Arabinogalactan proteins:focus on carbohydrate active enzymes

Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are a highly diverse class of cell surface proteoglycans that are commonly found in most plant species. AGPs play important roles in many cellular processes during plant development, such as reproduction, cell proliferation, pattern formation and growth, and in plant-microbe interaction. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms of their function. Numerous studies using monoclonal antibodies that recognize different AGP glycan epitopes have shown the appearance of a slightly altered AGP glycan in a specific stage of development in plant cells. Therefore, it is anticipated that the biosynthesis and degradation of AGP glycan is tightly regulated during development. Until recently, however, little was known about the enzymes involved in the metabolism of AGP glycans. In this review, we summarize recent discoveries of carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZy; http://www.cazy.org/) involved in the biosynthesis and degradation of AGP glycans, and we discuss the biological role of these enzymes in plant development

Transcriptional response of a target plant to benzoxazinoid and diterpene allelochemicals highlights commonalities in detoxification

Background Plants growing in proximity to other plants are exposed to a variety of metabolites that these neighbors release into the environment. Some species produce allelochemicals to inhibit growth of neighboring plants, which in turn have evolved ways to detoxify these compounds. Results In order to understand how the allelochemical-receiving target plants respond to chemically diverse compounds, we performed whole-genome transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana exposed to either the benzoxazinoid derivative 2-amino- 3H-phenoxazin-3-one (APO) or momilactone B. These two allelochemicals belong to two very different compound classes, benzoxazinoids and diterpenes, respectively, produced by different Poaceae crop species. Conclusions Despite their distinct chemical nature, we observed similar molecular responses of A. thaliana to these allelochemicals. In particular, many of the same or closely related genes belonging to the three-phase detoxification pathway were upregulated in both treatments. Further, we observed an overlap between genes upregulated by allelochemicals and those involved in herbicide detoxification. Our findings highlight the overlap in the transcriptional response of a target plant to natural and synthetic phytotoxic compounds and illustrate how herbicide resistance could arise via pathways involved in plant-plant interaction

OVERVIEW OF THE RELEVANT INDICATORS OF DEFAULTED AND NON-DEFAULTED COMPANIES AND POSSIBILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT FOR THE RATING SYSTEMS USED BY THE ROMANIAN COMMERCIAL BANKS

Since the beginning of the financial and economic crises many news came to light which discussed the increasing number of non-performing loans, and the fact that as a result of the company break-downs, the bank portfolios have also gone worse and worse. In this paper our goal is to find out which internal factors influence the solvency of a company, therefore, to point out the weaknesses of the current Romanian rating systems, which as we will see, do not take into only relevant criteria when according a loan to a company. In order to conduct this study, we choose 18 indicators from several categories to predict bankruptcy. Some of the indicators mentioned above are really common in the international and the Romanian literature (e.g. ROA, ROE, ROS, assets turnover ratio), some of them are less. On a sample of 3000 Romanian companies we use the T-test statistical method to find out if an indicator is significant or not. The sample consists of companies (defaulted and non-defaulted as well) which have presented their financial statements (balance, profit and loss account between 1999 and 2008). For each company a set of 18 financial indicators was calculated, but the results obtained show that only 8 of them is significant in predicting bankruptcy: ROA, assets turnover ratio, equity/total assets, general leverage, current assets to total assets, cash to total assets, total assets and sales. In the next step, by analyzing the obligatory forms used in credit lending, we conclude which indicators are used by different Romanian commercial banks. We found that only four out of seven banks calculate all of the significant indicators identified in the first part of the paper. Finally, we made a proposal about which quantitative indicators should the banks use to minimize the credit losses and to avoid the overdue payments. In addition, we consider that the banks should pay attention to the qualitative factors as well to effectively filter out non-performing loans