Salinity and drought are two major abiotic stresses that limit grape productivity. Responses to stress in grape are known to be regulated by several families of transcription factors. However, little is known about the role of grape Squamosa promoter binding protein (SBP)-box transcription factor genes in response to abiotic stress. To better understand the functions of the grape SBP-box genes in abiotic stress tolerance, a full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) sequence of the putative SBP-box transcription factor gene, VpSBP16 was amplified from Chinese wild grapevine Vitis pseudoreticulata clone “Baihe-35-1”. We observed that the VpSBP16 protein fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter accumulated in the nucleus when transiently expressed in onion epidermal cells. Moreover, VpSBP16 was shown to have transcriptional activation activity using a yeast trans-activation assay. We performed a VpSBP16 functional analysis through the characterization of transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana plants constitutively over-expressing VpSBP16. The transgenic lines had longer roots and the seeds had a higher germination rate than the wild type (WT) under osmotic stress. In addition, the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) of transgenic seedlings was significantly lower than WT in the transgenic lines, as was electrolyte leakage. VpSBP16 overexpression also elevated expression levels of stress-response genes involved in the salt overly sensitive (SOS) pathway. These results indicate that overexpression VpSBP16 in A. thaliana enhances tolerance of salt and drought stress during seed germination, as well in seedlings and mature plants, by regulating SOS and ROS signaling cascades.

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Type IV pili (T4P) and T2SS (Type II Secretion System) pseudopili are filaments extending beyond microbial surfaces, comprising homologous subunits called “pilins.” In this paper, we presented a new approach to predict pseudo atomic models of pili combining ambiguous symmetric constraints with sparse distance information obtained from experiments and based neither on electronic microscope (EM) maps nor on accurate a priori symmetric details. The approach was validated by the reconstruction of the gonococcal (GC) pilus from Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the type IVb toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP) from Vibrio cholerae, and pseudopilus of the pullulanase T2SS (the PulG pilus) from Klebsiella oxytoca. In addition, analyses of computational errors showed that subunits should be treated cautiously, as they are slightly flexible and not strictly rigid bodies. A global sampling in a wider range was also implemented and implied that a pilus might have more than one but fewer than many possible intact conformations.

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During anaerobic respiration, the bacteria Geobacter sulfurreducens can transfer electrons to extracellular electron accepters through its pilus. G. sulfurreducens pili have been reported to have metallic-like conductivity that is similar to doped organic semiconductors. To study the characteristics and origin of conductive pilin proteins found in the pilus structure, their genetic, structural, and phylogenetic properties were analyzed. The genetic relationships, and conserved structures and sequences that were obtained were used to predict the evolution of the pilins. Homologous genes that encode conductive pilin were found using PilFind and Cluster. Sequence characteristics and protein tertiary structures were analyzed with MAFFT and QUARK, respectively. The origin of conductive pilins was explored by building a phylogenetic tree. Truncation is a characteristic of conductive pilin. The structures of truncated pilins and their accompanying proteins were found to be similar to the N-terminal and C-terminal ends of full-length pilins respectively. The emergence of the truncated pilins can probably be ascribed to the evolutionary pressure of their extracellular electron transporting function. Genes encoding truncated pilins and proteins similar to the C-terminal of full-length pilins, which contain a group of consecutive anti-parallel beta-sheets, are adjacent in bacterial genomes. According to the genetic, structure, and phylogenetic analyses performed in this study, we inferred that the truncated pilins and their accompanying proteins probably evolved from full-length pilins by gene fission through duplication, degeneration, and separation. These findings provide new insights about the molecular mechanisms involved in long-range electron transport along the conductive pili of Geobacter species.

This study investigated the polymorphisms of GNRH1 and GDF9 genes in 641 goats of three breeds: Xinong Saanen, Guanzhong and Boer. Two allelic variants were identified in the GNRH1 gene (JN645280:g.3548A>G and JN645281:g.3699G>A) and one allelic variant was found in the GDF9 gene (JN655693:g.4093G>A). Furthermore, g.4093G>A was a missense mutation (p.Val397Ile of GDF9). Results of an association analysis indicated that SNPs g.3548A>G and g.4093G>A had significant effects on litter size (P < 0.05). The combination genotypes of SNPs g.3548A>G, g.3699G>A and g.4093G>A also affected litter size with the C5 genotype having the highest litter size in the first, third, fourth and average parity. Hence, the biochemical and physiological functions, together with the results obtained in our investigation, suggest that the GNRH1 and GDF9 genes could serve as genetic markers for litter size in goat breeding.

Erysiphe necator, the fungal pathogen of grape powdery mildew disease, poses a great threat to the grape fruit market and wine industry. To better understand the molecular basis of grape responses to E. necator, we performed comparative transcriptome profiling on two Chinese wild grape accessions with varying degrees of resistance to E. necator. A total of 2,856, 2,678 and 1,542 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the susceptible Vitis pseudoreticulata ‘Hunan-1’ at 6, 24, and 96 hours post-inoculation of E. necator, respectively, while 1,921, 2,498 and 3,249 DEGs were identified in the resistant V. quinquangularis ‘Shang-24’. ‘Hunan-1’ had substantially larger fraction of down-regulated genes than ‘Shang-24’ at every infection stage. Analysis of DEGs revealed that up-regulated genes were mostly associated with defense response and disease resistance-related metabolite biosynthesis, while signaling genes were significantly suppressed in ‘Hunan-1’. Interestingly, fatty acid biosynthesis and elongation related genes were suppressed by the fungus in ‘Shang-24’ but somehow induced in ‘Hunan-1’, consistent with that E. necator is likely a fatty acid auxotroph that requires lipids from the host. Moreover, genes involved in biosynthesis and signaling of phytohormones, such as jasmonic acid and cytokinin, as well as genes encoding protein kinases and NLR proteins were differentially responded to E. necator in the two wild grapes. The variation of gene regulation associated with nutrient uptake by the fungus and with signaling transduction and pathogen recognition suggests a multi-layered regulatory network that works in concert to defend fungal pathogen infections.

Polymorphisms of DGAT1 and STAT5A genes in Xinong Saanen and Guanzhong goat breeds were investigated. PCR-RFLP, SSCP, and DNA sequencing were used to identify three SNPs: DQ380250:g.407_408insC in the DGAT1 gene, AJ237937:g.6798C>T and g.6852C>T in the STAT5A gene. In DGAT1 g.407_408insC locus, the frequencies of C -allele were 0.79-0.85, and frequencies of C + allele were 0.21-0.15. At STAT5A g.6852C>T locus, frequencies of C allele were 0.70-0.72, and frequencies of T allele were 0.30-0.28. Compared with goats with DGAT1 C -C -, those with C -C + genotype had greater milk fat (P < 0.05). The goats with STAT5A CT had greater milk yield than those with CC genotype (P < 0.05). The results showed that does with C -C -CT and C -C + CT yielded more milk than those with C -C -CC (P < 0.05). In addition, does with C -C + CT had the highest milk fat in comparison with other combination genotypes (P < 0.05).