Apple Sucrose Transporter SUT1 and Sorbitol Transporter SOT6 Interact with Cytochrome b5 to Regulate Their Affinity for Substrate Sugars

Sugar transporters are central machineries to mediate cross-membrane transport of sugars into the cells, and sugar availability may serve as a signal to regulate the sugar transporters. However, the mechanisms of sugar transport regulation by signal sugar availability remain unclear in plant and animal cells. Here, we report that a sucrose transporter, MdSUT1, and a sorbitol transporter, MdSOT6, both localized to plasma membrane, were identified from apple (Malus domestica) fruit. Using a combination of the split-ubiquitin yeast two-hybrid, immunocoprecipitation, and bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays, the two distinct sugar transporters were shown to interact physically with an apple endoplasmic reticulum-anchored cytochrome b5 MdCYB5 in vitro and in vivo. In the yeast systems, the two different interaction complexes function to up-regulate the affinity of the sugar transporters, allowing cells to adapt to sugar starvation. An Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) homolog of MdCYB5, AtCYB5-A, also interacts with the two sugar transporters and functions similarly. The point mutations leucine-73 → proline in MdSUT1 and leucine-117 → proline in MdSOT6, disrupting the bimolecular interactions but without significantly affecting the transporter activities, abolish the stimulating effects of the sugar transporter-cytochrome b5 complex on the affinity of the sugar transporters. However, the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cytochrome b5 ScCYB5, an additional interacting partner of the two plant sugar transporters, has no function in the regulation of the sugar transporters, indicating that the observed biological functions in the yeast systems are specific to plant cytochrome b5s. These findings suggest a novel mechanism by which the plant cells tailor sugar uptake to the surrounding sugar availability.     

Fragile X mental retardation protein is required for chemically-induced long-term potentiation of the hippocampus in adult mice

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), a common form of inherited mental retardation, is caused by the lack of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP). The animal model of FXS, Fmr1 knockout mice, have deficits in the Morris water maze and trace fear memory tests, showing impairment in hippocampus-dependent learning and memory. However, results for synaptic long-term potentiation (LTP), a key cellular model for learning and memory, remain inconclusive in the hippocampus of Fmr1 knockout mice. Here, we demonstrate that FMRP is required for glycine induced LTP (Gly-LTP) in the CA1 of hippocampus. This form of LTP requires activation of post-synaptic NMDA receptors and metabotropic glutamateric receptors, as well as the subsequent activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2. However, paired-pulse facilitation was not affected by glycine treatment. Genetic deletion of FMRP interrupted the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, suggesting the possible role of FMRP in the regulation of the activity of ERK1/2. Our study provide strong evidences that FMRP participates in Gly-LTP in the hippocampus by regulating the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, and that improper regulation of these signaling pathways may contribute to the learning and memory deficits observed in FXS.     

Identification and characterization of FHL3 as a novel angiogenin-binding partner

Angiogenin (Ang) is known to induce cell proliferation and inhibit apoptosis by cellular signaling pathways and by direct nuclear functions of Ang, but the mechanism of action for Ang is not yet clear. The aim of present study was to identify novel binding partner of Ang and to explore the underlying mechanism. With the use of yeast two-hybrid screening system, Ang was used as the bait to screen human fetal hepatic cDNA library for interacting proteins. Four and a half LIM domains 3 (FHL3) was identified as a novel Ang binding partner. The interaction between Ang and the full length FHL3 was further confirmed by yeast two-hybrid assay, co-immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assays. Furthermore, FHL3 was required for Ang-mediated HeLa cell proliferation and nuclear translocation of Ang. These findings suggest that the interaction between Ang and FHL3 may provide some clues to the mechanisms of Ang-regulated cell growth and apoptosis.     

