RALF/LRX monitor cell wall integrity during tomato fruit formation

Plant developmental processes depend largely on a correct communication between cells, together with the ability to respond to such communication. Traditionally cell to cell communication has been studied through the action of phytohormones such as auxin, ethylene, etc. However, in the past decade, Small Signaling Peptides (SSPs) have been identified as key regulators coordinating an extensive range of developmental and stress processes. Plant cells perceive SSPs at the cell wall by Receptor-Like Kinases (RLKs), activating a huge range of biochemical and physiological processes. SSPs from Rapid Alkalinization Factor (RALFs) family are ubiquitous in dicot plants and they have been associated to cell wall integrity during cell wall remodeling. RALFs peptides can bind two types of receptors: Leucine-Rich Repeat Extensin proteins (LRXs), and Catharanthus roseus RLK1-Like (CrRLK1L). All recent discoveries remark the importance of RALF/LRX/CrRLK1L module regulating cell wall status. A tomato fruit formation is a perfect model to further understand the role of this mechanism, since requires a tightly regulation during the cell wall softening phase. It has already been reported that some members of CrRLK1Ls regulate fruit ripening in few species like tomato, strawberry or apple, remarking the importance of these receptors and their ligands sensing changes produced in the cell wall during the ripening process. Here, we initiate a biochemical and phenotypical characterization of RALF/LRX proteins in order to elucidate their role during tomato ripening process

THESEUS1 and RALF34 monitor cell wall integrity

The cell wall is a rigid network being the first barrier between a plant cell and its environment, but at the same time has to be a dynamic network whose cell growth and shape is given by deposition and remodeling of the cell wall. Maintaining cell wall integrity (CWI) is essential for correct plant development and stress response. Members of the family of Catharanthus roseus receptor-like kinase 1-like (CrRLK1L) proteins have been shown to play a role in cell wall homeostasis, mechanoperception, CWI maintenance and growth control. One of the 17 members in Arabidopsis, THESEUS1 (THE1), was identified in a suppressor screen of a cellulose deficient mutant, revealing that the reduction in growth is part of a THE1-mediated compensatory response to cell wall perturbation (Hématy et al., 2007). Interestingly, several CrRLK1L members have been shown to be receptors for Rapid Alkalinisation Factor (RALF) peptides. RALFs are on average 50 amino acids highly basic, cysteine-rich peptides, most of which are predicted to be cleaved from a highly acidic prodomain by a subtilisin protease. Recently, THE1 has been identified as a receptor for RALF34 (Gonneau et al., 2018). However, this peptide might not be the only THE1 ligand, since ralf34 loss-of-function mutants do not phenocopy all aspects of the1 mutants. RALF24 and RALF31 clustered together with RALF34, based on expression values across different tissues. We generated CRISPR/Cas9 mutants on RALF24, RALF31 and RALF34 with the aim to study which THE1 responses depend on these peptides. Our data suggest that RALF34 could not be the ligand for CWI response of THE1. The presence of RALF34 is acting negatively through THE1, inhibiting its response to cell wall damage.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Global fine-resolution data on springtail abundance and community structure

Springtails (Collembola) inhabit soils from the Arctic to the Antarctic and comprise an estimated ~32% of all terrestrial arthropods on Earth. Here, we present a global, spatially-explicit database on springtail communities that includes 249,912 occurrences from 44,999 samples and 2,990 sites. These data are mainly raw sample-level records at the species level collected predominantly from private archives of the authors that were quality-controlled and taxonomically-standardised. Despite covering all continents, most of the sample-level data come from the European continent (82.5% of all samples) and represent four habitats: woodlands (57.4%), grasslands (14.0%), agrosystems (13.7%) and scrublands (9.0%). We included sampling by soil layers, and across seasons and years, representing temporal and spatial within-site variation in springtail communities. We also provided data use and sharing guidelines and R code to facilitate the use of the database by other researchers. This data paper describes a static version of the database at the publication date, but the database will be further expanded to include underrepresented regions and linked with trait data.</p

How reliable are decadal climate predictions of near-surface air temperature?

