Abiotic stresses substantially affect the growth and development of plants. Plants have evolved multiple strategies to cope with the environmental stresses, among which transcription factors play an important role in regulating the tolerance to abiotic stresses. Basic leucine zipper transcription factors (bZIP) are one of the largest gene families. The stability and activity of bZIP transcription factors could be regulated by different post-translational modifications (PTMs) in response to various intracellular or extracellular stresses. This paper introduces the structural feature and classification of bZIP transcription factors, followed by summarizing the PTMs of bZIP transcription factors, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination and small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) modification, in response to abiotic stresses. In addition, future perspectives were prospected, which may facilitate cultivating excellent stress-resistant crop varieties by regulating the PTMs of bZIP transcription factors.
Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Protein Processing, Post-Translational ; Phosphorylation ; Transcription Factors/genetics* ; Stress, Physiological/genetics*

The BTB (broad-complex, tramtrack, and bric-à-brac) domain is a highly conserved protein interaction motif in eukaryotes. They are widely involved in transcriptional regulation, protein degradation and other processes. Recently, an increasing number of studies have shown that these genes play important roles in plant growth and development, biotic and abiotic stress processes. Here, we summarize the advances of these proteins ubiquitination-mediated development and abiotic stress responses in plants based on the protein structure, which may facilitate the study of this type of gene in plants.
Eukaryota ; Plant Development/genetics* ; Proteolysis ; Ubiquitination

Photosynthesis in plants directly affects the synthesis and accumulation of organic matter, which directly influences crop yield. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are involved in the regulation of a variety of physiological functions in plants, while the functions of RBPs in photosynthesis have not been clearly elucidated. To investigate the effect of a glycine-rich RNA-binding protein (SlRBP1) in tomato on plant photosynthesis, a stably inherited SlRBP1 silenced plant in Alisa Craig was obtained by plant tissue culture using artificial small RNA interference. It turns out that the size of the tomato fruit was reduced and leaves significantly turned yellow. Chlorophyll(Chl) content measurement, Chl fluorescence imaging and chloroplast transmission electron microscopy revealed that the chloroplast morphology and structure of the leaves of tomato amiR-SlRBP1 silenced plants were disrupted, and the chlorophyll content was significantly reduced. Measurement of photosynthesis rate of wild-type and amiR-SlRBP1 silenced plants in the same period demonstrated that the photosynthetic rate of these plants was significantly reduced, and analysis of RNA-seq data indicated that silencing of SlRBP1 significantly reduced the expression of photosynthesis-related genes, such as PsaE, PsaL, and PsbY, and affected the yield of tomato fruits through photosynthesis.
RNA ; Solanum lycopersicum/genetics* ; Photosynthesis/genetics* ; Chlorophyll ; RNA-Binding Proteins/genetics*

