Genetic design of soybean hosts and bradyrhizobial endosymbionts reduces NO emissions from soybean rhizosphere.

Soybeans fix atmospheric N through symbiosis with rhizobia. The relationship between rhizobia and soybeans, particularly those with high nitrous oxide (NO)-reducing (NOR) activities, can be leveraged to reduce NO emissions from agricultural soils. However, inoculating soybeans with these rhizobia under field conditions often fails because of the competition from indigenous rhizobia that possess low or no NOR activity.

Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants.

Plants deploy a diverse array of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which perceive microbe-associated molecular patterns to activate immune responses. Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase subgroup XII (LRR-RLK-XII) represents one of the largest PRR families owing to lineage-specific diversification. Through bioinformatics and synthetic biology approaches, we characterized LRR-RLK-XIIs from 285 plant species and identified a receptor, "SCORE," that perceives cold shock protein (CSP) peptides.

Development of DNA markers for assisted selection of cassava resistant to cassava mosaic disease (CMD).

Cassava is an important staple crop in tropical and subtropical regions. Cassava mosaic disease (CMD) is one of the most dangerous diseases affecting cassava production in Africa. Since the first reported in Southeast Asia in 2015, the CMD prevalence has become a concern in Southeast Asia.

Duganella hordei sp. nov., Duganella caerulea sp. nov., and Duganella rhizosphaerae sp. nov., isolated from barley rhizosphere.

Duganella sp. strains R1, R57, and R64, isolated from barley roots in Japan, are Gram-stain-negative, motile, rod-shaped bacteria. Duganella species abundantly colonized barley roots.

A Novel PROTAC G9a/GLP Degrader that Inhibits, Similar to G9a siRNA, the Migration of MCF-7 Breast-Cancer Cells without Affecting Proliferation.

G9a and G9a-like protein (GLP) are histone methyltransferases that regulate epigenetics by adding methyl groups to histone H3, thereby controlling gene expression. G9a/GLP dysregulation and overexpression have been reported to cause cancer proliferation, progression, and metastasis. So far, quinazoline-based inhibitors and degraders have been frequently used as chemical tools to elucidate the role of G9a/GLP.

Structural insights into a bacterial terpene cyclase fused with haloacid Dehalogenase-like phosphatase.

Terpene cyclases (TCs), consisting of various combinations of α, β, and γ domains, have been extensively studied. Recently, non-canonical enzymes comprising a TCβ domain and a haloacid dehalogenase (HAD)-like domain (referred to as HAD-TCβ) have been discovered. However, their overall structure remains unclear.

Chelation-based iron uptake mitigates the effects of prolonged high-temperature stress in cool-season grasses.

High-temperature stress poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity and ecological diversity. Here, we show the effects of prolonged high-temperature stress on wheat (Triticum aestivum) and the model grass Brachypodium distachyon and demonstrate that heat stress induces iron deficiency in newly emerged leaves. Quantitative trait locus analysis of B.

C-mannosylation promotes ADAMTS1 activation and secretion in human testicular germ cell tumor NEC8 cells.

C-mannosylation is a protein glycosylation that regulates the functions of target proteins. Although it has been reported that a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 1 (ADAMTS1), an important spermatogenesis factor, is C-mannosylated, the roles of C-mannosylation in ADAMTS1 in testicular cells are still unclear. In this study, we found that ADAMTS1 is C-mannosylated at Trp and Trp in testis germ NEC8 cells.

Unveiling novel steady-state phosphorus removal equilibrium in partial nitritation/Anammox-hydroxyapatite process: underlying mechanisms and microbial metabolism.

The partial nitritation/Anammox-hydroxyapatite (PN/A-HAP) process enables economical nitrogen and phosphorus removal. This study conducted long-term continuous experiments to evaluate the feasibility of the single-stage PN/A-HAP reactor for low-phosphorus wastewater treatment. An equilibrium limitation of the total phosphorus concentration in the effluent (TP) under controlled conditions was identified.

Large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells identifies redundant regulators of shoot development and yield trait variation.

Plant shoot stem cells generate organs essential for food, feed, and biofuels. However, plant single-cell analyses struggled to capture these rare cells or to detect stem cell regulators like CLAVATA3 and WUSCHEL. Here, we dissected stem cell-enriched shoot tissues from maize and Arabidopsis for single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), and we optimized protocols to recover thousands of CLAVATA3- and WUSCHEL-expressing cells.

Chloroplast envelope-localized DLDG1 modulates H+ translocation across thylakoid membranes via plastidial ATP synthase.

Land plants have evolved sophisticated regulatory mechanisms to precisely modulate electron flow during photosynthesis that is crucial for protecting the photosynthetic machinery and other cellular components from oxidative photodamage. Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) serves as a major photoprotective mechanism, dissipating excess absorbed light energy as heat. The chloroplast protein DAY-LENGTH-DEPENDENT DELAYED-GREENING1 (DLDG1), which is specifically conserved in oxygenic phototrophs, plays a pivotal role in controlling NPQ by regulating H+ translocation across the chloroplast envelope membranes.

Synthesis of Telechelic-Type Polypeptides Functionalized with Aromatic Units and the Characterization of Their Structures and Thermal Properties.

