生命科学最新文献

Climate change projections predict warming and increased weather variability, mainly in polar regions, altering freeze-thaw patterns. However, the effects of rising temperatures and more frequent freeze-thaw events on the water and CO₂ management of Antarctic plants remain unclear. To address this, we conducted a laboratory experiment to investigate how growth temperature (5°C and 15°C) and successive freeze-thaw cycles influence the hydraulic and photosynthetic performance of Deschampsia antarctica (D. antarctica) and Colobanthus quitensis (C. quitensis). Our results showed that warmer conditions improved hydraulic and photosynthetic performance in both species, driven by anatomical adjustments in leaf xylem vessels. Additionally, plants exposed to successive freeze-thaw cycles exhibited a coordinated decline in whole-plant hydraulic conductivity and leaf gas exchange, regardless of growth temperature. The magnitude of changes (%) in photosynthetic traits after freeze-thaw cycles varied between species, with D. antarctica showing similar responses at both growth temperatures, while C. quitensis experienced more pronounced changes at the lower temperature. Overall, these findings suggest that while Antarctic plants benefit from warmer temperatures, repeated freeze-thaw events could disrupt their hydraulic balance and limit photosynthesis, particularly under natural environmental conditions.

Exocytosis is a fundamental process related to the information exchange in the nervous and endocrine system. Among the various techniques, vesicle impact electrochemical cytometry (VIEC) has emerged as an effective method to mimic the exocytosis process and measure dynamic information about content transfer using nanoscale electrodes. In this article, through analytical models and large scale simulations, we develop scaling laws for the decay time constant $\left(\tau \right)$ for VIEC single-exponential transients. Specifically, our results anticipate a power law dependence of $\tau$ on the geometric and the transport parameters. This model compares very well with large scale simulations exploring the parameter space relevant for VIEC and with experimental results from literature. Remarkably, such physics-based compact models could allow for novel multi-feature-based self consistent strategies for back extraction of geometric and transport parameters and hence could contribute towards better statistical analysis and understanding of exocytosis transients and events.

The green alga Chlamydomonas is an important and versatile model organism for research topics ranging from photosynthesis and metabolism, cilia, and basal bodies to cellular communication and the cellular cycle and is of significant interest for green bioengineering processes. The genome in this unicellular green alga is contained in 17 haploid chromosomes and codes for 16 883 protein coding genes. Functional genomics, as well as biotechnological applications, rely on the ability to remove, add, and change these genes in a controlled and efficient manner. In this review, the history of gene editing in Chlamydomonas is put in the context of the wider developments in genetics to demonstrate how many of the key developments to engineer these algae follow the global trends and the availability of technology. Building on this background, an overview of the state of the art in Chlamydomonas engineering is given, focusing primarily on the practical aspects while giving examples of recent applications. Commonly encountered Chlamydomonas-specific challenges, recent developments, and community resources are presented, and finally, a comprehensive discussion on the emergence and evolution of CRISPR/Cas-based precision gene editing is given. An outline of possible future paths for gene editing based on current global trends in genetic engineering and tools for gene editing is presented.

Plant glycolysis and the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle are key pathways of central carbon metabolism. They facilitate energy transformation, provide redox balance, and supply the building blocks for biosynthetic processes that underpin plant survival, growth, and productivity. Yet, rather than acting as static pathways, the fluxes that are mediated by the enzymes involved form a branched network. Flux modes can change flexibly to match cellular demands and environmental fluctuations. Several of the enzymes involved in glycolysis and the TCA cycle have been identified as targets of posttranslational modifications (PTMs). PTMs can act as regulators to facilitate changes in flux by rapidly and reversibly altering enzyme organization and function. Consequently, PTMs enable plants to rapidly adjust their metabolic flux landscape, match energy and precursor provision with the changeable needs, and enhance overall metabolic flexibility. Here, we review the impact of different PTMs on glycolytic and TCA cycle enzymes, focusing on modifications that induce functional changes rather than the mere occurrence of PTMs at specific sites. By synthesizing recent findings, we provide a foundation for a system-level understanding of how PTMs choreograph the remarkable flexibility of plant central carbon metabolism.