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effects of herbal cake separated moxibustion on macrophage effector molecule T-cell immunoglobulin and mucin-domain containing-4 (Tim-4) and ubiquitination of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) in rabbits with immunosuppression, and to explore the possible mechanism on herbal cake separated moxibustion in improving immunosuppression. METHODS: Thirty-two big-ear white rabbits were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group, a moxa stick moxibustion group and a herbal cake separated moxibustion group, 8 rabbits in each group. Except the normal group, the immunosuppression model was established by intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide of60 mg/kg in the other 3 groups. "Shenque" (CV 8), "Shenshu" (BL 23), "Zusanli" (ST 36), etc. were selected in both the moxa stick moxibustion group and the herbal cake separated moxibustion group. Moxa stick moxibustion was applied in the moxa stick moxibustion group, one cone at each acupoint; herbal cake separated moxibustion was applied in the herbal cake separated moxibustion group, 5 cones at each acupoint. The intervention was given once every other day for 10 times in both groups. Leukocyte content in peripheral blood was detected by blood cell analyzer; the positive expression of PD-1 in CD⁺₄ T lymphocytes, CD⁺₈T lymphocytes and CD⁺₆₈ macrophages in peripheral blood was measured by flow cytometry, the serum levels of interleukin 2 (IL-2), CD₈, CD₆₈ and Tim-4 were detected by ELISA, and the expression of Tim-4 and F-box only protein 38 (FBXO38) in the liver and spleen tissues was measured by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: Compared with the normal group, in the model group, white blood cell count (WBC) and percentage of neutrophils (NEU%) were decreased while percentage of lymphocyte (LYM%) was increased (P<0.01) in peripheral blood; the positive expression rates of PD-1 in CD⁺₄ T lymphocytes, CD⁺₈T lymphocytes and CD⁺₆₈ macrophages in peripheral blood were increased (P<0.01); the serum levels of IL-2, CD₆₈ and Tim-4 were increased (P<0.01), the serum level of CD₈ was decreased (P<0.01); the average optical density (AOD) of Tim-4 in the liver tissue and FBXO38 in the liver and spleen tissues was increased (P<0.01). Compared with the model group, in the moxa stick moxibustion group and the herbal cake separated moxibustion group, WBC and NEU% were increased (P<0.01); the positive expression rates of PD-1 in CD⁺₄ T lymphocytes, CD⁺₈T lymphocytes and CD⁺₆₈ macrophages in peripheral blood were decreased (P<0.01); the serum levels of IL-2, CD₆₈ and Tim-4 were decreased (P<0.01), the serum levels of CD₈ were increased (P<0.01); the AOD of Tim-4 and FBXO38 in the liver tissue and FBXO38 in the spleen tissue was decreased (P<0.01, P<0.05). Compared with the moxa stick moxibustion group, in the herbal cake separated moxibustion group, the positive expression rate of PD-1 in CD⁺₆₈ macrophages in peripheral blood was increased (P<0.05); serum level of Tim-4 was increased (P<0.01); AOD of Tim-4 in the liver tissue was decreased (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Herbal cake separated moxibustion can improve immunosuppression by regulating the expression of macrophage effector molecule Tim-4 and the FBXO38 mediated ubiquitination of PD-1, Tim-4 may be one of the specific indexes of immunomodulation involving with herbal cake separated moxibustion.
Animals ; Rabbits ; Interleukin-2/genetics* ; Moxibustion ; Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor/genetics* ; Immunosuppression Therapy ; Ubiquitination

BACKGROUND: Dysfunction of the gap junction channel protein connexin 43 (Cx43) contributes to myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced ventricular arrhythmias. Cx43 can be regulated by small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) modification. Protein inhibitor of activated STAT Y (PIASy) is an E3 SUMO ligase for its target proteins. However, whether Cx43 is a target protein of PIASy and whether Cx43 SUMOylation plays a role in I/R-induced arrhythmias are largely unknown. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were infected with PIASy short hairpin ribonucleic acid (shRNA) using recombinant adeno-associated virus subtype 9 (rAAV9). Two weeks later, the rats were subjected to 45 min of left coronary artery occlusion followed by 2 h reperfusion. Electrocardiogram was recorded to assess arrhythmias. Rat ventricular tissues were collected for molecular biological measurements. RESULTS: Following 45 min of ischemia, QRS duration and QTc intervals statistically significantly increased, but these values decreased after transfecting PIASy shRNA. PIASy downregulation ameliorated ventricular arrhythmias induced by myocardial I/R, as evidenced by the decreased incidence of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and reduced arrythmia score. In addition, myocardial I/R statistically significantly induced PIASy expression and Cx43 SUMOylation, accompanied by reduced Cx43 phosphorylation and plakophilin 2 (PKP2) expression. Moreover, PIASy downregulation remarkably reduced Cx43 SUMOylation, accompanied by increased Cx43 phosphorylation and PKP2 expression after I/R. CONCLUSION PIASy downregulation inhibited Cx43 SUMOylation and increased PKP2 expression, thereby improving ventricular arrhythmias in ischemic/reperfused rats heart.
Rats ; Male ; Animals ; Myocardial Reperfusion Injury/metabolism* ; Connexin 43/genetics* ; Sumoylation ; Down-Regulation ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac/drug therapy* ; Myocardial Ischemia/metabolism* ; RNA, Small Interfering/metabolism*

Early life nutritional environment is not only associated with the growth and development of children, but also affects the health of adults. Numerous epidemiological and animal studies suggest that early nutritional programming is an important physiological and pathological mechanism. DNA methylation is one of the important mechanisms of nutritional programming, which is catalyzed by DNA methyltransferase, a specific base of DNA covalently binds to a methyl group, to regulate gene expression. In this review, we summarize the role of DNA methylation in the "abnormal developmental planning" of key metabolic organs caused by excessive nutrition in early life, resulting in long-term obesity and metabolic disorders in the offspring, and explore the clinical significance of regulating DNA methylation levels through dietary interventions to prevent or reverse the occurrence of metabolic disorders in the early stage in a "deprogramming" manner.
Humans ; Animals ; Female ; DNA Methylation ; Epigenesis, Genetic ; Clinical Relevance ; Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena ; Metabolic Diseases

