http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcplantbiol/ The most accessed research articles published by BMC Plant Biology 2009-11-18T00:00:00Z This is an RSS newsfeed from BioMed Central It is intended to be used with an RSS reader. For more information about RSS newsfeeds from BioMed Central, visit http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/about/rss/ Background: Tonoplast intrinsic proteins (TIPs) are widely used as markers for vacuolar compartments in higher plants. Ten TIP isoforms are encoded by the Arabidopsis genome. For several isoforms, the tissue and cell specific pattern of expression are not known. Results: We generated fluorescent protein fusions to the genomic sequences of all members of the Arabidopsis TIP family whose expression is predicted to occur in root tissues (TIP1;1 and 1;2; TIP2;1, 2;2 and 2;3; TIP4;1) and expressed these fusions, both individually and in selected pairwise combinations, in transgenic Arabidopsis. Analysis by confocal microscopy revealed that TIP distribution varied between different cell layers within the root axis, with extensive co-expression of some TIPs and more restricted expression patterns for other isoforms. TIP isoforms whose expression overlapped appeared to localise to the tonoplast of the central vacuole, vacuolar bulbs and smaller, uncharacterised structures. Conclusion: We have produced a comprehensive atlas of TIP expression in Arabidopsis roots, which reveals novel expression patterns for not previously studied TIPs. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/133 Stefano Gattolin Mathias Sorieul Paul Hunter Roman Khonsari Lorenzo Frigerio BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:133 2009-11-18T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-133 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 133 2009-11-18T00:00:00Z XML Background: Vitamin B6 is a collective term for a group of six interconvertible compounds: pyridoxine, pyridoxal, pyridoxamine and their phosphorylated derivatives. Vitamin B6 plays essential roles as a cofactor in a range of biochemical reactions. In addition, vitamin B6 is able to quench reactive oxygen species in vitro, and exogenously applied vitamin B6 protects plant cells against cell death induced by singlet oxygen (1O2). These results raise the important question as to whether plants employ vitamin B6 as an antioxidant to protect themselves against reactive oxygen species. Results: The pdx1.3 mutation affects the vitamin B6 biosynthesis enzyme, pyridoxal synthase (PDX1), and leads to a reduction of the vitamin B6 concentration in Arabidopsis thaliana leaves. Although leaves of the pdx1.3 Arabidopsis mutant contained less chlorophyll than wild-type leaves, we found that vitamin B6 deficiency did not significantly impact photosynthetic performance or shoot and root growth. Chlorophyll loss was associated with an increase in the chlorophyll a/b ratio and a selective decrease in the abundance of several PSII antenna proteins (Lhcb1/2, Lhcb6). These changes were strongly dependent on light intensity, with high light amplifying the difference between pdx1.3 and the wild type. When leaf discs were exposed to exogenous 1O2, lipid peroxidation in pdx1.3 was increased relative to the wild type; this effect was not observed with superoxide or hydrogen peroxide. When leaf discs or whole plants were exposed to excess light energy, 1O2-mediated lipid peroxidation was enhanced in leaves of the pdx1.3 mutant relative to the wild type. High light also caused an increased level of 1O2 in vitamin B6-deficient leaves. Combining the pdx1.3 mutation with mutations affecting the level of 'classical' quenchers of 1O2 (zeaxanthin, tocopherols) resulted in a highly photosensitive phenotype. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that vitamin B6 has a function in the in vivo antioxidant defense of plants. Thus, the antioxidant activity of vitamin B6 inferred from in vitro studies is confirmed in planta. Together with the finding that chloroplasts contain vitamin B6 compounds, the data show that vitamin B6 functions as a photoprotector that limits 1O2 accumulation in high light and prevents 1O2-mediated oxidative damage. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/130 Michel Havaux Brigitte Ksas Agnieszka Szewczyk Dominique Rumeau Fabrice Franck Stefano Caffarri Christian Triantaphylides BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:130 2009-11-10T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-130 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 130 2009-11-10T00:00:00Z XML Background: Our aim is to improve knowledge of gene regulatory circuits important to dedifferentiation, redifferentiation, and adventitious meristem organization during in vitro regeneration of plants. Regeneration of transgenic cells remains a major obstacle to research and commercial deployment of most taxa of transgenic plants, and woody species are particularly recalcitrant. The model woody species Populus, due to its genome sequence and amenability to in vitro manipulation, is an excellent species for study in this area. The genes recognized may help to guide the development of new tools for improving the efficiency of plant regeneration and transformation. Results: We analyzed gene expression during poplar in vitro dedifferentiation and shoot regeneration using an Affymetrix array representing over 56,000 poplar transcripts. We focused on callus induction and shoot formation, thus we sampled RNAs from tissues: prior to callus induction, 3 days and 15 days after callus induction, and 3 days and 8 days after the start of shoot induction. We used a female hybrid white poplar clone (INRA 717-1 B4, Populus tremula × P. alba) that is used widely as a model transgenic genotype. Approximately 15% of the monitored genes were significantly up-or down-regulated when controlling the false discovery rate (FDR) at 0.01; over 3,000 genes had a 5-fold or greater change in expression. We