To enhance their physical and thermal properties, telechelic polypeptides with extended peptide chains from aromatic diamines were synthesized via the chemoenzymatic polymerization of diamine-type initiators and amino acid esters. With the introduction of meta-substituted aromatic diamines, atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed the formation of large aggregates in telechelic polyalanine (TPA), which was attributed to π‒π stacking interactions between aromatic rings, as well as short fibrous aggregates with branched structures. The introduction of rigid aromatic rings also improved the thermal stability of the polypeptides.

Structural analysis of a symbiotic system involving a Nanobdellati archaeon by cryo-electron tomography.

Nanobdellati (formerly DPANN) archaea are considered as primitive archaeal organisms that often live in symbiosis with archaeal hosts. In this study, we investigated the symbiotic mechanism between a Nanobdellati archaeon, Nanobdella aerobiophila strain MJ1, and its host archaeon Metallosphaera sedula strain MJ1HA, using cryo-electron tomography. In our tomographic observations, we identified a conical attachment organelle at the interface between MJ1 and MJ1HA during symbiosis.

Apoplastic metabolomics reveals sugars as mesophyll messengers regulating guard cell ion transport under red light.

Guard cell pairs in the leaf epidermis enclose stomata, microscopic pores mediating CO uptake and water loss. Historical data suggest that signals from interior mesophyll tissue may modulate guard-cell regulation of stomatal apertures, but the molecular identity of any metabolite-based signals has remained elusive. We discovered that extracellular (apoplastic) fluid from Arabidopsis thaliana and Vicia faba enhances red-light-induced stomatal opening.

Construction of a New Drug and Agrochemical Candidates Screening Platform Utilizing Drug-Hypersensitive Fission Yeast to Discover Overlooked Natural Products.

Natural products exhibiting selective or preferential antifungal activity against fission yeast over budding yeast might contribute greatly to new discoveries in the life sciences and new drug and agrochemical development. However, it is difficult to discover new drug and agrochemical candidates in the fission yeast screening system due to its low drug sensitivity. In this study, we constructed a new antifungal drug and agrochemical candidate screening platform using a drug-hypersensitive fission yeast strain.

UPR deficiency leads to poor growth, aneuploidy, and a trade-off between ER and general proteostasis in yeast.

The unfolded protein response (UPR) was discovered in budding yeast as a mechanism that allows cells to adapt to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stressors. Although the UPR is not thought to be necessary for cellular fitness of wild-type cells in the absence of stress, we found that UPR deficiency led to poor growth in cycling mitotic yeast cells. This led to pervasive adaptive aneuploidy of specific chromosomes that was seen in divergent strain backgrounds, indicating an important basal role for this pathway that was missed by studies of the most common laboratory-derived strains.

Cyanobacterial diacylglycerol kinase is involved in membrane lipid synthesis and contributes to high-light acclimation of photosystem II.

Photosynthetic organisms alter the lipid composition of the thylakoid membrane in response to environmental conditions. Phosphatidic acid (PA) is the branch point in the biosynthetic pathways of glycolipids and a phospholipid, phosphatidylglycerol (PG). PA and its dephosphorylated form, diacylglycerol (DG), are mutually convertible by PA phosphatase (PAP) and DG kinase (DGK).

Mitochondrial hyper-acetylation induced by an engineered acetyltransferase promotes cellular senescence.

Protein acetylation plays crucial roles in diverse biological functions, including mitochondrial metabolism. Although SIRT3 catalyzes the removal of acetyl groups in mitochondria, the addition of the acetyl groups is thought to be primarily controlled in an enzyme-independent manner due to the absence of potent acetyltransferases. In this study, we developed an engineered mitochondria-localized acetyltransferase, named engineered mitochondrial acetyltransferase (eMAT).

Enhancing soybean tolerance to drought by homologous expression of cytokinin synthase gene GmIPT10.

Climatic change-induced osmotic stresses, especially drought and salinity, have arisen as major environmental constraints to crop productivity and sustainable agriculture. Previously, soybean GmIPT10, which encodes an adenine isopentenyl transferase enzyme working in the biosynthesis of cytokinin phytohormone, has been identified as a drought-responsive gene. In this study, the aim is to explore the drought-associated attributes of GmIPT10 in planta, by using homologous expression system.

Unraveling the impact of crizotinib to promote megakaryopoiesis for alleviating thrombocytopenia in myelodysplastic neoplasms.

Current therapeutic options for myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS)-associated thrombocytopenia are limited. Megakaryocyte maturation might be an innovative therapeutic strategy because its dysregulation profoundly contributes to MDS pathogenesis. Here, we identified crizotinib, a clinically approved anti-cancer drug for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small-cell lung cancer, as a potent inducer of megakaryocyte maturation.

Comparative proteomics of HepG2 cells reveals NGLY1 as an important regulator of ferroptosis resistance and iron uptake.

NGLY1 deficiency is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the NGLY1 gene. This disorder presents a wide range of clinical symptoms, and its severity varies among affected individuals. Previous studies have focused on understanding the influence of NGLY1 on energy metabolism, revealing dysregulation in lipid metabolism following NGLY1 deletion.

Diversity of bradyrhizobial T3SS systems and their roles in symbiosis with peanut () and species ( and ).

Symbiosis between strains isolated from Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and intercropped legumes (, , and ) was regulated by the type III secretion system (T3SS), which delivers effector proteins (T3Es) into host plant cells to modulate nodulation. To explore this mechanism, we sequenced and analyzed seven genomes, identifying putative T3Es across five T3SS groups (G.1-G.