Waterlogging and nitric oxide induce gene expression and increase antioxidant enzyme activity in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

The effects of waterlogging (WL) and WL plus nitric oxide (WL+NO) were investigated in seedlings of one wheat cultivars (Triticum aestivum cv. Dogankent) and one wheat line (Triticum aestivum cv. Ducula-4). Under WL conditions, catalase activity was greater in Ducula-4 than in Dogankent. Glutathione reductase activity increased in Ducula-4 seedlings under WL+NO conditions, especially at 48 and 72 hours of treatment. Myb2 expression increased during the early hours of treatment in both wheat varieties exposed to WL, with 40-fold higher levels in Ducula-4, gradually decreasing to control levels. Under WL+NO treatment, Myb2 expression increased 44-fold at 12 hours and high levels of expression were still observed at 72 hours. When Ducula-4 seedlings were subjected to WL+NO treatment, PDPK expression increased approximately 15-fold at 3 hours and decreased to control levels at 72 hours. Under the same conditions, SST1 expression increased 3-fold at 3 and 12 hours and reached control levels during the subsequent hours. Among the genes studied, the highest level of expression was observed for Myb2. Moreover, gene expression was altered most by waterlogging in Ducula-4 seedlings

Effects of temperature — heavy metal interactions, antioxidant enzyme activity and gene expression in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings

In this study, the effect of heat and chromium (Cr) heavy metal interactions on wheat seedlings (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Ç-1252 and Gun91) was investigated by measuring total chlorophyll and carotenoid levels, catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) antioxidant enzyme activities, and MYB73, ERF1 and TaSRG gene expression. Examination of pigment levels demonstrated a decrease in total chlorophyll in both species of wheat under combined heat and heavy metal stress, while the carotenoid levels showed a slight increase. APX activity increased in both species in response to heavy metal stress, but the increase in APX activity in the Gun91 seedlings was higher than that in the Ç-1252 seedlings. CAT activity increased in Gun91 seedlings but decreased in Ç-1252 seedlings. These results showed that Gun91 seedling had higher resistance to Cr and Cr + heat stresses than the Ç-1252 seedling. The quantitative molecular analyses implied that the higher resistance was related to the overexpression of TaMYB73, TaERF1 and TaSRG transcription factors. The increase in the expression levels of these transcription factors was profound under combined Cr and heat stress. This study suggests that TaMYB73, TaERF1 and TaSRG transcription factors regulate Cr and heat stress responsive genes in wheat

A protein engineered to bind uranyl selectively and with femtomolar affinity

Uranyl (UO22+), the predominant aerobic form of uranium, is present in the ocean at a concentration of similar to 3.2 parts per 10(9) (13.7 nM); however, the successful enrichment of uranyl from this vast resource has been limited by the high concentrations of metal ions of similar size and charge, which makes it difficult to design a binding motif that is selective for uranyl. Here we report the design and rational development of a uranyl-binding protein using a computational screening process in the initial search for potential uranyl-binding sites. The engineered protein is thermally stable and offers very high affinity and selectivity for uranyl with a K-d of 7.4 femtomolar (fM) and >10,000-fold selectivity over other metal ions. We also demonstrated that the uranyl-binding protein can repeatedly sequester 30-60% of the uranyl in synthetic sea water. The chemical strategy employed here may be applied to engineer other selective metal-binding proteins for biotechnology and remediation applications.Chemistry, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)[email protected]; [email protected]