found a large initial change in expression after the beginning of hormone treatment (at the earliest stage of callus induction), and then a much smaller number of additional differentially expressed genes at subsequent regeneration stages. A total of 588 transcription factors that were distributed in 45 gene families were differentially regulated. Genes that showed strong differential expression included components of auxin and cytokinin signaling, selected cell division genes, and genes related to plastid development and photosynthesis. When compared with data on in vitro callogenesis in Arabidopsis, 25% (1,260) of up-regulated and 22% (748) of down-regulated genes were in common with the genes regulated in poplar during callus induction. Conclusion: The major regulatory events during plant cell organogenesis occur at early stages of dedifferentiation. The regulatory circuits reflect the combinational effects of transcriptional control and hormone signaling, and associated changes in light environment imposed during dedifferentiation. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/132 Yanghuan Bao Palitha Dharmawardhana Todd Mockler Steven Strauss BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:132 2009-11-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-132 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 132 2009-11-17T00:00:00Z XML Background: Cultivated cotton is an annual fiber crop derived mainly from two perennial species, Gossypium hirsutum L. or upland cotton, and G. barbadense L., extra long-staple fiber Pima or Egyptian cotton. These two cultivated species are among five allotetraploid species presumably derived monophyletically between G. arboreum and G. raimondii. Genomic-based approaches have been hindered by the limited variation within species. Yet, population-based methods are being used for genome-wide introgression of novel alleles from G. mustelinum and G. tomentosum into G. hirsutum using combinations of backcrossing, selfing, and inter-mating. Recombinant inbred line populations between genetics standards TM-1, (G. hirsutum) × 3-79 (G. barbadense) have been developed to allow high-density genetic mapping of traits. Results: This paper describes a strategy to efficiently characterize genomic variation (SNPs and indels) within and among cotton species. Over 1000 SNPs from 270 loci and 279 indels from 92 loci segregating in G. hirsutum and G. barbadense were genotyped across a standard panel of 24 lines, 16 of which are elite cotton breeding lines and 8 mapping parents of populations from six cotton species. Over 200 loci were genetically mapped in a core mapping population derived from TM-1 and 3-79 and in G. hirsutum breeding germplasm. Conclusion: In this research, SNP and indel diversity is characterized for 270 single-copy polymorphic loci in cotton. A strategy for SNP discovery is defined to pre-screen loci for copy number and polymorphism. Our data indicate that the A and D genomes in both diploid and tetraploid cotton remain distinct from each such that paralogs can be distinguished. This research provides mapped DNA markers for intra-specific crosses and introgression of exotic germplasm in cotton. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/125 Allen Van Deynze Kevin Stoffel Mike Lee Thea Wilkins Alexander Kozik Roy Cantrell John Yu Russell Kohel David Stelly BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:125 2009-10-20T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-125 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 125 2009-10-20T00:00:00Z XML Background: Tomato species are of significant agricultural and ecological interest, with cultivated tomato being among the most common vegetable crops grown. Wild tomato species are native to diverse habitats in South America and show great morphological and ecological diversity that has proven useful in breeding programs. However, relatively little is known about nucleotide diversity between tomato species. Until recently limited sequence information was available for tomato, preventing genome-wide evolutionary analyses. Now, an extensive collection of tomato expressed sequence tags (ESTs) is available at the SOL Genomics Network (SGN). This database holds sequences from several species, annotated with quality values, assembled into unigenes, and tested for homology against other genomes. Despite the importance of polymorphism detection for breeding and natural variation studies, such analyses in tomato have mostly been restricted to cultivated accessions. Importantly, previous polymorphisms surveys mostly ignored the linked meta-information, limiting functional and evolutionary analyses. The current data in SGN is thus an under-exploited resource. Here we describe a cross-species analysis taking full-advantage of available information. Results: We mined 20,000 interspecific polymorphisms between Solanum lycopersicum and S. habrochaites or S. pennellii and 28,800 intraspecific polymorphisms within S. lycopersicum. Using the available meta-information we classified genes into functional categories and obtained estimations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) quality, position in the gene, and effect on the encoded proteins, allowing us to perform evolutionary analyses. Finally, we developed a set of more than 10,000 between-species molecular markers optimized by sequence quality and predicted intron position. Experimental validation of 491 of these molecular markers resulted in confirmation of 413 polymorphisms. Conclusion: We present a new analysis of the extensive tomato EST sequences available that represents the most comprehensive survey of sequence diversity across Solanum species to date. These SNPs, plus thousands of molecular makers designed to detect the polymorphisms are available to the community via a website. Evolutionary analyses on these polymorphism uncovered sets of genes potentially important for the evolution and domestication of tomato; interestingly these sets were enriched for genes involved in response to the environment. