydroxyapatite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.

In this work, we fabricated polymeric fibrous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering using primary human osteoblasts (HOB) as the model cell. By employing one simple approach, electrospinning, we produced poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) scaffolds with different topographies including microspheres, beaded fibers, and uniform fibers, as well as the PLGA/nanohydroxyapatite (nano-HA) composite scaffold. The bone-bonding ability of electrospun scaffolds was investigated by using simulated body fluid (SBF) solution, and the nano-HA in PLGA/nano-HA composite scaffold can significantly enhance the formation of the bonelike apatites. Furthermore, we carried out in vitro experiments to test the performance of electrospun scaffolds by utilizing both mouse preosteoblast cell line (MC 3T3 E1) and HOB. Results including cell viability, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and osteocalcin concentration demonstrated that the PLGA/nano-HA fibers can promote the proliferation of HOB efficiently, indicating that it is a promising scaffold for human bone repair.