Expression of drought responsive genes in pigeonpea and in silico comparison with soybean cDNA library

Pigeonpea, a drought tolerant, semi-arid pulse crop has been investigated for the expression of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) under drought stress. The cDNA library of soybean leaf tissue retrieved from the Unigene database of the NCBI, were compared for in silico expression using IDEG6 web statistical tool. A list of 52 non-redundant DEGs consisting of 11 up-regulated and 41 down-regulated was obtained. Among these, more photosynthesis and light harvesting proteins were down-regulated in drought stress conditions. Pathways were assigned based on KEGG database, revealing 32 genes involved in 17 metabolic pathways. Homologous sequences of six up-regulated genes namely, ADF3, APB, ASR, DLP, LTP1, and UGE5 were then used for quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) in pigeonpea. The qRT-PCR result revealed the significant up-regulation of dehydrin-like protein (DLP) (5.02 log2 fold) and down-regulation of acid phosphatase class B family protein (APB) (9.43 log2 fold) and non-specific lipid transfer protein 1-like (LTP1) (18.81 log2 fold) in pigeonpea water-stressed leaf sample compared to well-watered leaf samples. No significant difference was observed in the stressed root compared to the stressed pigeonpea leaf sample except that APB showed an up-regulation of 11.35 log2 fold chang

Characterizing the normal proteome of human ciliary body

BACKGROUND: The ciliary body is the circumferential muscular tissue located just behind the iris in the anterior chamber of the eye. It plays a pivotal role in the production of aqueous humor, maintenance of the lens zonules and accommodation by changing the shape of the crystalline lens. The ciliary body is the major target of drugs against glaucoma as its inhibition leads to a drop in intraocular pressure. A molecular study of the ciliary body could provide a better understanding about the pathophysiological processes that occur in glaucoma. Thus far, no large-scale proteomic investigation has been reported for the human ciliary body. RESULTS: In this study, we have carried out an in-depth LC-MS/MS-based proteomic analysis of normal human ciliary body and have identified 2,815 proteins. We identified a number of proteins that were previously not described in the ciliary body including importin 5 (IPO5), atlastin-2 (ATL2), B-cell receptor associated protein 29 (BCAP29), basigin (BSG), calpain-1 (CAPN1), copine 6 (CPNE6), fibulin 1 (FBLN1) and galectin 1 (LGALS1). We compared the plasma proteome with the ciliary body proteome and found that the large majority of proteins in the ciliary body were also detectable in the plasma while 896 proteins were unique to the ciliary body. We also classified proteins using pathway enrichment analysis and found most of proteins associated with ubiquitin pathway, EIF2 signaling, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis. CONCLUSIONS: More than 95% of the identified proteins have not been previously described in the ciliary body proteome. This is the largest catalogue of proteins reported thus far in the ciliary body that should provide new insights into our understanding of the factors involved in maintaining the secretion of aqueous humor. The identification of these proteins will aid in understanding various eye diseases of the anterior segment such as glaucoma and presbyopia