Absence of RIPK3 predicts necroptosis resistance in malignant melanoma

Acquired or intrinsic resistance to apoptotic and necroptotic stimuli is considered a major hindrance of therapeutic success in malignant melanoma. Inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) are important regulators of apoptotic and necroptotic cell death mediated by numerous cell death signalling platforms. In this report we investigated the impact of IAPs for cell death regulation in malignant melanoma. Suppression of IAPs strongly sensitized a panel of melanoma cells to death ligand-induced cell death, which, surprisingly, was largely mediated by apoptosis, as it was completely rescued by addition of caspase inhibitors. Interestingly, the absence of necroptosis signalling correlated with a lack of receptor-interacting protein kinase-3 (RIPK3) mRNA and protein expression in all cell lines, whereas primary melanocytes and cultured nevus cells strongly expressed RIPK3. Reconstitution of RIPK3, but not a RIPK3-kinase dead mutant in a set of melanoma cell lines overcame CD95L/IAP antagonist-induced necroptosis resistance independent of autocrine tumour necrosis factor secretion. Using specific inhibitors, functional studies revealed that RIPK3-mediated mixed-lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL) phosphorylation and necroptosis induction critically required receptor-interacting protein kinase-1 signalling. Furthermore, the inhibitor of mutant BRAF Dabrafenib, but not Vemurafenib, inhibited necroptosis in melanoma cells whenever RIPK3 is present. Our data suggest that loss of RIPK3 in melanoma and selective inhibition of the RIPK3/MLKL axis by BRAF inhibitor Dabrafenib, but not Vemurafenib, is critical to protect from necroptosis. Strategies that allow RIPK3 expression may allow unmasking the necroptotic signalling machinery in melanoma and points to reactivation of this pathway as a treatment option for metastatic melanoma.Over the past few years, necroptosis has been established as an alternative programmed form of cell death, contrasting caspase-dependent apoptosis. It is now evident that an ordered activation of the receptor-interacting protein kinases-1 and -3 (RIPK1 and RIPK3), and their downstream substrates is mandatory for the execution of necroptosis.^{1, 2, 3} Under caspase-limited conditions, the necroptotic cell signalling machinery is regulated by RIPK1, with the impact of scaffolding function as compared with kinase function still unclear.^{1, 4, 5, 6} RIPK1 interacts with and either autophosphorylates or transphosphorylates RIPK3 (for review, see Cho et al.,¹ Zhang et al.,² He et al.,³ and Vanden Berghe et al.⁷). When RIPK1 is active, RIPK3 phosphorylation and activation occurs within the assembled Necrosome (for review, see Remijsen et al.⁸) or Ripoptosome.^{4, 9, 10} RIPK3 then phosphorylates the pseudo kinase mixed-lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL).¹¹ MLKL in its active form allows its oligomerization, membrane accumulation, and complex formation within cellular membranes of the mitochondria¹² and cell membranes,¹³ and finally results in necroptosis.¹⁴The RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL signalling network acts as a sensor for genotoxic stress⁹ and also has a key role in necroptosis regulation in keratinocyte skin cancer (SCC).⁴ In these epithelial cancers, cellular inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (cIAPs) block both apoptotic and necroptotic cell death.^{4, 5} Both apoptosis and necroptosis can be increasingly initiated by intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli when IAPs are suppressed by IAP antagonist. Extrinsic apoptosis mediated by activation of death receptors (DRs) such as cluster of differentiation 95 (CD95), TRAILR1/R2 or tumour necrosis factor receptor-1 (TNFR1) through ligation of respective death ligands (DLs) such as CD95L, TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), and TNF initiates apoptosis either by direct activation of the caspase cascade (caspase-8/caspase-3) or via the intrinsic cell death signalling machinery regulated by pro-apoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family followed by caspase-3 activation.¹⁵ Inhibition of caspase-8 within the death-inducing signalling complex or complex II, or within the Ripoptosome can trigger CD95L-mediated,⁵ TRAIL-mediated¹⁶ or TNF-induced necroptosis.^{8, 17} A role for apoptosis resistance, cancer maintenance, and progression is widely assumed (for review, see Obexer et al.¹⁸), but the pathophysiological inhibitory or propagating function of necroptosis has not formally been demonstrated in cancer.Metastatic melanoma has an overall poor prognosis but novel therapeutics have revolutionized clinical practice for different subsets of patients. The use of inhibitors of the V600E- or V600K-mutated proto-oncogene serine/threonine protein kinase B-RAF (e.g., Dabrafenib or Vemurafenib) results in suppression of Ras/Raf/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways and translate into unfortunately transient clinical responses (for review, see Spagnolo et al.¹⁹). The high recrudescence of metastatic melanoma following the treatment with BRAF inhibitors will potentially require combination therapies that activate additional tumour-inhibitory pathways. Combinations such as BRAF inhibitors with mitogen-activated protein/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase (MEK) inhibitors have already yielded impressive results²⁰ and other combination therapies may further improve clinical outcome.²¹ As BRAF inhibitors target the cell death pathway at best in an indirect manner, we reasoned that necroptosis induction could represent a novel option to improve melanoma therapy. Our investigations demonstrate for the first time that loss of RIPK3 during melanoma development is critical for necroptosis protection. Reactivation of the RIPK1/RIPK3/MLKL signalling machinery by RIPK3 reconstitution allows IAP antagonist/DL-mediated necroptosis in the presence of Vemurafenib, but not Dabrafenib. Here, Dabrafenib blocks necroptosis by interference with RIPK3-mediated MLKL phosphorylation. Therefore, strategies that increase RIPK3 expression in combination with Vemurafenib, but not Dabrafenib, likely represent an attractive strategy to overcome cell death resistance in melanoma.     

