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Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

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Publikation

Gago-Zachert, S.; Viroids, infectious long non-coding RNAs with autonomous replication Virus Res. 212, 12-24, (2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2015.08.018

Transcriptome deep-sequencing studies performed during the last years confirmed that the vast majority of the RNAs transcribed in higher organisms correspond to several types of non-coding RNAs including long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). The study of lncRNAs and the identification of their functions, is still an emerging field in plants but the characterization of some of them indicate that they play an important role in crucial regulatory processes like flowering regulation, and responses to abiotic stress and plant hormones. A second group of lncRNAs present in plants is formed by viroids, exogenous infectious subviral plant pathogens well known since many years. Viroids are composed of circular RNA genomes without protein-coding capacity and subvert enzymatic activities of their hosts to complete its own biological cycle. Different aspects of viroid biology and viroid-host interactions have been elucidated in the last years and some of them are the main topic of this review together with the analysis of the state-of-the-art about the growing field of endogenous lncRNAs in plants.
Publikation

Serra, P.; Gago, S.; Duran-Vila, N.; A single nucleotide change in Hop stunt viroid modulates citrus cachexia symptoms Virus Res. 138, 130-134, (2008) DOI: 10.1016/j.virusres.2008.08.003

Cachexia disease of citrus is caused by Hop stunt viroid (HSVd). In citrus, pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains differ by a “cachexia expression motif” of five to six nucleotides located in the variable domain of the proposed rod-like secondary structure. Here, site-directed mutants were generated to investigate if all these nucleotides were required for infectivity and/or symptom expression. Specifically an artificial cachexia inducing mutant M0 was generated by introducing the six nucleotides changes of the “cachexia expression motif” into a non-pathogenic sequence variant and M0 was used as a template to systematically restore some of the introduced changes. The resulting mutants in which specific changes introduced to generate M0, were restored presented a variety of responses: (i) M1, obtained by introducing two insertions forming a base-pair, was infectious but non-pathogenic; (ii) M2, obtained by introducing an insertion and restoring a substitution, presented low infectivity and the resulting progeny reverted to M0; (iii) M3, obtained by restoring a single substitution in the lower strand of the viroid secondary structure, was infectious but induced only mild cachexia symptoms; (iv) M4, obtained by restoring a single susbtitution in the upper strand of the viroid secondary structure, was non-infectious. These results confirm that the “cachexia expression motif” plays a major role in inciting cachexia symptoms, and that subtle changes within this motif affect symptom severity and may even suppress symptom expression.
Publikation

Naum-Onganı́a, G.; Gago-Zachert, S.; Peña, E.; Grau, O.; Laura Garcia, M.; Citrus psorosis virus RNA 1 is of negative polarity and potentially encodes in its complementary strand a 24K protein of unknown function and 280K putative RNA dependent RNA polymerase Virus Res. 96, 49-61, (2003) DOI: 10.1016/S0168-1702(03)00172-2

Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV), the type member of genus Ophiovirus, has three genomic RNAs. Complete sequencing of CPsV RNA 1 revealed a size of 8184 nucleotides and Northern blot hybridization with chain specific probes showed that its non-coding strand is preferentially encapsidated. The complementary strand of RNA 1 contains two open reading frames (ORFs) separated by a 109-nt intergenic region, one located near the 5′-end potentially encoding a 24K protein of unknown function, and another of 280K containing the core polymerase motifs characteristic of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerases (RdRp). Comparison of the core RdRp motifs of negative-stranded RNA viruses, supports grouping CPsV, Ranunculus white mottle virus (RWMV) and Mirafiori lettuce virus (MiLV) within the same genus (Ophiovirus), constituting a monophyletic group separated from all other negative-stranded RNA viruses. Furthermore, RNAs 1 of MiLV, CPsV and RWMV are similar in size and those of MiLV and CPsV also in genomic organization and sequence.
Publikation

Schilling, S.; Hoffmann, T.; Rosche, F.; Manhart, S.; Wasternack, C.; Demuth, H.-U.; Heterologous Expression and Characterization of Human Glutaminyl Cyclase: Evidence for a Disulfide Bond with Importance for Catalytic Activity Biochemistry 41, 10849-10857, (2002) DOI: 10.1021/bi0260381

Glutaminyl cyclase (QC, EC 2.3.2.5) catalyzes the formation of pyroglutamate residues from glutamine at the N-terminus of peptides and proteins. In the current study, human QC was functionally expressed in the secretory pathway of Pichia pastoris, yielding milligram quantities after purification from the supernatant of a 5 L fermentation. Initial characterization studies of the recombinant QC using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry revealed correct proteolytic processing and N-glycosylation at both potential sites with similar 2 kDa extensions. CD spectral analysis indicated a high α-helical content, which contrasts with plant QC from Carica papaya. The kinetic parameters for conversion of H-Gln-Tyr-Ala-OH by recombinant human QC were almost identical to those previously reported for purified bovine pituitary QC. However, the results obtained for conversion of H-Gln-Gln-OH, H-Gln-NH2, and H-Gln-AMC were found to be contradictory to previous studies on human QC expressed intracellularly in E. coli. Expression of QC in E. coli showed that approximately 50% of the protein did not contain a disulfide bond that is present in the entire QC expressed in P. pastoris. Further, the enzyme was consistently inactivated by treatment with 15 mM DTT, whereas deglycosylation had no effect on enzymatic activity. Analysis of the fluorescence spectra of the native, reduced, and unfolded human QC point to a conformational change of the protein upon treatment with DTT. In terms of the different enzymatic properties, the consequences of QC expression in different environments are discussed.
Publikation

