Genomewide survey and characterization of metacaspase gene family in rice (Oryza sativa)

Metacaspases (MCs), which are cysteine-dependent proteases found in plants, fungi, and protozoa, may be involved in programmed cell death processes, being distant relatives of metazoan caspases. In this study, we analysed the structures, phylogenetic relationship, genome localizations, expression patterns and domestic selections of eight MC genes identified in rice (OsMC). Alignment analysis of the corresponding protein sequences suggested OsMC proteins can be classified into two subtypes. The expression profiles of eight OsMC genes were analysed in 27 tissues covering the whole life cycle of rice. There are four OsMC genes uniquely expressed in mature tissues, indicating that these genes might play certain roles in senescence. Under abiotic and biotic stresses, four OsMC genes were expressed with treatments of one or more of Magnaporthe oryzae (M. oryzae) infected, pest damaged, cold stress and drought stress, indicating they might be involved in plant defense. In addition, gene trees and genetic diversity (π) were performed to measure whether candidate genes were selected during rice domestication. The results suggested that all the type I genes could not be domestication genes. However, two of five type II OsMC genes showed strong evidence for selective sweep, suggesting that these genes might be involved in cultivated rice domestication. These results provide a foundation for future functional genomic studies of this family in rice.     

Protein profile of rice (Oryza sativa) seeds

Seeds are the most important plant storage organ and play a central role in the life cycle of plants. Since little is known about the protein composition of rice (Oryza sativa) seeds, in this work we used proteomic methods to obtain a reference map of rice seed proteins and identify important molecules. Overall, 480 reproducible protein spots were detected by two-dimensional electrophoresis on pH 4–7 gels and 302 proteins were identified by MALDI-TOF MS and database searches. Together, these proteins represented 252 gene products and were classified into 12 functional categories, most of which were involved in metabolic pathways. Database searches combined with hydropathy plots and gene ontology analysis showed that most rice seed proteins were hydrophilic and were related to binding, catalytic, cellular or metabolic processes. These results expand our knowledge of the rice proteome and improve our understanding of the cellular biology of rice seeds.     

杂草稻落粒粳的抗逆境特性研究

杂草稻落粒粳（Oryza sativa）发生在我国辽宁丹东.落粒粳植株明显高于当地大多数栽培品种,颖果呈中长型,成熟后容易掉粒;果壳稻草色或黄间黑灰色,小穗无芒或有芒,芒长4～12 cm;颖果千粒重235 g,种皮桔红色.落粒粳种子在13～38 ℃条件下的发芽率均大于88%,水层2.5～10 cm处理,落粒粳植株干重减少50%～69%.在幼苗期,落粒粳对无芒稗的各项影响因子均明显大于化感潜力品种I-kung-pao,表明落粒粳无化感作用.落粒粳可以忍耐0.5%的盐碱.     

Oxygen dynamics in submerged rice (Oryza sativa)

Complete submergence of plants prevents direct O(2) and CO(2) exchange with air. Underwater photosynthesis can result in marked diurnal changes in O(2) supply to submerged plants. Dynamics in pO(2) had not been measured directly for submerged rice (Oryza sativa), but in an earlier study, radial O(2) loss from roots showed an initial peak following shoot illumination. O(2) dynamics in shoots and roots of submerged rice were monitored during light and dark periods, using O(2) microelectrodes. Tissue sugar concentrations were also measured. On illumination of shoots of submerged rice, pO(2) increased rapidly and then declined slightly to a new quasi-steady state. An initial peak was evident first in the shoots and then in the roots, and was still observed when 20 mol m(-3) glucose was added to the medium to ensure substrate supply in roots. At the new quasi-steady state following illumination, sheath pO(2) was one order of magnitude higher than in darkness, enhancing also pO(2) in roots. The initial peak in pO(2) following illumination of submerged rice was likely to result from high initial rates of net photosynthesis, fuelled by CO(2) accumulated during the dark period. Nevertheless, since sugars decline with time in submerged rice, substrate limitation of respiration could also contribute to morning peaks in pO(2) after longer periods of submergence.     