Decadal climate predictions are being increasingly used by stakeholders interested in the evolution of climate over the coming decade. However, investigating the added value of those initialized decadal predictions over other sources of information typically used by stakeholders generally relies on forecast accuracy, while probabilistic aspects, although crucial to users, are often overlooked. In this study, the quality of the near-surface air temperature from initialized predictions has been assessed in terms of reliability, an essential characteristic of climate simulation ensembles, and compared to the reliability of noninitialized simulations performed with the same model ensembles. Here, reliability is defined as the capability to obtain a true estimate of the forecast uncertainty from the ensemble spread. We show the limited added value of initialization in terms of reliability, the initialized predictions being significantly more reliable than their noninitialized counterparts only for specific regions and the first forecast year. By analyzing reliability for different forecast system ensembles, we further highlight the fact that the combination of models seems to play a more important role than the ensemble size of each individual forecast system. This is due to sampling different model errors related to model physics, numerics, and initialization approaches involved in the multimodel, allowing for a certain level of error compensation. Finally, this study demonstrates that all forecast system ensembles are affected by systematic biases and dispersion errors that affect the reliability. This set of errors makes bias correction and calibration necessary to obtain reliable estimates of forecast probabilities that can be useful to stakeholders

The SUD1 Gene Encodes a Putative E3 Ubiquitin Ligase and Is a Positive Regulator of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Activity in Arabidopsis

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) enzyme catalyzes the major rate-limiting step of the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway from which sterols and other isoprenoids are synthesized. In contrast with our extensive knowledge of the regulation of HMGR in yeast and animals, little is known about this process in plants. To identify regulatory components of the MVA pathway in plants, we performed a genetic screen for second-site suppressor mutations of the Arabidopsis thaliana highly drought-sensitive drought hypersensitive2 (dry2) mutant that shows decreased squalene epoxidase activity. We show that mutations in SUPPRESSOR OF DRY2 DEFECTS1 (SUD1) gene recover most developmental defects in dry2 through changes in HMGR activity. SUD1 encodes a putative E3 ubiquitin ligase that shows sequence and structural similarity to yeast Degradation of a factor (Doa10) and human TEB4, components of the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation C (ERAD-C) pathway. While in yeast and animals, the alternative ERAD-L/ERAD-M pathway regulates HMGR activity by controlling protein stability, SUD1 regulates HMGR activity without apparent changes in protein content. These results highlight similarities, as well as important mechanistic differences, among the components involved in HMGR regulation in plants, yeast, and animals

Adaptation of Arabidopsis halleri to extreme metal pollution through limited metal accumulation involves changes in cell wall composition and metal homeostasis

Metallophytes constitute powerful models to study metal homeostasis, adaptation to extreme environments and the evolution of naturally-selected traits. Arabidopsis halleri is a pseudometallophyte which shows constitutive Zn/Cd tolerance and Zn hyperaccumulation but high intraspecific variability in Cd accumulation. To examine the molecular basis of the variation in metal tolerance and accumulation, ionome, transcriptome and cell-wall glycan array profiles were compared in two genetically close A. halleri populations from metalliferous and non-metalliferous sites in Northern Italy. The metallicolous population displayed increased tolerance to, reduced hyperaccumulation of Zn and limited accumulation of Cd, as well as altered metal homeostasis, compared to the non-metallicolous population. This correlated well with the differential expression of transporter genes involved in trace metal entry and in Cd/Zn vacuolar sequestration in roots. Many cell wall-related genes were also more expressed in roots of the metallicolous population. Glycan array and histological staining analyses supported major differences between the two populations in the accumulation of specific root pectins and hemicelluloses epitopes. Our results supported a role for specific cell wall components and regulation of transporter genes of Arabidopsis halleri in limiting accumulation of metals on contaminated sites

