Drought and heat stress-related proteins: an update about their functional relevance in imparting stress tolerance in agricultural crops

Key message We describe here the recent developments about the involvement of diverse stress-related proteins in sensing, signaling, and defending the cells in plants in response to drought or/and heat stress. Abstract In the current era of global climate drift, plant growth and productivity are often limited by various environmental stresses, especially drought and heat. Adaptation to abiotic stress is a multigenic process involving maintenance of homeostasis for proper survival under adverse environment. It has been widely observed that a series of proteins respond to heat and drought conditions at both transcriptional and translational levels. The proteins are involved in various signaling events, act as key transcriptional activators and saviors of plants under extreme environments. A detailed insight about the functional aspects of diverse stress-responsive proteins may assist in unraveling various stress resilience mechanisms in plants. Furthermore, by identifying the metabolic proteins associated with drought and heat tolerance, tolerant varieties can be produced through transgenic/recombinant technologies. A large number of regulatory and functional stress-associated proteins are reported to participate in response to heat and drought stresses, such as protein kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors, and late embryogenesis abundant proteins, dehydrins, osmotins, and heat shock proteins, which may be similar or unique to stress treatments. Few studies have revealed that cellular response to combined drought and heat stresses is distinctive, compared to their individual treatments. In this review, we would mainly focus on the new developments about various stress sensors and receptors, transcription factors, chaperones, and stress-associated proteins involved in drought or/and heat stresses, and their possible role in augmenting stress tolerance in crops

Nanoimprinted distributed feedback lasers of solution processed hybrid perovskites

Hybrid perovskite materials have considerable potential for light emitting devices such as LEDs and lasers. We combine solution processed CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite with UV nanoimprinted polymer gratings to fabricate distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. The lead acetate deposition route is shown to be an effective method for fabricating low-loss waveguides (loss coefficient ~6 cm-1) and highly compatible with the polymer grating substrates. The nanoimprinted perovskite exhibited single-mode band-edge lasing, confirmed by angle-dependent transmission measurements. Depending on the excitation pulse duration the lasing threshold shows a value of 110 μJ/cm2 under nanosecond pumping and 4 μJ/cm2 under femtosecond pumping. We demonstrate further that this laser has excellent stability with a lifetime of 10*8 pulses

Responses of the estuarine copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei to diatom polyunsaturated aldehydes: Reproduction, survival and postembryonic development

Highlights: • The diatom PUA decadienal strongly impacted demographic traits of Pseudodiaptomus annandalei. • Decadienal negatively affected survival, development and reproduction in a dose-dependent manner. • Nauplii successfully molted to copepodites; however copepodites were not able to molt to the adult stage when exposed to decadienal. • Negative effects on female survival were not recorded beyond 6 days of exposure to decadienal suggesting an evolutionary adaptive response to PUA with time. • Progressive tolerance to decadienal suggest evolutionarily adaptive response to PUA with time. Abstract: The euryhaline calanoid copepod Pseudodiaptomus annandalei perennially occurs in tropical and subtropical brackish water ecosystems and harbors supporting harmful algal blooms. In the present paper we provide a quantitative assessment of the influence of the diatom-derived poly-unsaturated aldehyde (PUA), 2-trans-4-trans-decadienal on demographic traits of P. annandalei. The survival and reproduction of P. annandalei were recorded in life table experiments, using a cohort of adult males and females exposed to a range of concentrations (0.75, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 μM) of decadienal. Higher mortality of female cohorts and lower reproduction were recorded with increasing concentrations of decadienal (3 and 4.5 μM). The estimated survival time for cohort females (control: 9.7 days; 4.5 μM decadienal: 4.7 days) and developmental stages of copepods (control: 10.5 days; 4.5 μM decadienal: 1.0 days) in decadienal applied medium (Isochrysis galbana + decadienal) was significantly lower than those in control (only I. galbana). Detrimental effects further eroded recruitment by increasing naupliar mortality and impairing copepodite development to adulthood. Since P. annandalei is widely used in the aquaculture industry in Asia, the present results call for a limited use of PUA producing diatoms as algal food to avoid impairing copepod reproduction and development

Rizoremediação de pentaclorofenol em um solo argiloso por sphingomonas chlorophenolica ATCC 39723 Pentachlorophenol rhizoremediation in a loamy soil by sphingomonas chlorophenolica ATCC 39723

O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a degradação de PCP por Sphingomonas chlorophenolicaem solo argiloso na presença e ausência de trigo. As concentrações de PCP foram determinadas através de Análises de Alta Performance de Cromatografia Líquida. Os efeitos tóxicos de PCP foram estudados através do monitoramento do crescimento das plantas. A biodegradação de PCP por S. chlorophenolica foi acompanhada por testes de bioluminescência de Escherichia coli HB101 pUCD607 e contagens bacterianas no solo e nas raízes. A degradação de PCP ocorreu de forma mais rápida no solo plantado e inoculado quando comparada ao solo sem plantas. Houve um aumento significativo nas populações dos organismos testados nas raízes quando comparadas com as populações presentes no solo. O monitoramento do crescimento da planta mostrou o papel protetor exercido pela S.chlorophenolica contra a toxicidade do PCP.<br>The main objective of this study was study the PCP degradation by Sphingomonas chlorophenolica in a loamy soil in the presence and absence of plants (Winter wheat). Measurements of PCP concentrations were carried out in a laboratory basis using High performance liquid chromatography analysis (HPLC). The toxic effect of PCP on plants was studied through the monitoring of the plant growth. The biodegradation of PCP by S. chlorophenolica in soil was assessed with a bioluminescence assay of Escherichia coli HB101 pUCD607 and bacterial analyses in roots and soil. The planted and inoculated soil showed a faster degradation when compared to the inoculated soil without plants. There was a significative increase in the populations of the organisms tested in the roots when compared to the soil. The monitoring of the plant growth showed a protective role of S. chlorophenolica against the toxicity of PCP in the loamy soil