Stress-induced flowering

Many plant species can be induced to flower by responding to stress factors. The short-day plants Pharbitis nil and Perilla frutescens var. crispa flower under long days in response to the stress of poor nutrition or low-intensity light. Grafting experiments using two varieties of P. nil revealed that a transmissible flowering stimulus is involved in stress-induced flowering. The P. nil and P. frutescens plants that were induced to flower by stress reached anthesis, fruited and produced seeds. These seeds germinated, and the progeny of the stressed plants developed normally. Phenylalanine ammonialyase inhibitors inhibited this stress-induced flowering, and the inhibition was overcome by salicylic acid (SA), suggesting that there is an involvement of SA in stress-induced flowering. PnFT2, a P. nil ortholog of the flowering gene FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) of Arabidopsis thaliana, was expressed when the P. nil plants were induced to flower under poor-nutrition stress conditions, but expression of PnFT1, another ortholog of FT, was not induced, suggesting that PnFT2 is involved in stress-induced flowering.Key words: flowering, stress, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, salicylic acid, FLOWERING LOCUS T, Pharbitis nil, Perilla frutescensFlowering in many plant species is regulated by environmental factors, such as night-length in photoperiodic flowering and temperature in vernalization. On the other hand, a short-day (SD) plant such as Pharbitis nil (synonym Ipomoea nil) can be induced to flower under long days (LD) when grown under poor-nutrition, low-temperature or high-intensity light conditions.^1–9 The flowering induced by these conditions is accompanied by an increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity.¹⁰ Taken together, these facts suggest that the flowering induced by these conditions might be regulated by a common mechanism. Poor nutrition, low temperature and high-intensity light can be regarded as stress factors, and PAL activity increases under these stress conditions.¹¹ Accordingly, we assumed that such LD flowering in P. nil might be induced by stress. Non-photoperiodic flowering has also been sporadically reported in several plant species other than P. nil, and a review of these studies suggested that most of the factors responsible for flowering could be regarded as stress. Some examples of these factors are summarized in 12^–14

Table 1

Some cases of stress-induced flowering

Stress-induced proteolysis in yeast

Survival of cells in their natural environment is crucially dependent on their ability to adapt to constantly occurring changes. The ability of cells to respond to extremes of environmental influences is vital to survival. Proteolysis is a central cellular tool in stress response. Proteins of pathways necessary for normal growth, but harmful under stress conditions, as well as proteins damaged by stress have to be eliminated. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a model eukaryote, has evolved two different proteolytic systems: (i) a membrane-enveloped, vacuolar (lysosomal) system, which contains a variety of non-specific peptidases and (ii) highly specific peptidases residing at different cellular locations. The best characterized peptidase of the specific system is proteinase yscE, the proteasome equivalent found in all eukaryotic cells. Both the vacuolar and the non-vacuolar systems are vital components of the stress response in yeast.     

内质网应激介导的细胞凋亡

内质网是细胞内重要的细胞器,内质网功能的损伤引起ER应激(ERS).内质网通过激活未折叠蛋白质反应(UPR)以保护由内质网应激所引起的细胞损伤,恢复细胞功能,包括暂停早期蛋白质合成、内质网分子伴侣和折叠酶的转录激活、内质网相关性降解(ERAD)的诱导.长期过强的内质网应激诱导内质网相关性细胞凋亡,清除受损细胞,包括内质网应激诱导CHOP/GADD153表达、JNK的激活以及caspase-12蛋白水解酶的活化等一系列生物学效应.     

Stress-induced mutagenesis in bacteria

Bacteria spend their lives buffeted by changing environmental conditions. To adapt to and survive these stresses, bacteria have global response systems that result in sweeping changes in gene expression and cellular metabolism. These responses are controlled by master regulators, which include: alternative sigma factors, such as RpoS and RpoH; small molecule effectors, such as ppGpp; gene repressors such as LexA; and, inorganic molecules, such as polyphosphate. The response pathways extensively overlap and are induced to various extents by the same environmental stresses. These stresses include nutritional deprivation, DNA damage, temperature shift, and exposure to antibiotics. All of these global stress responses include functions that can increase genetic variability. In particular, up-regulation and activation of error-prone DNA polymerases, down-regulation of error-correcting enzymes, and movement of mobile genetic elements are common features of several stress responses. The result is that under a variety of stressful conditions, bacteria are induced for genetic change. This transient mutator state may be important for adaptive evolution.     

