Unser 10. Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium am 7. und 8. Mai war ein großer Erfolg. Thematisch ging es in diesem Jahr um neue Methoden und Forschungsansätze der Naturstoffchemie. Die exzellenten Vorträge über Wirkstoffe…
Omanische Heilpflanze im Fokus der Phytochemie IPB-Wissenschaftler und Partner aus Dhofar haben jüngst die omanische Heilpflanze Terminalia dhofarica unter die phytochemische Lupe genommen. Die Pflanze ist reich an…
Geschmack ist vorhersagbar: Mit FlavorMiner. FlavorMiner heißt das Tool, das IPB-Chemiker und Partner aus Kolumbien jüngst entwickelt haben. Das Programm kann, basierend auf maschinellem Lernen (KI), anhand der…
Cherevatskaya, M.; Cherepanov, I.; Kalganova, N.; Erofeeva, N.; Romanovskaya, E.; Frolov, A.; Bilova, T.; Moiseev, S.; Wessjohann, L. A.;Sydnone imines as a new class of promising plant growth and stress tolerance modulators—A first experimental structure–activity overviewStresses4133-154(2024)DOI: 10.3390/stresses4010008
Due to the oncoming climate changes, various environmental stresses (drought, salinity, heavy-metals, low or high temperatures, etc.) might dramatically affect crop yields and the quality of produced foods. Therefore, to meet the growing food demand of the human population, improvement of stress tolerance of the currently cultured crops is required. The knowledge of the molecular underlying mechanisms provides a versatile instrument to correct plant metabolism via chemical tools and to thereby increase their adaptive potential. This will preserve crop productivity and quality under abiotic stress conditions. Endogenously produced nitric oxide (NO) is one of the key signaling factors activating stress tolerance mechanisms in plants. Thus, the application of synthetic NO donors as stress-protective phytoeffectors might support maintaining plant growth and productivity under stressful conditions. Sydnone imines (sydnonimines) are a class of clinically established mesoionic heterocyclic NO donors which represent a promising candidate group for such phytoeffectors. Therefore, here, we provide an overview of the current progress in the application of sydnone imines as exogenous NO donors in plants, with a special emphasis on their potential as herbicides as well as herbicide antidotes, growth stimulants and stress protectors triggering plant tolerance mechanisms. We specifically address the structure–activity relationships in the context of the growth modulating activity of sydnone imines. Growth stimulating or antidote effects are typical for 4-α-hydroxybenzyl derivatives of sydnone imines containing an alkyl substituent in position N-3. The nature of the substituent of the N-6 atom has a significant influence on the activity profile and the intensity of the effect. Nevertheless, further investigations are necessary to establish reliable structure–activity relationships (SAR). Consequently, sydnone imines might be considered promising phytoeffector candidates, which are expected to exert either protective effects on plants growing under unfavorable conditions, or herbicidal ones, depending on the exact structure.
Publikation
Leonova, T.; Shumilina, J.; Kim, A.; Frolova, N.; Wessjohann, L.; Bilova, T.; Frolov, A.;Agar-based polyethylene glycol (PEG) infusion model for pea (Pisum sativum L.) — perspectives of translation to legume crop plantsBiol. Commun.67236-244(2022)DOI: 10.21638/spbu03.2022.309
Due to the oncoming climate changes water deficit represents one of the most important abiotic stressors which dramatically affects crop productivity worldwide. Because of their importance as the principal source of food protein, legumes attract a special interest of plant scientists. Moreover, legumes are involved in symbiotic association with rhizobial bacteria, which is morphologically localized to root nodules. These structures are critical for fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and highly sensitive to drought. Therefore, new drought-tolerant legume cultivars need to be developed to meet the growing food demand. However, this requires a comprehensive knowledge of the molecular mechanisms behind the plant stress response. To access these mechanisms, adequate and reliable drought stress models need to be established. The agar-based polyethylene glycol (PEG) infusion model allows a physiologically relevant reduction of soil water potential (Ψw), although it is restricted to seedlings and does not give access to proteomics and metabolomics studies. Earlier, we successfully overcame this limitation and optimized this model for mature Arabidopsis plants. Here we make the next step forward and address its application to one of the major crop legumes — pea. Using a broad panel of physiological and biochemical markers, we comprehensively prove the applicability of this setup to legumes. The patterns of drought-related physiological changes are well-interpretable and generally resemble the stress response of plants grown in soil-based stop-watering models. Thus, the proposed model can be efficiently used in the study of stress-related metabolic adjustment in green parts, roots and root nodules of juvenile and flowering plants.