A phosphoproteomic landscape of rice (Oryza sativa) tissues

Protein phosphorylation is an important posttranslational modification that regulates various plant developmental processes. Here, we report a comprehensive, quantitative phosphoproteomic profile of six rice tissues, including callus, leaf, root, shoot meristem, young panicle and mature panicle from Nipponbare by employing a mass spectrometry (MS)‐based, label‐free approach. A total of 7171 unique phosphorylation sites in 4792 phosphopeptides from 2657 phosphoproteins were identified, of which 4613 peptides were differentially phosphorylated (DP) among the tissues. Motif‐X analysis revealed eight significantly enriched motifs, such as [sP], [Rxxs] and [tP] from the rice phosphosites. Hierarchical clustering analysis divided the DP peptides into 63 subgroups, which showed divergent spatial‐phosphorylation patterns among tissues. These clustered proteins are functionally related to nutrition uptake in roots, photosynthesis in leaves and tissue differentiation in panicles. Phosphorylations were specific in the tissues where the target proteins execute their functions, suggesting that phosphorylation might be a key mechanism to regulate the protein activity in different tissues. This study greatly expands the rice phosphoproteomic dataset, and also offers insight into the regulatory roles of phosphorylation in tissue development and functions.     

Genome-wide analysis and environmental response profiling of SOT family genes in rice (Oryza sativa)

Sulphotransferase (SOT) catalyses the transfer of a sulphonate group from 3??-phosphoadenosine 5??-phosphosulphate (PAPS) to an appropriate hydroxyl group of various substrates with the parallel formation of 3??-phosphoadenosine 5??-phosphate (PAP). Although several SOTs have been identified and characterized in mammalian, their role in plant is still unclear. In this study, we report genome-wide comprehensive expression analysis of 35 putative SOT genes in rice. The 35 OsSOTs were tandemly arranged into six clusters. The phylogenetic analysis showed that there were 7 subfamilies of OsSOTs and 11 putatively conserved motifs. Six OsSOTs might be pseudogenes, 25 have the two motifs which were involved in PAPS binding regions I and IV. Microarray data indicated that all the OsSOTs were expressed almost at the same level but with different patterns: most OsSOTs were expressed exclusively in stigma and ovary and induced by IAA and BAP, several genes were induced by tZ and DMSO and 11 OsSOTs were response to abiotic stress. Further analysis showed that these 11 genes contained cis-regulatory elements responding to abiotic stresses.     

Proteomic analysis of rice (Oryza sativa) seeds during germination

Although seed germination is a major subject in plant physiological research, there is still a long way to go to elucidate the mechanism of seed germination. Recently, functional genomic strategies have been applied to study the germination of plant seeds. Here, we conducted a proteomic analysis of seed germination in rice (Oryza sativa indica cv. 9311) - a model monocot. Comparison of 2-DE maps showed that there were 148 proteins displayed differently in the germination process of rice seeds. Among the changed proteins, 63 were down-regulated, 69 were up-regulated (including 20 induced proteins). The down-regulated proteins were mainly storage proteins, such as globulin and glutelin, and proteins associated with seed maturation, such as "early embryogenesis protein" and "late embryogenesis abundant protein", and proteins related to desiccation, such as "abscisic acid-induced protein" and "cold-regulated protein". The degradation of storage proteins mainly happened at the late stage of germination phase II (48 h imbibition), while that of seed maturation and desiccation associated proteins occurred at the early stage of phase II (24 h imbibition). In addition to alpha-amylase, the up-regulated proteins were mainly those involved in glycolysis such as UDP-glucose dehydrogenase, fructokinase, phosphoglucomutase, and pyruvate decarboxylase. The results reflected the possible biochemical and physiological processes of germination of rice seeds.     

Molecular analyses of the metallothionein gene family in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Metallothioneins are a group of low molecular mass and cysteine-rich metal-binding proteins, ubiquitously found in most living organisms. They play an important role in maintaining intracellular metal homeostasis, eliminating metal toxification and protecting against intracellular oxidative damages. Analysis of complete rice genome sequences revealed eleven genes encoding putative metallothionein (OsMT), indicating that OsMTs constitute a small gene family in rice. Expression profiling revealed that each member of the OsMT gene family differs not only in sequence but also in their tissue expression patterns, suggesting that these isoforms may have different functions they perform in specific tissues. On the basis of OsMT structural and phylogenetic analysis, the OsMT family was classified as two classes and class I was subdivided into four types. Additionally, in this paper we also present a complete overview of this family, describing the gene structure, genome localization, upstream regulatory element, and exon/intron organization of each member in order to provide valuable insight into this OsMT gene family.     

