Transcript profiles of maize embryo sacs and preliminary identification of genes involved in the embryo sac–pollen tube interaction

The embryo sac, the female gametophyte of flowering plants, plays important roles in the pollination and fertilization process. Maize (Zea mays L.) is a model monocot, but little is known about the interactions between its embryo sac and the pollen tube. In this study, we compared the transcript profiles of mature embryo sacs, mature embryo sacs 14–16 h after pollination, and mature nucelli. Comparing the transcript profiles of the embryo sac before and after the entry of the pollen tube, we identified 3,467 differentially expressed transcripts (3,382 differentially expressed genes; DEGs). The DEGs were grouped into 22 functional categories. Among the DEGs, 221genes were induced upon the entry of the pollen tube, and many of them encoded proteins involved in RNA binding, processing, and transcription, signaling, miscellaneous enzyme family processes, and lipid metabolism processes. Genes in the DEG dataset were grouped into 17 classes in a gene ontology enrichment analysis. The DEGs included many genes encoding proteins involved in protein amino acid phosphorylation and protein ubiquitination, implying that these processes might play important roles in the embryo sac–pollen tube interaction. Additionally, our analyses indicate that the expression of 112 genes encoding cysteine-rich proteins (CRPs) is induced during pollination and fertilization. The CRPs likely regulate pollen tube guidance and embryo sac development. These results provide important information on the genes involved in the embryo sac–pollen tube interaction in maize

Antibacterial effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine monomer against Streptococcus pneumoniae via inhibiting pneumococcal histidine kinase (VicK)

Two-component systems (TCSs) have the potential to be an effective target of the antimicrobials. VicK/VicR is one of TCSs in S. pneumoniae, which is essential for pneumococcal survival. We have previously obtained serveal Traditional Chinese Medicine monomers using a computer-based screening. In this study, either alone or in combination with penicillin, their antimicrobial activities were evaluated based on in vivo and in vitro assays. The results showed that the MICs of 5'-(Methylthio)-5'-deoxyadenosine, octanal 2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazone, deoxyshikonin, kavahin, and dodecyl gallate against S. pneumoniae were 37.1, 38.5, 17, 68.5, and 21 µg/mL, respectively. Time-killing assays showed that these compounds elicited bactericidal effects against S. pneumoniae D39 strain, which led to a 6-log reduction in CFU after exposure to compounds at four times of the MIC for 24 h. The five compounds inhibited the growth of S.pyogenes, S.mitis, S.mutans or S. pseudopneumoniae, meanwhile, deoxyshikonin and dodecyl gallate displayed strong inhibitory activities against S. aureus. Survival time of the mice infected by S. pneumoniae strains was prolonged by the treatment with the compounds. Importanly, all of the five compounds exerted antimicrobial effects against multidrug-resistant clinical strains of S. pneumoniae. Moreover, even at sub-MIC concentration, they inhibited cell division and biofilm formation. The five compounds all have enhancement effect on penicillin. Deoxyshikonin and dodecyl gallate showed significantly synergic antimicrobial activity with penicillin in vivo and in vitro, and effectively reduced nasopharyngeal and lung colonization caused by different penicillin-resistant pneumococcal serotypes. In addition, the two compounds also showed synergic antimicrobial activity with erythromycin and tetracycline. Taken together, our results our results suggested that these novel VicK inhibitors may be promising compounds against gram-positive bacterial infection

Mechanism and in vivo evaluation :photodynamic antibacterial chemotherapy of lysine-porphyrin conjugate

We previously reported lysine-porphyrin conjugate 4i, which had potent photosensitive antibacterial effect on clinical isolated Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) bacterial strains. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the mechanism of photodynamic antibacterial chemotherapy of 4i (4i-PACT) in vitro and the treatment effect in vivo. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed 4i-PACT could effectively destroy bacterial membrane and wall, making the bacterial content leakage, which was confirmed by dual fluorescent staining with acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) and absorbance at 260 nm, agarose gel electrophoresis indicated 4i-PACT could damage genomic DNA. The results combined AFM and DNA electrophoresis revealed why the bacterial strains had no resistance to 4i-PACT. Wound healing in rat model with mixed bacteria infected wounds showed the efficiency of 4i-PACT was light-dose dependent. These results showed 4i-PACT had promising bactericidal effect both in vitro and in vivo

Intranasal deferoxamine attenuates synapse loss via up-regulating the P38/HIF-1α pathway on the brain of APP/PS1 transgenic mice

AbstractThe widely recognized neuroprotective effect of iron chelators is contributed by their ability to prevent reactive oxygen species generation via the Fenton reaction, which sequesters redox-active Fe. An additional neuroprotective mechanism of iron-chelating compounds is to regulate the transcriptional activator hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α). In the present study, we observed that intranasal administration of deferoxamine decreased beta-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and rescued synapse loss in the brain of Aβ precursor protein and presenilin-1 (APP/PS1) double transgenic mice. We found that DFO up-regulated HIF-1α mRNA expression and its protein level, and further induced the proteins that are encoded from HIF-1-adaptive genes, including transferrin receptor (TFR), divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The effects of DFO on the induction and stabilization of HIF-1α were further confirmed in vitro. This was accompanied by a decrease of Fe in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. Western blotting studies revealed that DFO differentially enhanced the phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) /P38 kinase in vitro and in vivo. The results suggest that the DFO may up-regulate several HIF-1-dependent neuroprotective-adaptive genes in AD via activating P38/HIF-1α pathway, which may serve as important therapeutic targets to the disease