Nanoscience emerged in the late 1980s and is developed and applied in China since the middle of the 1990s. Although nanotechnologies have been less developed in agronomy than other disciplines, due to less investment, nanotechnologies have the potential to improve agricultural production. Here, we review more than 200 reports involving nanoscience in agriculture, livestock, and aquaculture. The major points are as follows: (1) nanotechnologies used for seeds and water improved plant germination, growth, yield, and quality. (2) Nanotechnologies could increase the storage period for vegetables and fruits. (3) For livestock and poultry breeding, nanotechnologies improved animals immunity, oxidation resistance, and production and decreased antibiotic use and manure odor. For instance, the average daily gain of pig increased by 9.9-15.3 %, the ratio of feedstuff to weight decreased by 7.5-10.3 %, and the diarrhea rate decreased by 55.6-66.7 %. (4) Nanotechnologies for water disinfection in fishpond increased water quality and increased yields and survivals of fish and prawn. (5) Nanotechnologies for pesticides increased pesticide performance threefold and reduced cost by 50 %. (6) Nano urea increased the agronomic efficiency of nitrogen fertilization by 44.5 % and the grain yield by 10.2 %, versus normal urea. (7) Nanotechnologies are widely used for rapid detection and diagnosis, notably for clinical examination, food safety testing, and animal epidemic surveillance. (8) Nanotechnologies may also have adverse effects that are so far not well known.
BackgroundJumonji C (JmjC) domain-containing proteins are a group of functionally conserved histone lysine demethylases in Eukaryotes. Growing evidences have shown that JmjCs epigenetically regulate various biological processes in plants. However, their roles in plant biotic stress, especially in rice bacterial blight resistance have been barely studied so far.ResultsIn this study, we found that the global di- and tri-methylation levels on multiple lysine sites of histone three were dramatically altered after being infected by bacterial blight pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). Xoo infection induced the transcription of 15 JmjCs, suggesting these JmjCs are involved in rice bacterial blight defense. Further functional characterization of JmjC mutants revealed that JMJ704 is a positive regulator of rice bacterial blight resistance as the jmj704 became more susceptible to Xoo than the wild-type. In jmj704, the H3K4me2/3 levels were significantly increased; suggesting JMJ704 may be involved in H3K4me2/3 demethylation. Moreover, JMJ704 suppressed the transcription of the rice defense negative regulator genes, such as NRR, OsWRKY62 and Os-11N3, by reducing the activation marks H3K4me2/3 on them.ConclusionsJMJ704 may be a universal switch controlling multiple genes of the bacterial blight resistance pathway. JMJ704 positively regulates rice defense by epigenetically suppressing master negative defense regulators, presenting a novel mechanism distinct from its homolog JMJ705 which also positively regulates rice defense but via activating positive defense regulators.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-015-0674-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Summary
Bacterial blight caused by the infection of
Xanthomonas oryzae
pv.
oryzae
(
Xoo
) is a devastating disease that severely challenges the yield of rice. Here, we report the identification of a “SAPK10-WRKY72-AOS1” module, through which
Xoo
infection stimulates the suppression of jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis to cause
Xoo
susceptibility. WRKY72 directly binds to the W-box in the promoter of JA biosynthesis gene
AOS1
and represses its transcription by inducing DNA hypermethylation on the target site, which finally led to lower endogenous JA level and higher
Xoo
susceptibility. Abscisic acid (ABA)-inducible SnRK2-type kinase SAPK10 phosphorylates WRKY72 at Thr 129. The SAPK10-mediated phosphorylation impairs the DNA-binding ability of WRKY72 and releases its suppression on
AOS1
and JA biosynthesis. Our work highlights a module of how pathogen stimuli lead to plant susceptibility, as well as a potential pathway for ABA-JA interplay with post-translational modification and epigenetic regulation mechanism involved.
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