Flowering is the key process for the sexual reproduction in seed plants. In gramineous crops, the process of flowering, which includes the actions of both glume opening and glume closing, is directly driven by the swelling and withering of lodicules due to the water flow into and out of lodicule cells. All these processes are considered to be controlled by aquaporins, which are the essential transmembrane proteins that facilitate the transport of water and other small molecules across the biological membranes. In the present study, the evolution of aquaporins and their contribution to flowering process in plants were investigated via an integration of genome-wide analysis and gene expression profiling. Across the barley genome, we found that HvTIP1;1, HvTIP1;2, HvTIP2;3, and HvPIP2;1 were the predominant aquaporin genes in lodicules and significantly upregulated in responding to glume opening and closing, suggesting the importance of them in the flowering process of barley. Likewise, the putative homologs of the above four aquaporin genes were also abundantly expressed in lodicules of the other monocots like rice and maize and in petals of eudicots like cotton, tobacco, and tomato. Furthermore, all of them were mostly upregulated in responding to the process of floret opening, indicating a conserved function of these aquaporin proteins in plant flowering. The phylogenetic analysis based on the OneKP database revealed that the homologs of TIP1;1, TIP1;2, TIP2;3, and PIP2;1 were highly conserved during the evolution, especially in the angiosperm species, in line with their conserved function in controlling the flowering process. Taken together, it could be concluded that the highly evolutionary conservation of TIP1;1, TIP1;2, TIP2;3 and PIP2;1 plays important roles in the flowering process for both monocots and eudicots.
Wu (2020) Comparative transcriptome analyses of a table grape 'Summer Black' and its earlyripening mutant 'Tiangong Moyu' identify candidate genes potentially involved in berry development and ripening,
Necrosis and ethylene-inducing peptide 1 (Nep1) -like proteins (NLP) are secreted by multiple taxonomically unrelated plant pathogens (bacteria, fungi, and oomycete) and are best known for inducing cell death and immune responses in dicotyledonous plants. A group of putative
NLP
genes from obligate biotrophic oomycete
Plasmopara viticola
were predicted by RNA-Seq in our previous study, but their activity has not been established. Therefore, we analyzed the
P. viticola NLP
(
PvNLP
) family and identified seven
PvNLP
genes. They all belong to type 1
NLP
genes and form a
P. viticola
-specific cluster when compared with other pathogen
NLP
genes. The expression of
PvNLPs
was induced during early infection process and the expression patterns could be categorized into two groups.
Agrobacterium tumefaciens
-mediated transient expression assays revealed that only PvNLP7 was cytotoxic and could induce
Phytophthora capsici
resistance in
Nicotiana benthamiana
. Functional analysis showed that PvNLP4, PvNLP5, PvNLP7, and PvNLP10 significantly improved disease resistance of
Arabidopsis thaliana
to
Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis
. Moreover, the four genes caused an inhibition of plant growth which is typically associated with enhanced immunity when over-expressed in Arabidopsis. Further research found that PvNLP7 could activate the expression of defense-related genes and its conserved NPP1 domain was critical for cell death- and immunity-inducing activity. This record of
NLP
genes from
P. viticola
showed a functional diversification, laying a foundation for further study on pathogenic mechanism of the devastating pathogen.
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