A CBL-interacting protein kinase (CIPK) gene, BnCIPK6, was isolated in Brassica napus. Through yeast two-hybrid screening, 27 interaction partners (including BnCBL1) of BnCIPK6 were identified in Brassica napus. Interaction of BnCIPK6 and BnCBL1 was further confirmed by BiFC (bimolecular fluorescence complementation) in plant cells. Expressions of BnCIPK6 and BnCBL1 were significantly up-regulated by salt and osmotic stresses, phosphorous starvation, and abscisic acid (ABA). Furthermore, BnCIPK6 promoter activity was intensively induced in cotyledons and roots under NaCl, mannitol, and ABA treatments. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants with over-expressing BnCIPK6, its activated form BnCIPK6M, and BnCBL1 enhanced high salinity and low phosphate tolerance, suggesting that the functional interaction of BnCBL1 and BnCIPK6 may be important for the high salinity and phosphorous deficiency signalling pathways. In addition, activation of BnCIPK6 confers Arabidopsis plants hypersensitive to ABA. On the other hand, over-expression of BnCIPK6 in Arabidopsis cipk6 mutant completely rescued the low-phosphate-sensitive and ABA-insensitive phenotypes of this mutant, further suggesting that BnCIPK6 is involved in the plant response to high-salinity, phosphorous deficiency, and ABA signalling.

Polyamine/MIL-101(Cr) composites exhibit excellent CO2 capture ability at 0.15 bar and low temperatures.

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Phosphorus (P) is one of the essential nutrient elements for plant development. In this work, BnPHR1 encoding a MYB transcription activator was isolated from Brassica napus. The characterization of nuclear localization and transcription activation ability suggest BnPHR1 is a transcriptional activator. The tissue expression and histochemical assay showed that BnPHR1 was predominantly expressed in roots and modulated by exogenous Pi in transcriptional level in roots under Pi deficiency conditions. Furthermore, overexpression of BnPHR1 in both Arabidopsis and B. napus remarkably enhanced the expression of the Pi-starvation-induced genes including ATPT2 and BnPT2 encoding the high-affinity Pi transporter. Additionally, BnPHR1 can in vivo bind the promoter sequence of ATPT2 and BnPT2 in both Arabidopsis and B. napus. Possibly, due to the activation of ATPT2 and BnPT2, or even more high-affinity Pi transporters, the excessive Pi was accumulated in transgenic plants, resulting in the crucially Pi toxicity to cells and subsequently retarding plant growth. Given the data together, BnPHR1, as crucial regulator, is regulated by exogenous Pi and directly activates those genes, which promote the uptake and homeostasis of Pi for plant growth.

Advanced removal of phosphate by low-cost adsorbents from municipal wastewater or industrial effluents is an effective and economic way to prevent the occurrence of eutrophication. Here, we proposed a novel method to immobilize hydrous zirconium oxide nanoparticle within quaternary-aminated wheat straw, and obtained an inexpensive, eco-friendly nanocomposite Ws-N-Zr. The biomass-based Ws-N-Zr exhibited higher preference toward phosphate than commercial anion exchanger IRA-900 when competing sulfate ions coexisted at relatively high levels. Such excellent performance of Ws-N-Zr resulted from its specific hybrid structure, the quaternary ammonium groups bonded on the host favor the preconcentration of phosphate ions inside the wheat straw based on Donnan effect, and the encapsulated HZO nanoparticle exhibits preferable sequestration of phosphate ions through specific interaction, as further demonstrated by FTIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cycle adsorption and regeneration experiments demonstrated that Ws-N-Zr could be employed for repeated use without significant capacity loss, when the binary NaOH-NaCl solution was employed as the regenerant. The influence of solution pH and contact time was also examined. The results suggested that Ws-N-Zr has a great potential in efficient removal of phosphate in contaminated waters.

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The CBL-CIPK signaling pathway represents a central and critical signaling system involved in plant response to abiotic stress and hormone signaling. In this study, we focused on AtCIPK6 gene, which have been shown to be required for development and salt tolerance in Arabidopsis, but the transcriptional regulatory mechanism of AtCIPK6 gene and whether it plays a role in ABA signaling is still unknown. Here, we showed that in addition to its expression induced by salt and drought stress, the transcripts of AtCIPK6 gene were largely accumulated in abscisic acid treated seedling, compared to basal level expression. Moreover, promoter sequence analysis revealed that there are some elements involved in stress and hormone response detected in the promoter region of AtCIPK6. AtCIPK6p:GUS transgenic assays unraveled that AtCIPK6 promoter is salt/osmotic stress- and ABA-inducible. Overexpression of AtCIPK6 gene in Arabidopsis increased plant tolerance to salt stress, but sensitivity to ABA. Our results contribute to the understanding of transcriptional regulatory mechanism of AtCIPK6 gene and may also provide a good stress-inducible promoter candidate for transgenic engineering.

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