The seed-to-seedling transition is a crucial step in the plant life cycle. The transition occurs at the end of seed germination and corresponds to the initiation of embryonic root growth. To improve our understanding of how a seed transforms into a seedling, we germinated the Pisum sativum L. seeds for 72 h and divided them into samples before and after radicle protrusion. Before radicle protrusion, seeds survived after drying and formed normally developed seedlings upon rehydration. Radicle protrusion increased the moisture content level in seed axes, and the accumulation of ROS first generated in the embryonic root and plumule. The water and oxidative status shift correlated with the desiccation tolerance loss. Then, we compared RNA sequencing-based transcriptomics in the embryonic axes isolated from pea seeds before and after radicle protrusion. We identified 24,184 differentially expressed genes during the transition to the post-germination stage. Among them, 2101 genes showed more prominent expression. They were related to primary and secondary metabolism, photosynthesis, biosynthesis of cell wall components, redox status, and responses to biotic stress. On the other hand, 415 genes showed significantly decreased expression, including the groups related to water deprivation (eight genes) and response to the ABA stimulus (fifteen genes). We assume that the water deprivation group, especially three genes also belonging to ABA stimulus (LTI65, LTP4, and HVA22E), may be crucial for the desiccation tolerance loss during a metabolic switch from seed to seedling. The latter is also accompanied by the suppression of ABA-related transcription factors ABI3, ABI4, and ABI5. Among them, HVA22E, ABI4, and ABI5 were highly conservative in functional domains and showed homologous sequences in different drought-tolerant species. These findings elaborate on the critical biochemical pathways and genes regulating seed-to-seedling transition.
Publikation
Smolikova, G.; Gorbach, D.; Lukasheva, E.; Mavropolo-Stolyarenko, G.; Bilova, T.; Soboleva, A.; Tsarev, A.; Romanovskaya, E.; Podolskaya, E.; Zhukov, V. A.; Tikhonovich, I.; Medvedev, S.; Hoehenwarter, W.; Frolov, A.;Bringing new methods to the seed proteomics platform: Challenges and perspectivesInt. J. Mol. Sci.219162(2020)DOI: 10.3390/ijms21239162
For centuries, crop plants have represented the basis of the daily human diet. Among them, cereals and legumes, accumulating oils, proteins, and carbohydrates in their seeds, distinctly dominate modern agriculture, thus play an essential role in food industry and fuel production. Therefore, seeds of crop plants are intensively studied by food chemists, biologists, biochemists, and nutritional physiologists. Accordingly, seed development and germination as well as age- and stress-related alterations in seed vigor, longevity, nutritional value, and safety can be addressed by a broad panel of analytical, biochemical, and physiological methods. Currently, functional genomics is one of the most powerful tools, giving direct access to characteristic metabolic changes accompanying plant development, senescence, and response to biotic or abiotic stress. Among individual post-genomic methodological platforms, proteomics represents one of the most effective ones, giving access to cellular metabolism at the level of proteins. During the recent decades, multiple methodological advances were introduced in different branches of life science, although only some of them were established in seed proteomics so far. Therefore, here we discuss main methodological approaches already employed in seed proteomics, as well as those still waiting for implementation in this field of plant research, with a special emphasis on sample preparation, data acquisition, processing, and post-processing. Thereby, the overall goal of this review is to bring new methodologies emerging in different areas of proteomics research (clinical, food, ecological, microbial, and plant proteomics) to the broad society of seed biologists.