The use of light energy to drive carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction for production of chemicals is of great significance for relieving environmental pressure and solving energy crisis. Photocapture, photoelectricity conversion and CO₂ fixation are the key factors affecting the efficiency of photosynthesis, and thus also affect the efficiency of CO₂ utilization. To solve the above problems, this review systematically summarizes the construction, optimization and application of light-driven hybrid system from the perspective of combining biochemistry and metabolic engineering. We introduce the latest research progress of light-driven CO₂ reduction for biosynthesis of chemicals from three aspects: enzyme hybrid system, biological hybrid system and application of these hybrid system. In the aspect of enzyme hybrid system, many strategies were adopted such as improving enzyme catalytic activity and enhancing enzyme stability. In the aspect of biological hybrid system, many methods were used including enhancing biological light harvesting capacity, optimizing reducing power supply and improving energy regeneration. In terms of the applications, hybrid systems have been used in the production of one-carbon compounds, biofuels and biofoods. Finally, the future development direction of artificial photosynthetic system is prospected from the aspects of nanomaterials (including organic and inorganic materials) and biocatalysts (including enzymes and microorganisms).
Carbon Dioxide/metabolism* ; Photosynthesis ; Metabolic Engineering

The aim of this study was to clone the goat RPL29 gene and analyze its effect on lipogenesis in intramuscular adipocytes. Using Jianzhou big-eared goats as the object, the goat RPL29 gene was cloned by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the gene structure and expressed protein sequence were analyzed by bioinformatics, and the mRNA expression levels of RPL29 in various tissues and different differentiation stages of intramuscular adipocytes of goats were detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The RPL29 overexpression vector pEGFP-N1-RPL29 constructed by gene recombination was used to transfect into goat intramuscular preadipocytes and induce differentiation. Subsequently, the effect of overexpression of RPL29 on fat droplet accumulation was revealed morphologically by oil red O and Bodipy staining, and changes in the expression levels of genes related to lipid metabolism were detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the length of the goat RPL29 was 507 bp, including a coding sequence (CDS) region of 471 bp which encodes 156 amino acid residues. It is a positively charged and stable hydrophilic protein mainly distributed in the nucleus of cells. Tissue expression profiling showed that the expression level of this gene was much higher in subcutaneous adipose tissue and inter-abdominal adipose tissue of goats than in other tissues (P < 0.05). The temporal expression profile showed that the gene was expressed at the highest level at 84 h of differentiation in goat intramuscular adipocytes, which was highly significantly higher than that in the undifferentiated period (P < 0.01). Overexpression of RPL29 promoted lipid accumulation in intramuscular adipocytes, and the optical density values of oil red O staining were significantly increased (P < 0.05). In addition, overexpression of RPL29 was followed by a highly significant increase in ATGL and ACC gene expression (P < 0.01) and a significant increase in FASN gene expression (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the goat RPL29 may promote intra-muscular adipocyte deposition in goats by up-regulating FASN, ACC and ATGL.
Animals ; Lipogenesis/genetics* ; Adipogenesis/genetics* ; Goats/genetics* ; Adipocytes ; Cell Differentiation/genetics* ; Sequence Analysis ; Cloning, Molecular

