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Cargo Recognition and Function of Selective Autophagy Receptors in Plants.
Luo, S, Li, X, Zhang, Y, Fu, Y, Fan, B, Zhu, C, Chen, Z
International journal of molecular sciences. 2021;(3)
Abstract
Autophagy is a major quality control system for degradation of unwanted or damaged cytoplasmic components to promote cellular homeostasis. Although non-selective bulk degradation of cytoplasm by autophagy plays a role during cellular response to nutrient deprivation, the broad roles of autophagy are primarily mediated by selective clearance of specifically targeted components. Selective autophagy relies on cargo receptors that recognize targeted components and recruit them to autophagosomes through interaction with lapidated autophagy-related protein 8 (ATG8) family proteins anchored in the membrane of the forming autophagosomes. In mammals and yeast, a large collection of selective autophagy receptors have been identified that mediate the selective autophagic degradation of organelles, aggregation-prone misfolded proteins and other unwanted or nonnative proteins. A substantial number of selective autophagy receptors have also been identified and functionally characterized in plants. Some of the autophagy receptors in plants are evolutionarily conserved with homologs in other types of organisms, while a majority of them are plant-specific or plant species-specific. Plant selective autophagy receptors mediate autophagic degradation of not only misfolded, nonactive and otherwise unwanted cellular components but also regulatory and signaling factors and play critical roles in plant responses to a broad spectrum of biotic and abiotic stresses. In this review, we summarize the research on selective autophagy in plants, with an emphasis on the cargo recognition and the biological functions of plant selective autophagy receptors.
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2.
Structure-Dependent Modulation of Substrate Binding and Biodegradation Activity of Pirin Proteins toward Plant Flavonols.
Guo, B, Zhang, Y, Hicks, G, Huang, X, Li, R, Roy, N, Jia, Z
ACS chemical biology. 2019;(12):2629-2640
Abstract
Pirin is a nonheme metalloprotein that occurs widely in human tissues and is highly conserved across all taxa. Pirin proteins typically function as nuclear transcription regulators, but two Pirin orthologs, YhhW (from Escherichia coli) and hPirin (from humans) were revealed to possess enzymatic activity of degrading quercetin. The exact role of Pirin homologues and their catalytic specificity remain poorly understood. In this work, by screening against a panel of plant flavonoids, we found that both Pirins catalyze the oxidative degradation of a wide spectrum of flavonol analogues and release carbon monoxide (CO) in the process. This shows that Pirin acts on a broad range of substrates and could represent a novel dietary source of CO in vivo. Although the kinetic profiles differ substantially between two Pirins, the identified substrate structures all share a 2,3-double bond and 3-hydroxyl and 4-oxo groups on their "flavonol backbone," which contribute to the specific enzyme-substrate interaction. While hPirin is iron-dependent, YhhW is identified as a novel nickel-containing dioxygenase member of the bicupin family. Besides the expanded Pirin activity, we present the crystal structures of the native Ni-YhhW and tag-free Fe-hPirin, revealing the distinctive differences occurring at the metal-binding site. In addition, YhhW features a flexible Ω-loop near the catalytic cavity, which may help stabilize the reaction intermediates via a Ni-flavonol complex. The structure-dependent modulation of substrate binding to the catalytic cavity adds to understanding the differential dispositions of natural flavonols by human and bacterial Pirins.
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3.
Sensing of Abiotic Stress and Ionic Stress Responses in Plants.
Zhang, Y, Lv, Y, Jahan, N, Chen, G, Ren, D, Guo, L
International journal of molecular sciences. 2018;(11)
Abstract
Plants need to cope with complex environments throughout their life cycle. Abiotic stresses, including drought, cold, salt and heat, can cause a reduction in plant growth and loss of crop yield. Plants sensing stress signals and adapting to adverse environments are fundamental biological problems. We review the stress sensors in stress sensing and the responses, and then discuss ionic stress signaling and the responses. During ionic stress, the calcineurin B-like proteins (CBL) and CBL-interacting protein kinases (CBL-CIPK) complex is identified as a primary element of the calcium sensor for perceiving environmental signals. The CBL-CIPK system shows specificity and variety in its response to different stresses. Obtaining a deeper understanding of stress signaling and the responses will mitigate or solve crop yield crises in extreme environments with fast-growing populations.
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4.
CRISPR/Cas9-Based Genome Editing in Plants.
Zhang, Y, Ma, X, Xie, X, Liu, YG
Progress in molecular biology and translational science. 2017;:133-150
Abstract
Recently, genome editing technologies have shown great potential in plants. The newly developed clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system is a new generation of genome editing tool rapidly replacing the earlier zinc finger nucleases and transcription activator-like effector nucleases systems. Indeed, due to its advantages of simplicity and high efficiency, the CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing system is becoming a powerful tool in plant science research. Here, we introduce the technical features of the plant CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing system and its applications in plant functional genomics studies and genetic improvement.
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5.
Identification of viruses and viroids by next-generation sequencing and homology-dependent and homology-independent algorithms.
Wu, Q, Ding, SW, Zhang, Y, Zhu, S
Annual review of phytopathology. 2015;:425-44
Abstract
A fast, accurate, and full indexing of viruses and viroids in a sample for the inspection and quarantine services and disease management is desirable but was unrealistic until recently. This article reviews the rapid and exciting recent progress in the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies for the identification of viruses and viroids in plants. A total of four viroids/viroid-like RNAs and 49 new plant RNA and DNA viruses from 18 known or unassigned virus families have been identified from plants since 2009. A comparison of enrichment strategies reveals that full indexing of RNA and DNA viruses as well as viroids in a plant sample at single-nucleotide resolution is made possible by one NGS run of total small RNAs, followed by data mining with homology-dependent and homology-independent computational algorithms. Major challenges in the application of NGS technologies to pathogen discovery are discussed.
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6.
Meta-Analysis of the Detection of Plant Pigment Concentrations Using Hyperspectral Remotely Sensed Data.
Huang, J, Wei, C, Zhang, Y, Blackburn, GA, Wang, X, Wei, C, Wang, J
PloS one. 2015;(9):e0137029
Abstract
Passive optical hyperspectral remote sensing of plant pigments offers potential for understanding plant ecophysiological processes across a range of spatial scales. Following a number of decades of research in this field, this paper undertakes a systematic meta-analysis of 85 articles to determine whether passive optical hyperspectral remote sensing techniques are sufficiently well developed to quantify individual plant pigments, which operational solutions are available for wider plant science and the areas which now require greater focus. The findings indicate that predictive relationships are strong for all pigments at the leaf scale but these decrease and become more variable across pigment types at the canopy and landscape scales. At leaf scale it is clear that specific sets of optimal wavelengths can be recommended for operational methodologies: total chlorophyll and chlorophyll a quantification is based on reflectance in the green (550-560nm) and red edge (680-750nm) regions; chlorophyll b on the red, (630-660nm), red edge (670-710nm) and the near-infrared (800-810nm); carotenoids on the 500-580nm region; and anthocyanins on the green (550-560nm), red edge (700-710nm) and near-infrared (780-790nm). For total chlorophyll the optimal wavelengths are valid across canopy and landscape scales and there is some evidence that the same applies for chlorophyll a.