A remarkable new Awas L?bl from southern China (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae)

A new distinctive species of the rare Oriental goniacerine genus Awas Löbl, Awas gigas sp. n., is described and illustrated, based on three males and fourteen females taken at the Daoyao Shan Natural Reserve in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi. All specimens were collected from colonies of the ant genus Pachycondyla F. Smith nesting in decomposing woods.     

Brucella suis vaccine strain S2-infected immortalized caprine endometrial epithelial cell lines induce non-apoptotic ER-stress

Brucella, which is regarded as an intracellular pathogen responsible for a zoonotic disease called brucellosis, survives and proliferates within several types of phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells. Brucella infects not only their preferred hosts but also other domestic and wild animal species, inducing abortion and infertility. Therefore, the interaction between uterine cells and Brucella is important for understanding the pathogenesis of this disease. In this study, we describe the Brucella suis vaccine strain S2 (B.suis.S2) infection and replication in the immortalized caprine endometrial epithelial cell line hTERT-EECs and the induced cellular and molecular response modulation in vitro. We found that B.suis S2 was able to infect and replicate to high titers and inhibit the proliferation of EECs and induce non-apoptotic pathways, as determined by B.suis.S2 detection using MTT and acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) staining and flow cytometry. We explored the evidence of non-apoptotic pathways using real-time quantitative RT-PCR and by western blot analysis. Finally, we discovered the over-expression of GRP78, ATF4, ATF6, PERK, eIF2α, CHOP, and cytochrome c (Cyt-c) but not IRE1, xbp-1, and caspase-3 in B.suis.S2 (HK)-attacked and B.suis.S2-infected cells, suggesting that the molecular mechanism of ER stress sensor activation by B.suis.S2 is basically concomitant with that by B.suis.S2 (HK) and that ER stress, especially the PERK pathway, plays an important role in the process of B.suis.S2 infecting EEC, which may, in part, explain the role of the uterus in the pathogenesis of B.suis.S2.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12192-014-0564-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Protein kinase FgSch9 serves as a mediator of the target of rapamycin and high osmolarity glycerol pathways and regulates multiple stress responses and secondary metabolism in Fusarium graminearum

Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein kinase Sch9 is one of the downstream effectors of the target of rapamycin (TOR) complex 1 and plays multiple roles in stress resistance, longevity and nutrient sensing. However, the functions of Sch9 orthologs in filamentous fungi, particularly in pathogenic species, have not been characterized to date. Here, we investigated biological and genetic functions of FgSch9 in Fusarium graminearum. The FgSCH9 deletion mutant (ΔFgSch9) was defective in aerial hyphal growth, hyphal branching and conidial germination. The mutant exhibited increased sensitivity to osmotic and oxidative stresses, cell wall‐damaging agents, and to rapamycin, while showing increased thermal tolerance. We identified FgMaf1 as one of the FgSch9‐interacting proteins that plays an important role in regulating mycotoxin biosynthesis and virulence of F. graminearum. Co‐immunoprecipitation and affinity capture‐mass spectrometry assays showed that FgSch9 also interacts with FgTor and FgHog1. More importantly, both ΔFgSch9 and FgHog1 null mutant (ΔFgHog1) exhibited increased sensitivity to osmotic and oxidative stresses. This defect was more severe in the FgSch9/FgHog1 double mutant. Taken together, we propose that FgSch9 serves as a mediator of the TOR and high osmolarity glycerol pathways, and regulates vegetative differentiation, multiple stress responses and secondary metabolism in F. graminearum.     

Species-specific duplications driving the recent expansion of NBS-LRR genes in five Rosaceae species

Background

Disease resistance (R) genes from different Rosaceae species have been identified by map-based cloning for resistance breeding. However, there are few reports describing the pattern of R-gene evolution in Rosaceae species because several Rosaceae genome sequences have only recently become available.

Results

Since most disease resistance genes encode NBS-LRR proteins, we performed a systematic genome-wide survey of NBS-LRR genes between five Rosaceae species, namely Fragaria vesca (strawberry), Malus × domestica (apple), Pyrus bretschneideri (pear), Prunus persica (peach) and Prunus mume (mei) which contained 144, 748, 469, 354 and 352 NBS-LRR genes, respectively. A high proportion of multi-genes and similar Ks peaks (Ks = 0.1- 0.2) of gene families in the four woody genomes were detected. A total of 385 species-specific duplicate clades were observed in the phylogenetic tree constructed using all 2067 NBS-LRR genes. High percentages of NBS-LRR genes derived from species-specific duplication were found among the five genomes (61.81% in strawberry, 66.04% in apple, 48.61% in pear, 37.01% in peach and 40.05% in mei). Furthermore, the Ks and Ka/Ks values of TIR-NBS-LRR genes (TNLs) were significantly greater than those of non-TIR-NBS-LRR genes (non-TNLs), and most of the NBS-LRRs had Ka/Ks ratios less than 1, suggesting that they were evolving under a subfunctionalization model driven by purifying selection.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that recent duplications played an important role in the evolution of NBS-LRR genes in the four woody perennial Rosaceae species. Based on the phylogenetic tree produced, it could be inferred that species-specific duplication has mainly contributed to the expansion of NBS-LRR genes in the five Rosaceae species. In addition, the Ks and Ka/Ks ratios suggest that the rapidly evolved TNLs have different evolutionary patterns to adapt to different pathogens compared with non-TNL resistant genes.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-1291-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of the endophytic fungus Pestalotiopsis fici reveals its lifestyle and high potential for synthesis of natural products

Background

In recent years, the genus Pestalotiopsis is receiving increasing attention, not only because of its economic impact as a plant pathogen but also as a commonly isolated endophyte which is an important source of bioactive natural products. Pestalotiopsis fici Steyaert W106-1/CGMCC3.15140 as an endophyte of tea produces numerous novel secondary metabolites, including chloropupukeananin, a derivative of chlorinated pupukeanane that is first discovered in fungi. Some of them might be important as the drug leads for future pharmaceutics.

Results

Here, we report the genome sequence of the endophytic fungus of tea Pestalotiopsis fici W106-1/CGMCC3.15140. The abundant carbohydrate-active enzymes especially significantly expanding pectinases allow the fungus to utilize the limited intercellular nutrients within the host plants, suggesting adaptation of the fungus to endophytic lifestyle. The P. fici genome encodes a rich set of secondary metabolite synthesis genes, including 27 polyketide synthases (PKSs), 12 non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPSs), five dimethylallyl tryptophan synthases, four putative PKS-like enzymes, 15 putative NRPS-like enzymes, 15 terpenoid synthases, seven terpenoid cyclases, seven fatty-acid synthases, and five hybrids of PKS-NRPS. The majority of these core enzymes distributed into 74 secondary metabolite clusters. The putative Diels-Alderase genes have undergone expansion.

Conclusion

The significant expansion of pectinase encoding genes provides essential insight in the life strategy of endophytes, and richness of gene clusters for secondary metabolites reveals high potential of natural products of endophytic fungi.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-014-1190-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.