Genome-wide identification and analysis of a cotton secretome reveals its role in resistance against Verticillium dahliae.

BACKGROUND: The extracellular space between the cell wall and plasma membrane is a battlefield in plant-pathogen interactions. Within this space, the pathogen employs its secretome to attack the host in a variety of ways, including immunity manipulation. However, the role of the plant secretome is rarely studied for its role in disease resistance. RESULTS: Here, we examined the secretome of Verticillium wilt-resistant Gossypium hirsutum cultivar Zhongzhimian No.2 (ZZM2, encoding 95,327 predicted coding sequences) to determine its role in disease resistance against the wilt causal agent, Verticillium dahliae. Bioinformatics-driven analyses showed that the ZZM2 genome encodes 2085 secreted proteins and that these display disequilibrium in their distribution among the chromosomes. The cotton secretome displayed differences in the abundance of certain amino acid residues as compared to the remaining encoded proteins due to the localization of these putative proteins in the extracellular space. The secretome analysis revealed conservation for an allotetraploid genome, which nevertheless exhibited variation among orthologs and comparable unique genes between the two sub-genomes. Secretome annotation strongly suggested its involvement in extracellular stress responses (hydrolase activity, oxidoreductase activity, and extracellular region, etc.), thus contributing to resistance against the V. dahliae infection. Furthermore, the defense response genes (immunity marker NbHIN1, salicylic acid marker NbPR1, and jasmonic acid marker NbLOX4) were activated to varying degrees when Nicotina benthamiana leaves were agro-infiltrated with 28 randomly selected members, suggesting that the secretome plays an important role in the immunity response. Finally, gene silencing assays of 11 members from 13 selected candidates in ZZM2 displayed higher susceptibility to V. dahliae, suggesting that the secretome members confer the Verticillium wilt resistance in cotton. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that the cotton secretome plays an important role in Verticillium wilt resistance, facilitating the development of the resistance gene markers and increasing the understanding of the mechanisms regulating disease resistance.

Effect of matrine and carvedilol on collagen and MMPs activity of hypertrophy myocardium induced by pressure overload.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effect and mechanism of matrine (Mt.) on myocardial interstitial fibrosis induced by pressure overload. METHODS: Pressure overloaded myocardial hypertrophy was produced by banding of aorta abdominalis in 67 male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing (200+/-15) g. The rats were assigned into one of the following groups: sham-operation control, operation control, operation group treated with matrine (15 mg/(kg.d)) and treated with carvedilol (Car.) (3.6 mg/(kg.d)) group. The rats were given drugs one day after operation. Five weeks after treatment, the left ventricular weight (LVW) was measured and the volume of myocardial cells was detected with Hematoxylin-Eosin (H-E) stain and Masson stain was used to assess the level of fibrosis of the myocardial matrix. Myocardial metalloproteinase activity was quantified with zymography, and survival rate was calculated. RESULTS: Survival rate significantly decreased (P<0.05), LVW/BW (body weight), MMP-2 (matrix metalloproteinase-2) activity (P<0.05), size of cardiomyocytes and interstitial fibrosis obviously increased in the operation group compared with sham control group. Mt. and Car. treatment can significantly increase survival rate (P<0.05), decrease LVW/BW (P<0.05) and MMP-2 activity (P<0.05), decrease size of cardiomyocytes and interstitial fibrosis compared with operation group. But there was difference compared with sham group. CONCLUSION: Matrine was shown to be able to prevent cardiac remodelling of hypertrophy cardium induced by pressure overload including myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis which may be associated with the decrease in MMP-2 activity of heart.