Exogenous 24-Epibrassinolide Alleviates Effects of Salt Stress on Chloroplasts and Photosynthesis in Robinia pseudoacacia L. Seedlings

Journal of Plant Growth Regulation - The brassinosteroids (BRs) constitute a recently defined class of plant hormone that can enhance the resistance of plants to multiple stresses. However, the...     

PLC1 and H2O2 Mediated the Allelopathic Effect of Oridonin on Root Growth in Arabidopsis thaliana

Oridonin is a diterpenoid isolated from medicinal herb Rabdosia rubescens (Hemsl.) Hara (Lamiaceae), which has an allelopathic effect on plants. Phospholipase C (PLC1) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) are involved in many biotic or abiotic stress responses. Using the 16-day-old seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana ecotype (WT) and PLC1-deficient mutant (plc1) as materials (treated with 10 μM or 60 μM oridonin for 72 h), the effect of oridonin on root growth regulating by PLC1 and H₂O₂ was investigated. The results showed that the promoting of root growth was about 6.9% at 10 μmol L^?1 oridonin and the inhibiting of root growth was about 19.73% at 60 μmol L^?1 oridonin in WT, the inhibiting of root growth was about 10.5% and 41.2% at 10 mol L^?1 and 60 mol L^?1 oridonin, respectively, in plc1. The expression of ARR1, ARR12, and AHK3 was promoted at low concentrations of oridonin and inhibited at high concentrations in WT, whereas the expression of ARR1 and ARR12 was inhibited with the increase of oridonin concentration in plc1. This suggested that PLC1 was involved in the root growth regulation of oridonin. H₂O₂ was promoted by oridonin with concentration dependence pattern in root cells. Oridonin increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes in both WT and plc1, but the activity of antioxidant enzymes in plc1 was lower than WT. This indicated that PLC1 involved in the activation of antioxidant enzymes promoted by the oridonin. Exogenous CaCl₂ facilitated the accumulation of H₂O₂ in both WT and plc1. And the H₂O₂ of WT was obviously higher than that of plc1. The root growth of WT was inhibited by CaCl₂ with the increase of oridonin. However, there is no effect of CaCl₂ on the root growth in plc1. This reflected that PLC1 positively involved in the regulation of Ca²⁺ on the H₂O₂ and the inhibition effect of Ca²⁺ on the root growth under oridonin treatment. PA promoted the H₂O₂ and suppressed the root growth under oridonin treatment in both WT and plc1. In plc1, PA facilitated the root growth with no oridonin and inhibited the root growth with the increase of oridonin. This reflected that PLC1 positively regulated the promotion effect of PA on the root growth under high oridonin treatment. PLC1 mediated oridonin (10 and 60 mol L^?1) to regulate H₂O₂ levels in A. thaliana seedlings, thereby regulating root tip cell morphology and mitosis. These results demonstrated that PLC1 mediated the low-promotion and high-inhibition effect of oridonin on the root growth in A. thaliana by regulating the concentrations of Ca²⁺ and PA, and further affecting the intracellular H₂O₂ level.

     

Histone methyltransferase G9a and H3K9 dimethylation inhibit the self-renewal of glioma cancer stem cells

Epigenetic modification is crucial to keep the self-renewal and the “stemness” states of stem cells, not letting them to differentiate. The actual roles of Histone 3 Lysine 9 dimethylation (H3K9me2) and its methyltransferase G9a in this process are still unclear, especially in cancer stem cells. In our study, we found an interesting observation that most CD133-positive cells were H3K9me2 negative, both in glioma tissues and in cultured cells, although most cancer cells were detected to be H3K9me2 immunopositive. This implied that the G9a-dependent H3K9me2 was one of the crucial barriers of cancer stem cell self-renewal. To test the hypothesis, we examined the loss-of-function and gain-of-function of G9a. We found that bix01294, the selective inhibitor of G9a, can stimulate the sphere formation rate of glioma cancer stem cells, together with increasing Sox2 and CD133 expressions. The increase of CD133-active stem cells was confirmed by flow cytometry. On the other aspect, overexpression of G9a increased the H3K9me2 and decreased the sphere formation rate as well as the CD133 and Sox2 expressions. Since H3K9me2 modification is the major repressive switch, we predict that the repressive H3K9me2 modification may happen at the CD133 promoter regions. By chromatin precipitation assay, we confirmed that the CD133 and Sox2 promoter regions were modified by the H3K9me2. Therefore, we concluded that the G9a-dependent H3K9me2 repression on CD133 and Sox2 was one of the main switches of the self-renewal in glioma cancer stem cells.     

冬凌草甲素对拟南芥种子萌发和幼苗生长的化感作用

以拟南芥为供试材料,研究了二萜化合物冬凌草甲素(oridonin)对拟南芥种子萌发、幼苗生长及生理特性的化感作用。结果表明:(1)各浓度冬凌草甲素处理均降低了拟南芥种子的发芽率、发芽势、发芽指数和种子活力指数;至最终萌发时间,120μmol/L冬凌草甲素处理的种子发芽率、发芽势和发芽指数、种子活力指数分别为对照的87.76%、70.37%、83.19%、27.72%,说明高浓度的冬凌草甲素对拟南芥种子发芽率、发芽势、发芽指数和种子活力指数均有显著抑制作用,且对种子活力指数的影响最为显著。(2)冬凌草甲素处理后培养拟南芥幼苗2周,60μmol/L冬凌草甲素处理的拟南芥根甚至出现侧根不生长的现象;120μmol/L冬凌草甲素处理的幼苗主根长度比对照组降低了79.05%,其鲜重、干重和相对含水量分别降为对照的58.41%、63.33%和93.91%。(3)不同浓度和时间的冬凌草甲素处理整体上显著促进了拟南芥幼苗体内渗透调节物质可溶性蛋白和脯氨酸的积累。研究发现,冬凌草甲素对拟南芥种子萌发及生长表现出不同程度的化感抑制作用,该抑制作用与冬凌草甲素的处理浓度及处理时间均密切相关;拟南芥幼苗能通过增加自身渗透调节物质积累在一定程度上缓解这种抑制作用。