Fruit extract of neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) induces defense response through enhanced activities of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POX) along with isoenzymes of PPO and POX in tomato. The increase in PAL, POX activity and induction of specific isoenzymes of acidic PPO, POX and basic POX by neem fruit extract were completely inhibited due to pre-treatment with actinomycin D or cycloheximide. Their activation was found to be time course-dependent. Synergistic enhancement of TAL activity by neem extract was observed when plants were pre-treated with cycloheximide, whereas similar observations were made for PPO activity by neem extract when plants were pre-treated with either actinomycin D or cycloheximide. These results suggest that the enhanced activities of defense enzymes and altered isoenzyme patterns of PPO and POX by neem extract was regulated at both transcriptional and translational levels which may contribute to the induction of defense responses in tomato.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a viral disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and is becoming a global threat again because of the higher transmission rate and lack of proper therapeutics as well as the rapid mutations in the genetic pattern of SARS-CoV-2. Despite vaccinations, the prevalence and recurrence of this infection are still on the rise, which urges the identification of potential global therapeutics for a complete cure. Plant-based alternative medicine is becoming popular worldwide because of its higher efficiency and minimal side effects. Yet, identifying the potential medicinal plants and formulating a plant-based medicine is still a bottleneck. Hence, in this study, the systems pharmacology, transcriptomics, and cheminformatics approaches were employed to uncover the multi-targeted mechanisms and to screen the potential phytocompounds from significant medicinal plants to treat COVID-19. These approaches have identified 30 unique COVID-19 human immune genes targeted by the 25 phytocompounds present in four selected ethnobotanical plants. Differential and co-expression profiling and pathway enrichment analyses delineate the molecular signaling and immune functional regulations of the COVID-19 unique genes. In addition, the credibility of these compounds was analyzed by the pharmacological features. The current holistic finding is the first to explore whether the identified potential bioactives could reform into a drug candidate to treat COVID-19. Furthermore, the molecular docking analysis was employed to identify the important bioactive compounds; thus, an ultimately significant medicinal plant was also determined. However, further laboratory evaluation and clinical validation are required to determine the efficiency of a therapeutic formulation against COVID-19.
Cell walls of plants are complex structures impregnated with various proteins having wide array of functions. In this study, twenty-eight proteins isolated from tomato cell walls were subjected to MALDI-TOF MS followed by mass peak analysis using ORIGIN 6 software. The mass peaks subjected to MASCOT and ProFound databases for peptide mass fingerprinting led to the identification of 9 protein domains. These proteins were further classified according to their functions. Fruit extracts of A. indica could elicit induction, localization and functioning of peroxidase (POX) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and their isoenzymes in cell walls of Lycopersicum esculentum (tomato) against Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. The results revealed the possible involvement of cell wall-bound proteins in defence of plants against the invading pathogens. A number of novel isoenzymes of both POX and PPO were found to be located in the cell walls of the plants treated with neem extract. Neem extract can induce accumulation and binding of isoenzymes to cell walls. These isoenzymes could possibly protect host plants against the invading pathogens.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.