β-Alanine, an abundant non-proteinogenic amino acid, acts as a precursor for coenzyme A and plays a role in various stress responses. However, a comprehensive understanding of its metabolism in plants remains incomplete. Previous metabolic genome-wide association studies (mGWAS) identified ALANINE:GLYOXYLATE AMINOTRANSFERASE2 (AGT2, AT4G39660) linked to β-alanine levels in Arabidopsis under normal conditions. In this study, we aimed to deepen our insights into β-alanine regulation by conducting mGWAS under two contrasting environmental conditions: control (12 h photoperiod, 21°C, 150 μmol m⁻² sec⁻¹) and stress (harvested after 1820 min at 32°C and darkness). We identified two highly significant quantitative trait loci (QTL) for β-alanine, including the AGT2 locus associated in both environments and ALDEHYDE DEHYDROGENASE6B2 (ALDH6B2, AT2G14170) associated only under stress conditions. A coexpression-correlation network revealed that the regulatory pathway involving β-alanine levels, AGT2, and ALDH6B2 connects the branched chained amino acid (BCAA) degradation through the propionate pathway. Metabolic profiles of AGT2 overexpression (OE) and knock-out (KO) lines (agt2) across various organs and developmental stages established the critical role of AGT2 in β-alanine metabolism. This work underscores the importance of β-alanine homeostasis for proper growth and development in Arabidopsis.

Nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) genes play a critical role in plant effector-triggered immunity (ETI) against pathogen invasion. However, the regulatory mechanisms governing NLR expression and functional dynamics, particularly in head-to-head NLR gene pairs, remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanisms, subcellular localization and functional pathways associated with Pik-H4 gene pair. Bidirectional Pik-H4 promoter (P_Pik-H4) strengths were found across the whole plants and exhibited co-expressed patterns in tissues and cells, and the P_Pik-H4 activity was upregulated in vascular bundles during blast fungus invasion. Additionally, altering the co-expression of Pik₁-H4 and Pik₂-H4 via overexpression in rice or Nicotiana benthamiana did not compromise the immune response. Promoter analysis identified two minimal promoter regions that are essential for bidirectional transcription, and mutagenesis of the bidirectional TATA box confirmed its role in gene regulation. This dual-function promoter coordinates Pik-H4 expression in both directions, a regulatory innovation previously unreported in NLR-mediated immunity. In planta subcellular localization revealed Pik₁-H4 relocates to vesicles, indicating its role in effector recognition, while Pik₂-H4 predominantly accumulated in the nucleus. These new discoveries of Pik protein extended the putative immune function of NLR pairs. Transcriptome analysis demonstrated that Pik-H4-mediated resistance induces significant transcriptome reprogramming between 12- and 24-h postinoculation. In summary, these findings provide novel insights into the regulatory complexity and functional divergence within NLR bidirectional gene pairs in response to pathogen invasion.

Moving in a crowded cellular environment, proteins have to recognize and bind to each other with high specificity. This specificity reflects in a combination of geometric and chemical complementarities at the core of interacting regions that ultimately influences binding stability. Exploiting such peculiar complementarity patterns, we recently developed CIRNet, a neural network architecture capable of identifying pairs of protein core interacting residues and assisting docking algorithms by rescaling the proposed poses. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the geometric and chemical descriptors utilized by CIRNet, investigating its decision-making process to gain deeper insights into the interactions governing protein-protein binding and their interdependence. Specifically, we quantitatively assess (i) the relative importance of chemical and physical features in network training and (ii) their interplay at protein interfaces. We show that shape and hydrophobic-hydrophilic complementarities contain the most predictive information about the classification outcome. Electrostatic complementarity alone does not achieve high classification accuracy but is required to boost learning. Ultimately, our findings suggest that identifying the most information-dense features may enhance our understanding of the mechanisms driving protein-protein interactions at core interfaces.

Understanding plant heat tolerance requires assessing their thermal thresholds, but commonly used methods have rarely been compared. Moreover, whether the photosynthetic machinery is irreversibly damaged past these thresholds remains unclear. We determined the critical temperature (T_crit), the temperature causing a 50% reduction (T₅₀), and the maximum tolerable temperature (T_max) of photosystem II in Mediterranean cypress, Aleppo pine, and Scots pine saplings using 15- or 30-min heat exposure curves performed on living plants (in-vivo), excised needles (ex-vivo), and excised needles continuously exposed to each rising temperature (ex-vivo continuous). Dark-adapted fluorescence (F_v/F_m) and gas exchange were recorded for 4 days postheat stress to track recovery. Longer heat exposure (30 vs. 15 min) consistently led to lower F_v/F_m, T₅₀, and T_max. T₅₀ and T_max were reduced in both ex-vivo conditions compared to in-vivo ones. Conversely, T_crit remained consistent between species, exposure durations, and methods. Gas exchange and F_v/F_m recovery mainly occurred before reaching T₅₀ values (about 45°C). Our work highlights the importance of exposure duration and method selection when measuring and comparing thermal thresholds. Moreover, while T_crit appears to be a reversible threshold, the photosynthetic machinery of studied species appears irreparably damaged past their T50.