Vigliocco, A.; Bonamico, B.; Alemano, S.; Miersch, O.; Abdala, G.; Stimulation of jasmonic acid production in Zea Mays L. infected by the maize rough dwarf virus - Río Cuarto. Reversion of symptoms by salicylic acid Biocell 26, 369-374, (2002)

In the present paper we study the possible biological relevance of endogenous jasmonic acid (JA) and exogenous salicylic acid (SA) in a plant-microbial system maize-virus. The virus disease "Mal de Río Cuarto" is caused by the maize rough dwarf virus - Río Cuarto. The characteristic symptoms are the appearance of galls or "enations" in leaves, shortening of the stem internodes, poor radical system and general stunting. Changes in JA and protein pattern in maize control and infected plants of a virus-tolerant cultivar were investigated. Healthy and infected-leaf discs were collected for JA measurement at different post-infection times (20, 40, 60 and 68 days). JA was also measured in roots on day 60 after infection. For SDS-PAGE protein analysis, leaf discs were also harvested on day 60 after infection. Infected leaves showed higher levels of JA than healthy leaves, and the rise in endogenous JA coincided with the enation formation. The soluble protein amount did not show differences between infected and healthy leaves; moreover, no difference in the expression of soluble protein was revealed by SDS-PAGE. Our results show that the octadecanoid pathway was stimulated in leaves and roots of the tolerant maize cultivar when infected by this virus. This finding, together with fewer plants with the disease symptoms, suggest that higher foliar and roots JA content may be related to disease tolerance. SA exogenous treatment caused the reversion of the dwarfism symptom.
Publikation

Wasternack, C.; Miersch, O.; Kramell, R.; Hause, B.; Ward, J.; Beale, M.; Boland, W.; Parthier, B.; Feussner, I.; Jasmonic acid: biosynthesis, signal transduction, gene expression Fett/Lipid 100, 139-146, (1998) DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4133(19985)100:4/5<139::AID-LIPI139>3.0.CO;2-5

Jasmonic acid (JA) is an ubiquitously occurring plant growth regulator which functions as a signal of developmentally or environmentally regulated expression of various genes thereby contributing to the defense status of plants [1–5]. The formation of jasmonates in a lipid‐based signalling pathway via octadecanoids seems to be a common principle for many plant species to express wound‐ and stressinduced genes [4, 5].There are various octadecanoid‐derived signals [3]. Among them, jasmonic acid and its amino acid conjugates are most active in barley, supporting arguments that β‐oxidation is an essential step in lipid‐based JA mediated responses. Furthermore, among derivatives of 12‐oxophytodienoic acid (PDA) carrying varying length of the carboxylic acid side‐chain, only those with a straight number of carbon atoms are able to induce JA responsive genes in barley leaves after treatment with these compounds. Barley leaves stressed by treatment with sorbitol solutions exhibit mainly an endogenous rise of JA and JA amino acid conjugates suggesting that both of them are stress signals. Data on organ‐ and tissue‐specific JA‐responsive gene expression will be presented and discussed in terms of “JA as a master switch” among various lipid‐derived signals.
Publikation

Feussner, I.; Wasternack, C.; Lipoxygenase catalyzed oxygenation of lipids Fett/Lipid 100, 146-152, (1998) DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-4133(19985)100:4/5<146::AID-LIPI146>3.0.CO;2-D

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) and other LOX pathway enzymes are potentially able to form a large set of compounds being of commercial interest. Among them are conjugated dienic acids, jasmonates, and volatile aldehydes. Additionally, fatty acid hydroperoxides, formed by LOX, can serve as precursors for further transformation by either enzymes of the so‐called LOX pathway or by chemical reactions. In the case of linoleic acid more than one hundred products generated from its LOX‐derived fatty acid hydroperoxides have been described. Many of these products exhibit biological activity, suggesting a significant biological function of LOXs. This will be described for two different 13‐LOXs. (I) In various oilseeds we found that specific 13‐LOXs are localized at the lipid body membrane. They are capable of oxygenating esterified polyenoic fatty acids, such as triacylglycerols and phospho‐lipids. In addition, they form with arachidonic acid as substrate preferentially either 8‐ or 11‐hydroperoxy eicosatetraenoic acid, which is a very unusual positional specificity for plant LOXs. (II) From barley leaves we isolated another linoleate 13‐LOX form, which is localized within chloroplasts and is induced by jasmonic acid methyl ester. It is suggested, that this LOX form is capable of oxygenating linolenic acid residues of galactolipids. Examples will be presented for barley leaves of oxygenated derivatives of linolenic acid and compounds resulting from the hydroperoxide lyase‐branch of the LOX pathway.
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