环境胁迫诱导的细胞适应性突变

细胞具有普遍的突变和进化能力, 如病原菌的抗药性、工业菌株的适应性和人体细胞的癌变等, 但是细胞的适应性突变是如何产生的呢？通过非致死性突变分析模型的建立与应用, 产生了新的适应性进化观点, 即环境胁迫诱导细胞适应性突变。这种环境诱导的细胞突变过程涉及多方面的生理调控, 包括细胞内毒性物质(如氧活性物质)积累并造成DNA损伤、DNA错配修复的活性受到抑制、胞内RpoS反应和SOS反应被激活等。这些反应使胞内高保真的DNA复制状态转变为低保真的DNA修复状态, 提高胞内突变率和重组活性。此外, 基因转录影响基因组的不稳定, 容易产生DNA损伤, 并造成局部的高突变率, 即形成了转录偶联的DNA修复与突变为基础的适应性突变观点。文章围绕环境胁迫诱导细胞突变率增加和转录偶联的DNA修复与突变这两种适应性突变分子机制, 阐述其相关的研究进展, 以期更好地理解环境条件诱导细胞发生适应性突变的过程。     

Stress-induced mutagenesis and complex adaptation

Because mutations are mostly deleterious, mutation rates should be reduced by natural selection. However, mutations also provide the raw material for adaptation. Therefore, evolutionary theory suggests that the mutation rate must balance between adaptability—the ability to adapt—and adaptedness—the ability to remain adapted. We model an asexual population crossing a fitness valley and analyse the rate of complex adaptation with and without stress-induced mutagenesis (SIM)—the increase of mutation rates in response to stress or maladaptation. We show that SIM increases the rate of complex adaptation without reducing the population mean fitness, thus breaking the evolutionary trade-off between adaptability and adaptedness. Our theoretical results support the hypothesis that SIM promotes adaptation and provide quantitative predictions of the rate of complex adaptation with different mutational strategies.     

Stress-induced thermoprotection of neuromuscular transmission

Environmental stresses such as high temperature or low levelsof oxygen can lead to structural destabilization of cells, disruptionof cellular processes, and, in extreme cases, death. Previousexperience of sub-lethal stress can lead to protection duringa subsequent stress that may otherwise have been lethal. Synapsesare particularly vulnerable to extreme environmental conditionsand failure of function at this level may be the primary causeof organismal death. Prior heat shock induces enhanced thermotoleranceat neuromuscular junctions in the locust extensor tibiae muscleand in abdominal muscles of larval Drosophila. Synaptic thermoprotectionis associated with an increase in short-term plasticity at thesesynapses. Prior anoxic coma in locusts induces synaptic thermotolerancesuggesting that the same protective pathways are activated.It is well established that diverse forms of stress induce theupregulation of cellular chaperones (heat shock proteins; HSPs)that mediate acquired protection. The mechanisms underlyingHSP-mediated synaptic protection are currently unknown but evidenceis accumulating that stabilization of the cytoskeleton may playan important role.     

Biochemical Pathway of Stress-induced Ethylene

Ethylene production from beam and tobacco leaves increased rapidly following the application of toxic compounds such as CuSO₄, Endothal, and ozone. Treatments which increased ethylene evolution also increased the conversion of U-¹⁴C-methionine into ethylene. Cycloheximide inhibited the production of chemical stress-induced ethylene. These results suggest that ethylene is produced by the same biochemical pathway forming basal ethylene, auxin-induced ethylene, or that produced during the ripening of climacteric fruit.     

