Effects of flooding on MDA content in live stems (LS) and dead stems (DS) of dwarf and green <i>C. arundinacea</i>.

<p>Values are mean ± SE based on six independent assays. Different letters indicate statistical significance (<i>P</i><0.05) according to Duncan’s test, with lowercase for LS and capitals for DS. ns indicates that no significant differences occurred between MDA content of LS and DS, while * indicates that a significant difference occurred between MDA content of LS and DS according to T-test and & indicates that no samples were available at the elevation.</p

Effects of flooding on plasma membrane permeability of dwarf and green <i>C. arundinacea</i>.

<p>Values are mean ± SE based on five independent assays. Different letters indicate statistical significance (<i>P</i><0.05) according to Duncan’s test, while & indicate that no samples were available at the elevation.</p

The number of <i>PTENs</i> and <i>PTENps</i> in mammals.

<p>The number of <i>PTENs</i> and <i>PTENps</i> in mammals.</p

Effects of flooding on starch content in live stems (LS) and dead stems (DS) of dwarf and green <i>C. arundinacea</i>.

<p>Values are mean ± SE based on 3–6 independent assays. Different letters indicate statistical significance (<i>P</i><0.05) according to Duncan’s test, with lowercase for LS and capitals for DS. ns indicates that no significant differences occurred between starch content of LS and DS, while * indicates that a significant difference occurred between starch content of LS and DS according to T-test and & indicates that no samples were available at the elevation.</p

Shared MicroRNAs binding sites of the 3’UTR of <i>PTEN</i> and <i>PTENps</i> in NMR.

<p>The green triangle represents the mir-19b binding site, the yellow diamond represents the mir-26a binding site, and the blue rectangle represents the mir-20a binding site.</p

Molecular Evolution of <i>PTEN</i> Pseudogenes in Mammals

<div><p>Phosphatase and tensin homolog (<i>PTEN</i>) is a tumor-suppressor gene. <i>PTEN</i> pseudogene (<i>PTENp</i>) acts as an endogenous RNA, which regulates its parental gene by competitively binding to the 3’ UTR of <i>PTEN</i> gene in the human. Despite the importance of this pseudogene, little is known about the molecular evolution of <i>PTENp</i> in mammals. In this study, we identified 37 pseudogenes from 65 mammalian genomes. Among them, 32 were from rodents or primates. Phylogenetic analyse showed a complex evolutionary history of this gene family. Some <i>PTENps</i> were shared both in primates and rodents. However, some <i>PTENps</i> were shown to be species-specific, such as the tasmanian devil <i>PTENp</i>1, nine banded armadillo <i>PTENp</i>1 and gibbon <i>PTENp</i>1. Most interestingly, the naked mole rat (NMR), an anticancer model organism, possessed 17 copies of <i>PTENps</i>, which were classified into four clades based on the phylogenetic analyses. Furthermore, we found that all the 3’UTR of <i>PTEN</i> and <i>PTENps</i> shared common microRNA (MicroRNA) binding sites in NMR, based on our prediction of specific MicroRNA binding sites. Our findings suggested that multiple gene duplications have occurred in the formation of PTEN/PTENp gene family during the evolution of mammals. Some <i>PTENps</i> were relatively ancient and were shared by primates and rodents; others were newly originated through species- specific gene duplications. <i>PTENps</i> in NMR may function as competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) to regulate their counterpart genes by competing for common MicroRNAs, which may be one of the interpretations for the cancer resistance in NMR.</p></div

The Neighbour Joining tree of 67 <i>PTEN</i>s and <i>PTENps</i> in mammals.

<p>All bootstrap values were showed. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances.Clade 1 to clade 9 were tagged by red square.</p

The longest submergence durations and the largest depth of submergence for the experimental elevations, with the sampling dates.

<p>The longest submergence durations and the largest depth of submergence for the experimental elevations, with the sampling dates.</p

The shared specific miRNAs of <i>PTENs</i> and <i>PTENps</i> 3'UTR.

<p>The shared specific miRNAs of <i>PTENs</i> and <i>PTENps</i> 3'UTR.</p

Carbohydrate pools (i.e., the total amount of glucose, fructose, sucrose and starch, g) in the stems (a), roots (b), leaf blades (c), leaf sheathes (d) and whole plants (e, excluding the dead shoot) of <i>A</i>. <i>anomala</i> either growing in either well-drained soil or submerged at water temperatures of 10°C, 20°C or 30°C in Experiment II.

<p>(<i>n</i> = 5, points = means ± SE).</p