Responses of two kidney bean (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Phaseolus vulgaris</Emphasis>) cultivars to the combined stress of sulfur deficiency and cadmium toxicity

Plants suffer from combined stress of sulfur deficiency and cadmium toxicity in some agricultural lands. However, little is known about the reaction in plants, such as responses in antioxidant enzymes and non-protein thiol compounds, to such combined stress. Therefore, in this study, four treatments, S-sufficiency (T_S?Cd), S-deficiency (T_?S?Cd), Cd stress (T_S+Cd) and combined stress of S-deficiency and Cd stress (T_?S+Cd), were set up to investigate (1) the effects of sulfur deficiency or sulfur sufficiency on Cd toxicity to kidney bean cultivar seedlings and the related mechanisms, and (2) the responses of two kidney bean cultivars to combined stress of S-deficiency and Cd-tolerance. The results showed significant increases in hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde contents and significant increases in antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, and glutathione S-transferase) activities and non-protein thiol compounds (non-protein thiols, reduced glutathione, phytochelatins) synthesis in the plants in T_S+Cd and T_?S+Cd. On the tissue level, higher proportion of Cd was found to be immobilized/deposited in roots, while on the sub-cell level, higher proportion of Cd was located in cell walls and vacuole fractions with lower in cell organelles. Taken together, the results indicated that Cd detoxification was achieved by the two kidney bean cultivars through antioxidant enzyme activation, non-protein thiol compound synthesis and sub-cellular compartmentalization. In addition, the results indicated that sufficient S supply helped to relieve Cd toxicity, which is of special significance for remediation or utilization of Cd-contaminated soils as S is a plant essential nutrient.     

Language Differences in the Brain Network for Reading in Naturalistic Story Reading and Lexical Decision

Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English) and morpho-syllabic (Chinese) writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG) and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG) were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.     

一株生淀粉酶产生菌的分离鉴定及酶学性质研究

采用苔酚蓝-生淀粉法从贵州遵义百年磨坊的磨盘下的土样中筛选得到一株具有生淀粉降解能力的丝状真菌,经形态学鉴定和ITS核苷酸序列比对确定该菌为Rhizopus microsporusvar.chinensis。本文首次报道了由Rhizopus microsporus var.chinensis产生的生淀粉酶。通过酶学性质研究发现,该菌株所产生淀粉酶拥有较好的温度耐受性和较宽的pH适用范围,具有一定的工业应用价值。     

Facilitation promotes invasions in plant‐associated microbial communities

While several studies have established a positive correlation between community diversity and invasion resistance, it is less clear how species interactions within resident communities shape this process. Here, we experimentally tested how antagonistic and facilitative pairwise interactions within resident model microbial communities predict invasion by the plant–pathogenic bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum. We found that facilitative resident community interactions promoted and antagonistic interactions suppressed invasions both in the lab and in the tomato plant rhizosphere. Crucially, pairwise interactions reliably explained observed invasion outcomes also in multispecies communities, and mechanistically, this was linked to direct inhibition of the invader by antagonistic communities (antibiosis), and to a lesser degree by resource competition between members of the resident community and the invader. Together, our findings suggest that the type and strength of pairwise interactions can reliably predict the outcome of invasions in more complex multispecies communities.