Stress-induced protein S-glutathionylation in Arabidopsis

S-Glutathionylation (thiolation) is a ubiquitous redox-sensitive and reversible modification of protein cysteinyl residues that can directly regulate their activity. While well established in animals, little is known about the formation and function of these mixed disulfides in plants. After labeling the intracellular glutathione pool with [35S]cysteine, suspension cultures of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype Columbia) were shown to undergo a large increase in protein thiolation following treatment with the oxidant tert-butylhydroperoxide. To identify proteins undergoing thiolation, a combination of in vivo and in vitro labeling methods utilizing biotinylated, oxidized glutathione (GSSG-biotin) was developed to isolate Arabidopsis proteins/protein complexes that can be reversibly glutathionylated. Following two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry proteomics, a total of 79 polypeptides were identified, representing a mixture of proteins that underwent direct thiolation as well as proteins complexed with thiolated polypeptides. The mechanism of thiolation of five proteins, dehydroascorbate reductase (AtDHAR1), zeta-class glutathione transferase (AtGSTZ1), nitrilase (AtNit1), alcohol dehydrogenase (AtADH1), and methionine synthase (AtMetS), was studied using the respective purified recombinant proteins. AtDHAR1, AtGSTZ1, and to a lesser degree AtNit1 underwent spontaneous thiolation with GSSG-biotin through modification of active-site cysteines. The thiolation of AtADH1 and AtMetS required the presence of unidentified Arabidopsis proteins, with this activity being inhibited by S-modifying agents. The potential role of thiolation in regulating metabolism in Arabidopsis is discussed and compared with other known redox regulatory systems operating in plants.     

Stress-induced proteins of Agrobacterium tumefaciens

The pattern of proteins produced by bacteria represents the physiological state of the organism as well as the environmental conditions encountered. Environmental stress induces the expression of several regulons encoding stress proteins. Extensive information about the proteins which constitute these regulons (or stimulons) and their control is available for very few bacteria, such as the Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis and the Gram-negative Escherichia coli (gamma-proteobacteria) and is minimal for all other bacteria. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a Gram-negative plant pathogen of the alpha-proteobacteria, which constitutes the main tool for plant recombinant genetics. Our previous studies on the control of chaperone-coding operons indicated that A. tumefaciens has unique features and combines regulatory elements from both B. subtilis and E. coli. Therefore, we examined the patterns of proteins induced in A. tumefaciens by environmental changes using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and dual-channel image analysis. Shifts to high temperature, oxidative and mild acid stresses stimulated the expression of 97 proteins. The results indicate that most of these stress-induced proteins (80/97) were specific to one stress stimulon. Only 10 proteins appear to belong to a general stress regulon.     

Stress-induced out-of-context activation of memory

Inappropriate recollections and responses in stressful conditions are hallmarks of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety and mood disorders, but how stress contributes to the disorders is unclear. Here we show that stress itself reactivates memories even if the memory is unrelated to the stressful experience. Forced-swim stress one day after learning enhanced memory recall. One-day post-learning amnestic treatments were ineffective unless administered soon after the swim, indicating that a stressful experience itself can reactivate unrelated consolidated memories. The swim also triggered inter-hemispheric transfer of a lateralized memory, confirming stress reactivates stable memories. These novel effects of stress on memory required the hippocampus although the memories themselves did not, indicating hippocampus-dependent modulation of extra-hippocampal memories. These findings that a stressful experience itself can activate memory suggest the novel hypothesis that traumatic stress reactivates pre-trauma memories, linking them to memory for the trauma and pathological facilitation of post-traumatic recall.     

Stress-induced molecular rearrangement in tendon collagen

Tension-induced molecular rearrangements in wet native fibres of rat-tail tendons and human finger flexor tendons are registered with the help of time-resolved diffraction spectra using synchrotron radiation. The tension-induced increase of the 67 nm D period is combined with changes in the intensities of some orders of the meridional small angle reflection. Both effects are reversible when unloading the fibre, but are preserved when the load is held constant until the fibre tears. The increase in the D period is partly due to a sliding of the triple helices relative to each other and partly due to a stretching of the triple helices themselves. The sliding of the triple helices results in an alteration of the D stagger, leading to a change in the length of the gap and overlap regions, and to a stretching of the cross-linked telopeptides. This interpretation is supported by comparison with the relative intensities derived from a model with varying length of gap and overlap regions, as well as by comparison with model calculations that include the telopeptides.     