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/85 Jose Jimenez-Gomez Julin Maloof BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:85 2009-07-03T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-85 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 85 2009-07-03T00:00:00Z XML Background: In most flowering plants, pollen is dispersed as monads. However, aggregated pollen shedding in groups of four or more pollen grains has arisen independently several times during angiosperm evolution. The reasons behind this phenomenon are largely unknown. In this study, we followed pollen development in Annona cherimola, a basal angiosperm species that releases pollen in groups of four, to investigate how pollen ontogeny may explain the rise and establishment of this character. We followed pollen development using immunolocalization and cytochemical characterization of changes occurring from anther differentiation to pollen dehiscence. Results: Our results show that, following tetrad formation, a delay in the dissolution of the pollen mother cell wall and tapetal chamber is a key event that holds the four microspores together in a confined tapetal chamber, allowing them to rotate and then bind through the aperture sites through small pectin bridges, followed by joint sporopollenin deposition. Conclusion: Pollen grouping could be the result of relatively minor ontogenetic changes beneficial for pollen transfer or/and protection from desiccation. Comparison of these events with those recorded in the recent pollen developmental mutants in Arabidopsis indicates that several failures during tetrad dissolution may convert to a common recurring phenotype that has evolved independently several times, whenever this grouping conferred advantages for pollen transfer. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/129 Jorge Lora Pilar Testillano Maria Risueno Jose Hormaza Maria Herrero BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:129 2009-10-29T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-129 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 129 2009-10-29T00:00:00Z XML Background: All living organisms emit spontaneous low-level bioluminescence, which can be increased in response to stress. Methods for imaging this ultra-weak luminescence have previously been limited by the sensitivity of the detection systems used. Results: We developed a novel configuration of a cooled charge-coupled device (CCD) for 2-dimensional imaging of light emission from biological material. In this study, we imaged photon emission from plant leaves. The equipment allowed short integration times for image acquisition, providing high resolution spatial and temporal information on bioluminescence. We were able to carry out time course imaging of both delayed chlorophyll fluorescence from whole leaves, and of low level wound-induced luminescence that we detected localised around damaged tissue. We found that wound-induced luminescence was chlorophyll-dependent and was enhanced at higher temperatures. Conclusion: The data gathered on plant bioluminescence illustrate that the equipment described here represents an improvement in 2-dimensional luminescence imaging technology. Using this system, we identify chlorophyll as the origin of wound-induced luminescence from leaves. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/4/19 Michel Flor-Henry Tulene McCabe Guy de Bruxelles Michael Roberts BMC Plant Biology 2004, 4:19 2004-11-18T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-4-19 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 4 19 2004-11-18T00:00:00Z XML Background: Olea europaea L. is a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean basin with a worldwide economical high impact. Differently from other fruit tree species, little is known about the physiological and molecular basis of the olive fruit development and a few sequences of genes and gene products are available for olive in public databases. This study deals with the identification of large sets of differentially expressed genes in developing olive fruits and the subsequent computational annotation by means of different software. Results: mRNA from fruits of the cv. Leccino sampled at three different stages [i.e., initial fruit set (stage 1), completed pit hardening (stage 2) and veraison (stage 3)] was used for the identification of differentially expressed genes putatively involved in main processes along fruit development. Four subtractive hybridization libraries were constructed: forward and reverse between stage 1 and 2 (libraries A and B), and 2 and 3 (libraries C and D). All sequenced clones (1,132 in total) were analyzed through BlastX against non-redundant NCBI databases and about 60% of them showed similarity to known proteins. A total of 89 out of 642 differentially expressed unique sequences was further investigated by Real-Time PCR, showing a validation of the SSH results as high as 69%. Library-specific cDNA repertories were annotated according to the three main vocabularies of the gene ontology (GO): cellular component, biological process and molecular function. BlastX analysis, GO terms mapping and annotation analysis were performed using the Blast2GO software, a research tool designed with the main purpose of enabling GO based data mining on sequence sets for which no GO annotation is yet available. Bioinformatic analysis pointed out a significantly different distribution of the annotated sequences for each GO category, when comparing the three fruit developmental stages. The olive fruit-specific transcriptome dataset was used to query all known KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes) metabolic pathways for characterizing and positioning retrieved EST records. The integration of the olive sequence datasets within the MapMan platform for microarray analysis allowed the identification of specific biosynthetic pathways useful for the definition of key functional categories in time course analyses for gene groups. Conclusion: The bioinformatic annotation of all gene sequences was useful to shed light on metabolic pathways and transcriptional aspects related to carbohydrates, fatty acids, secondary metabolites, transcription factors and hormones as well as response to biotic and abiotic stresses throughout olive drupe development. These results represent a first step toward both functional genomics and systems biology research for understanding the gene functions and regulatory networks in olive fruit growth and ripening. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/128 Giulio Galla Gianni Barcaccia Angelo Ramina Silvio Collani Fiammetta Alagna Luciana Baldoni Nicolo Cultrera Federico Martinelli Luca Sebastiani Pietro Tonutti BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:128 2009-10-24T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-128 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 128 2009-10-24T00:00:00Z XML Background: Parthenium argentatum (guayule) is an industrial crop that produces latex, which was recently commercialized as a source of latex rubber safe for people with Type I latex allergy. The complete plastid genome of P. argentatum was sequenced. The sequence provides important information useful for genetic engineering strategies. Comparison to the sequences of plastid genomes from three other members of the Asteraceae, Lactuca sativa, Guitozia abyssinica and Helianthus annuus revealed details of the evolution of the four genomes. Chloroplast-specific DNA barcodes were developed for identification of Parthenium species and lines. Results: The complete plastid genome of P. argentatum is 152,803 bp. Based on the overall comparison of individual protein coding genes with those in L. sativa, G. abyssinica and H. annuus, we demonstrate that the P. argentatum chloroplast genome sequence is most closely related to that of H. annuus. Similar to chloroplast genomes in G. abyssinica, L. sativa and H. annuus, the plastid genome of P. argentatum has a large 23 kb inversion with a smaller 3.4 kb inversion, within the large inversion. Using the matK and psbA-trnH spacer chloroplast DNA barcodes, three of the four Parthenium species tested, P. tomentosum, P. hysterophorus and P. schottii, can be differentiated from P. argentatum. In addition, we identified lines within P. argentatum. Conclusion: The genome sequence of the P. argentatum chloroplast will enrich the sequence resources of plastid genomes in commercial crops. The availability of the complete plastid genome sequence may facilitate transformation efficiency by using the precise sequence of endogenous flanking sequences and regulatory elements in chloroplast transformation vectors. The DNA barcoding study forms the foundation for genetic identification of commercially significant lines of P. argentatum that are important for producing latex. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/131 Shashi Kumar Frederick Hahn Colleen McMahan Katrina Cornish Maureen Whalen BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:131 2009-11-17T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-131 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 131 2009-11-17T00:00:00Z XML Background: The WRKY transcription factor gene family has a very ancient origin and has undergone extensive duplications in the plant kingdom. Several studies have pointed out their involvement in a range of biological processes, revealing that a large number of WRKY genes are transcriptionally regulated under conditions of biotic and/or abiotic stress. To investigate the existence of WRKY co-regulatory networks in plants, a whole gene family WRKYs expression study was carried out in rice (Oryza sativa). This analysis was extended to Arabidopsis thaliana taking advantage of an extensive repository of gene expression data. Results: The presented results suggested that 24 members of the rice WRKY gene family (22% of the total) were differentially-regulated in response to at least one of the stress conditions tested. We defined the existence of nine OsWRKY gene clusters comprising both phylogenetically related and unrelated genes that were significantly co-expressed, suggesting that specific sets of WRKY genes might act in co-regulatory networks. This hypothesis was tested by Pearson Correlation Coefficient analysis of the Arabidopsis WRKY gene family in a large set of Affymetrix microarray experiments. AtWRKYs were found to belong to two main co-regulatory networks (COR-A, COR-B) and two smaller ones (COR-C and COR-D), all including genes belonging to distinct phylogenetic groups. The COR-A network contained several AtWRKY genes known to be involved mostly in response to pathogens, whose physical and/or genetic interaction was experimentally proven. We also showed that specific co-regulatory networks were conserved between the two model species by identifying Arabidopsis orthologs of the co-expressed OsWRKY genes. Conclusion: In this work we identified sets of co-expressed WRKY genes in both rice and Arabidopsis that are functionally likely to cooperate in the same signal transduction pathways. We propose that, making use of data from co-regulatory networks, it is possible to highlight novel clusters of plant genes contributing to the same biological processes or signal transduction pathways. Our approach will contribute to unveil gene cooperation pathways not yet identified by classical genetic analyses. This information will open new routes contributing to the dissection of WRKY signal transduction pathways in plants. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/9/120 Stefano Berri Pamela Abbruscato Odile Faivre-Rampant Ana Brasileiro Irene Fumasoni Kouji Satoh Shoshi Kikuchi Luca Mizzi Piero Morandini Mario Pe Pietro Piffanelli BMC Plant Biology 2009, 9:120 2009-09-22T00:00:00Z doi:10.1186/1471-2229-9-120 BMC Plant Biology 1471-2229 9 120 2009-09-22T00:00:00Z XML