Adaptation of Arabidopsis halleri to extreme metal pollution through limited metal accumulation involves changes in cell wall composition and metal homeostasis

peer reviewedMetallophytes constitute powerful models to study metal homeostasis, adaptation to extreme environments and the evolution of naturally-selected traits. Arabidopsis halleri is a pseudometallophyte which shows constitutive Zn/Cd tolerance and Zn hyperaccumulation but high intraspecific variability in Cd accumulation. To examine the molecular basis of the variation in metal tolerance and accumulation, ionome, transcriptome and cell-wall glycan array profiles were compared in two genetically close A. halleri populations from metalliferous and non-metalliferous sites in Northern Italy. The metallicolous population displayed increased tolerance to, reduced hyperaccumulation of Zn and limited accumulation of Cd, as well as altered metal homeostasis, compared to the non-metallicolous population. This correlated well with the differential expression of transporter genes involved in trace metal entry and in Cd/Zn vacuolar sequestration in roots. Many cell wall-related genes were also more expressed in roots of the metallicolous population. Glycan array and histological staining analyses supported major differences between the two populations in the accumulation of specific root pectins and hemicelluloses epitopes. Our results supported a role for specific cell wall components and regulation of transporter genes of Arabidopsis halleri in limiting accumulation of metals on contaminated sites

RAPID ALKALINIZATION FACTOR 22 is a key modulator of the proliferation and hyper-elongation responses of root hairs to microbial volatiles in Arabidopsis

RAPID ALKALINIZATION FACTOR (RALF) peptides are important players in regulating cell expansion. In Arabidopsis, volatile compounds (VCs) emitted by the fungal phytopathogen Penicillium aurantiogriseum promote root hair (RH) proliferation and hyper-elongation through ethylene and enhanced photosynthesis signalling actions. A striking alteration in the proteome of fungal VC-treated roots involves up-regulation of RALF22. To test the possible involvement of RALF22 in the fungal VC-promoted RH changes, we characterized RH density and number responses to fungal VCs in ralf22 and fer-4 plants impaired in RALF22 and its receptor FERONIA, respectively. Unlike WT plants, ralf22 and fer-4 RHs responded weakly to fungal VCs, strongly indicating that the RALF22-FERONIA module is a key determinant of the RH response to fungal VCs. To investigate the regulatory mechanisms behind this response, we analysed the RALF22 transcript levels in roots of etr1-3 and eir1 ethylene signalling mutants and those of ethylene-responsive, RH-related RSL4, RHD2, PRX1 and PRX44 transcripts in ralf22 and fer-4 roots. Moreover, we characterized the RH and RALF22 transcript level responses to fungal VCs of the cfbp1 mutant defective in photosynthetic responsiveness to VCs. Unlike in WT roots, fungal VCs weakly enhanced RALF22 expression in etr1-3, eir1 and cfbp1 roots, and RSL4, RHD2, PRX1 and PRX44 expression in ralf22 and fer-4 roots. In addition, fungal VCs weakly promoted RH changes in cfbp1 roots. Collectively, our findings showed that the ethylene and enhanced photosynthesis signalling-mediated RH response to fungal VCs involves RALF22-FERONIA.This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) / 10.13039/501100011033/ (grant PID2019-104685GB-100)

The SUD1 Gene Encodes a Putative E3 Ubiquitin Ligase and Is a Positive Regulator of 3-Hydroxy-3-Methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Activity in Arabidopsis

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) enzyme catalyzes the major rate-limiting step of the mevalonic acid (MVA) pathway from which sterols and other isoprenoids are synthesized. In contrast with our extensive knowledge of the regulation of HMGR in yeast and animals, little is known about this process in plants. To identify regulatory components of the MVA pathway in plants, we performed a genetic screen for second-site suppressor mutations of the Arabidopsis thaliana highly drought-sensitive drought hypersensitive2 (dry2) mutant that shows decreased squalene epoxidase activity. We show that mutations in SUPPRESSOR OF DRY2 DEFECTS1 (SUD1) gene recover most developmental defects in dry2 through changes in HMGR activity. SUD1 encodes a putative E3 ubiquitin ligase that shows sequence and structural similarity to yeast Degradation of a factor (Doa10) and human TEB4, components of the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation C (ERAD-C) pathway. While in yeast and animals, the alternative ERAD-L/ERAD-M pathway regulates HMGR activity by controlling protein stability, SUD1 regulates HMGR activity without apparent changes in protein content. These results highlight similarities, as well as important mechanistic differences, among the components involved in HMGR regulation in plants, yeast, and animals