Stress-induced abscisic acid transients and stimulus-response-coupling

Loss of cell turgor and distortion of the plasma membrane occur as a result of dehydration and precede the stress-induced bulk increase in concentration of tissue abscisic acid. The latter has been correlated with induction of stress-related gene expression. However, several different stresses may trigger the same coupling mechanism. Thus, at least three signalling pathways have been proposed: abscisic acid-requiring, abscisic acid-responsive, and mechanosensory. In this paper, the role and contribution of stress-induced abscisic acid transients is examined in an attempt to explain apparent abscisic acid-dependent and -independent stimulus-response-coupling. Early, intermediate, and late response stages are defined within the stress-induced abscisic acid transient and at least four signalling mechanisms are identified. These include, early and late intracellular modulation of gene expression through depression and/or negative regulation, rapid membrane-initiated calcium release and ion channel activation, and late (slow) hormone-receptor induction of gene expression. An assessment of these proposed ABA signalling mechanisms in terms of AABA-dependent and -independent stimulus-response-coupling strongly suggests that rapid responses may not be a prerequisite for slow responses and that the receptor proteins involved have different steric requirements, i.e., they are tissue- and/or cell-specific.     

Stress-induced consumption of ethanol by rats

The natural aversion of rats to ethanol was overcome by subjecting rats to immobilization stress for a two-week period during which increasing concentrations of ethanol were offered in the drinking water. The rats subjected to this regimen consumed 47% of total calories as ethanol, indefinitely, following removal of the stress. Ethanol was consumed at a rate of 17.1 g/kg body weight along with sufficient stock diet to assure adequate nutrition in the absence of ethanol.     

Stress-induced rearrangement of Fusarium retrotransposon sequences

Rearrangement of Fusarium oxysporum retro- transposon skippy was induced by growth in the presence of potassium chlorate. Three fungal strains, one sensitive to chlorate (Co60) and two resistant to chlorate and deficient for nitrate reductase (Co65 and Co94), were studied by Southern analysis of their genomic DNA. Polymorphism was detected in their hybridization banding pattern, relative to the wild type grown in the absence of chlorate, using various enzymes with or without restriction sites within the retrotransposon. Results were consistent with the assumption that three different events had occurred in strain Co60: genomic amplification of skippy yielding tandem arrays of the element, generation of new skippy sequences, and deletion of skippy sequences. Amplification of Co60 genomic DNA using the polymerase chain reaction and divergent primers derived from the retrotransposon generated a new band, corresponding to one long terminal repeat plus flanking sequences, that was not present in the wild-type strain. Molecular analysis of nitrate reductase-deficient mutants showed that generation and deletion of skippy sequences, but not genomic amplification in tandem repeats, had occurred in their genomes.     

Stress-induced protein synthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Deoxyribonucleic acid base composition, deoxyribonucleic acid-deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization, and biochemical studies were performed on some enterococci from clinical sources of uncertain taxonomic position. Our results indicate that 6 human strains, a single clinical isolate and a strain from bovine mastitis are genetically distinct from each other and all other previously described Enterococcus species and constitute three new species, for which the names Enterococcus raffinosus, Enterococcus solitarius and Enterococcus pseudoavium are proposed.     

Stress-induced consumption of ethanol by rats

Rats were maintained in a continuous choice situation for consumption of either 0.1% aqueous saccharin or 10% ethanol- 0.1% saccharin with daily tube position reversal and 24 hour fluid consumption measurement. After a stabilized baseline was achieved, groups were exposed to either no stress, or to an unpredictable schedule of isolation or immobilization stress for 14 days. During baseline and stress-exposure periods, the rats consumed predominantly the saccharin solution. Upon cessation of the stress exposures the isolation and immobilization groups markedly increased their consumption of the ethanol solution, reaching intakes as high as 9.1 g/kg/24 hours in 2-3 weeks. In addition, after 3 weeks of ethanol consumption, placement of saccharin in both tubes resulted in the stressed animals preferentially consuming from the tube that should have contained ethanol. The results suggest that unpredictable exposure to stressful stimuli can, upon cessation of exposure, induce an alcohol consummatory behavior in rats.