Nitrate is the main form of inorganic nitrogen that crop absorbs, and nitrate transporter 2 (NRT2) is a high affinity transporter using nitrate as a specific substrate. When the available nitrate is limited, the high affinity transport systems are activated and play an important role in the process of nitrate absorption and transport. Most NRT2 cannot transport nitrates alone and require the assistance of a helper protein belonging to nitrate assimilation related family (NAR2) to complete the absorption or transport of nitrates. Crop nitrogen utilization efficiency is affected by environmental conditions, and there are differences between varieties, so it is of great significance to develop varieties with high nitrogen utilization efficiency. Sorghum bicolor has high stress tolerance and is more efficient in soil nitrogen uptake and utilization. The S. bicolor genome database was scanned to systematically analyze the gene structure, chromosomal localization, physicochemical properties, secondary structure and transmembrane domain, signal peptide and subcellular localization, promoter region cis-acting elements, phylogenetic evolution, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) recognition and annotation, and selection pressure of the gene family members. Through bioinformatics analysis, 5 NRT2 gene members (designated as SbNRT2-1a, SbNRT2-1b, SbNRT2-2, SbNRT2-3, and SbNRT2-4) and 2 NAR2 gene members (designated as SbNRT3-1 and SbNRT3-2) were identified, the number of which was less than that of foxtail millet. SbNRT2/3 were distributed on 3 chromosomes, and could be divided into four subfamilies. The genetic structure of the same subfamilies was highly similar. The average value of SbNRT2/3 hydrophilicity was positive, indicating that they were all hydrophobic proteins, whereas α-helix and random coil accounted for more than 70% of the total secondary structure. Subcellular localization occurred on plasma membrane, where SbNRT2 proteins did not contain signal peptides, but SbNRT3 proteins contained signal peptides. Further analysis revealed that the number of transmembrane domains of the SbNRT2s family members was greater than 10, while that of the SbNRT3s were 2. There was a close collinearity between NRT2/3s of S. bicolor and Zea mays. Protein domains analysis showed the presence of MFS_1 and NAR2 protein domains, which supported executing high affinity nitrate transport. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that SbNRT2/3 were more closely related to those of Z. mays and Setaria italic. Analysis of gene promoter cis-acting elements indicated that the promoter region of SbNRT2/3 had several plant hormones and stress response elements, which might respond to growth and environmental cues. Gene expression heat map showed that SbNRT2-3 and SbNRT3-1 were induced by nitrate in the root and stem, respectively, and SbNRT2-4 and SbNRT2-3 were induced by low nitrogen in the root and stem. Non-synonymous SNP variants were found in SbNRT2-4 and SbNRT2-1a. Selection pressure analysis showed that the SbNRT2/3 were subject to purification and selection during evolution. The expression of SbNRT2/3 gene and the effect of aphid infection were consistent with the expression analysis results of genes in different tissues, and SbNRT2-1b and SbNRT3-1 were significantly expressed in the roots of aphid lines 5-27sug, and the expression levels of SbNRT2-3, SbNRT2-4 and SbNRT3-2 were significantly reduced in sorghum aphid infested leaves. Overall, genome-wide identification, expression and DNA variation analysis of NRT2/3 gene family of Sorghum bicolor provided a basis for elucidating the high efficiency of sorghum in nitrogen utilization.
Nitrate Transporters ; Nitrates/metabolism* ; Sorghum/metabolism* ; Anion Transport Proteins/metabolism* ; Phylogeny ; Protein Sorting Signals/genetics* ; Nitrogen/metabolism* ; DNA ; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant ; Plant Proteins/metabolism*

To solve the serious problem of stem and leaf shading in the middle and late stage of traditional flat planting of Codonopsis pilosula, this study analyzed the effects of different stereoscopic traction heights on the photosynthetic characteristics and growth of C. pilosula and explored the optimal traction height to improve the yield and quality of C. pilosula. The experiment designed three stereo-scopic traction heights [H1(60 cm), H2(90 cm), and H3(120 cm)] with natural growth without traction as the control(CK). The results showed that the increase in stereoscopic traction heights broadened the growth space of stems and leaves of C. pilosula, enhanced the ventilation effect, significantly increased the average daily net photosynthetic rate of C. pilosula, promoted the absorption of intercellular CO_2, decreased the transpiration rate, and reduced the evaporation of water. Moreover, it effectively avoided the problem of weakened photosynthesis, maintained the carbon balance of individual plants, and promoted the growth and development of the C. pilosula roots. In terms of the seed yield of C. pilosula, it was ranked as H2>H1>H3>CK. To be specific, H1 increased by 213.41% compared with CK, H2 increased by 282.43% compared with CK, and H3 increased by 133.95% compared with CK. The yield and quality of C. pilosula were the highest in the H3 treatment group, with the fresh yield of 6 858.33 kg·hm~(-2), 50.59% higher than CK, dry yield of 2 398.33 kg·hm~(-2), 76.54% higher than CK, and lobetyolin content of 0.56 mg·g~(-1), 45.22% higher than CK. Therefore, the stereoscopic traction height has a great influence on the photosynthetic characteristics, yield, and quality of C. pilosula. Particularly, the yield and quality of C. pilosula can be optimized and improved in the traction height treatment of H3(120 cm). This planting method is worth popularizing and applying in the cultivated management of C. pilosula.
Codonopsis ; Traction ; Photosynthesis ; Plant Leaves ; Plant Roots