The serine carboxypeptidase like gene family of rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica)

Serine carboxypeptidases (SCPs) comprise a large family of protein hydrolyzing enzymes and have roles ranging from protein turnover and C-terminal processing to wound responses and xenobiotic metabolism. The proteins can be classified into three groups, namely carboxypeptidase I, II and III, based on their coding protein sequences and the fact that each family is characterized by a central catalytic domain of unique topology designated as the “α/β hydrolase fold”. The available SCP protein sequences have been utilized as datasets to build a HMM (hidden Markov model) profile, which is used to search the rice (Oryza sativa L. ssp. japonica) proteome. A total of 71 SCP and serine carboxypeptidase-like (SCPL) protein-coding genes exist in rice. The intron-exon structure, chromosome localization, expression and characteristics of encoded protein sequences of the 71 putative genes are reviewed.     

水稻水溶性环氧化合物水解酶的生物信息学分析

水溶性环氧化合物水解酶（Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase,SEH）是一组催化环氧化合物水解为相应邻位二醇的酶类,在哺乳动物、植物、昆虫和微生物体内广泛存在。通过BLAST对水稻基因组的蛋白质数据库进行搜索,获得10个水溶性环氧化物水解酶（Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase SEH）sEH蛋白的同源序列。经分析发现这些基因在水稻不同胁迫处理下各个部位都有所表达,而且不同成员之间的表达模式存在较大的差异。水稻sEH蛋白主要参与角质层形成,应激反应,以及病原防御等生理过程,特别在脱毒过程中扮演着重要的角色。对蛋白质多序列联配和三级结构预测结果表明：水溶性环氧化合物水解酶的核心结构域由3个催化残基Asp、His和Asp形成三位一体的催化活性构象。这类基因的表达受抗逆环境诱导,其功能与抗逆性有关,为基因工程抗逆育种提供了参考。     

The mechanism of phloem loading in rice (Oryza sativa)

Carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, that are synthesized in source organs are transported to sink organs to support growth and development. Phloem loading of sucrose is a crucial step that drives long-distance transport by elevating hydrostatic pressure in the phloem. Three phloem loading strategies have been identified, two active mechanisms, apoplastic loading via sucrose transporters and symplastic polymer trapping, and one passive mechanism. The first two active loading mechanisms require metabolic energy, carbohydrate is loaded into the phloem against a concentration gradient. The passive process, diffusion, involves equilibration of sucrose and other metabolites between cells through plasmodesmata. Many higher plant species including Arabidopsis utilize the active loading mechanisms to increase carbohydrate in the phloem to higher concentrations than that in mesophyll cells. In contrast, recent data revealed that a large number of plants, especially woody species, load sucrose passively by maintaining a high concentration in mesophyll cells. However, it still remains to be determined how the worldwide important cereal crop, rice, loads sucrose into the phloem in source organs. Based on the literature and our results, we propose a potential strategy of phloem loading in rice. Elucidation of the phloem loading mechanism should improve our understanding of rice development and facilitate its manipulation towards the increase of crop productivity.     

Genetics of amylose content in rice (Oryza sativa L)

Inheritance of amylose content was studied in crosses involving very low-, intermediate-, and high-amylose parents. The single-grain analysis of parents, F₁, F₂, B₁F₁, and B₂F₁ seed from a single-season harvest, showed that the parental mean difference of 14–17 % in IR37307-8/BPI 121-407 or IR37307-8/IR24632-34 and about 20% in the cross IR37307-8/IR8 were controlled by a single gene with major effect, along with some minor genes and/or modifiers. The appearance of segregants inbetween the two parents was attributed to gene dosage effects in the endosperm. The results indicate that selection for amylose level can effectively be done in early segregating generations. Selection for intermediary segregants would be ineffective because the dosage effects would dissipate in further generations.