Frontiers in Plant Science最新文献

{"title":"Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of <i>C3H</i> gene family in melon.","authors":"Ling Zheng, Haifang Dai, Yuanfang Mu, Jinbo Li, Yanwei Cheng, Jianming Han","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1500429","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1500429","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Zinc finger protein (ZFP) represent a significant class of transcription factors in plants, involved in various functions, including tissue development, signal transduction, and responses to both biotic and abiotic stresses. ZFPs are categorized into 10 distinct subfamilies, among which the C3H gene family is recognized as a functionally significant group of transcription factors.To date, no studies have been reported regarding the <i>C3H</i> gene family in melon (<i>Cucumis melo</i>). In this study, 38 <i>CmC3H</i> genes were identified in the melon genome, and these genes are unevenly distributed across the 12 chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis classified the <i>C3H</i> family members into four groups, with significant differences observed in sequence, protein motifs, and gene structure among <i>CmC3H</i> genes within the same group. The <i>CmC3H</i> family contains one pair of segmentally duplicated genes and shares 20, 7, 39, and 38 pairs of homologous <i>C3H</i> genes with <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i>, rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i>), cucumber (<i>Cucumis sativus</i>), and watermelon (<i>Citrullus lanatus</i>), respectively. Promoter region analysis revealed a high abundance of <i>cis</i>-elements associated with growth and development, hormone regulation, and stress responses. Expression profiling revealed that <i>CmC3H</i> family members exhibit significant tissue-specific expression patterns. Quantitative PCR analysis indicated that six genes (<i>CmC3H4</i>, <i>CmC3H7</i>, <i>CmC3H13</i>, <i>CmC3H24</i>, <i>CmC3H33</i>, and <i>CmC3H38</i>) may play roles in melon's drought stress resistance. Heavy metal lead stress appears to suppress the expression of <i>CmC3H</i> genes. The genes <i>CmC3H24</i> and <i>CmC3H33</i> may be involved in regulating melon's resistance to <i>Fusarium wilt</i> infection. <i>CmC3H11</i> and <i>CmC3H21</i> can be considered as the key candidate genes for improving the melon's ability to resist both biotic and abiotic stresses.This study provides preliminary insights into the expression profiles of <i>CmC3H</i> genes under drought stress, heavy metal lead stress, and <i>Fusarium wilt</i> infection, offering a theoretical foundation for the molecular mechanisms underlying melon improvement and stress resistance.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1500429"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11966401/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering the genetic mechanism of rind color trait in watermelon using fine mapping and comparative transcriptomic analysis.","authors":"Sitong Liu, Sikandar Amanullah, Bohan An, Yu Guo, Xiaoxue Liang, Xiujie Liu, Jixiu Liu, Yue Gao, Wen Zhao, Chengzhi Yuan, Meiling Gao","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1553166","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1553166","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rind color of watermelon fruit is a significant trait that directly affects consumer acceptability. However, the genetic regulatory mechanisms underlying rind color remain poorly understood. In this study, we crossed two differentiated watermelon lines (K2Q \"female parent line with a light green rind\" and K2S \"male parent line with a dark green rind\") and developed segregated F₂ mapping populations. The dynamic development of rind color was observed by identifying the critical period for color transformation as occurring between 7 and 14 days after pollination (DAP). Genetic segregation analysis indicated that a single dominant gene regulates the major genetic locus (<i>ClRC</i>) associated with the dark green rind trait. Whole-genome BSA-sequencing (BSA-seq) and fine mapping analysis exposed the delimited <i>ClRC</i> locus to a 37.52 kb region on chromosome 08 (Chr08), comprising five genes. The pairwise sequence comparisons analysis of the parental lines revealed the single major gene (<i>Cla97C08G161570</i>), which encodes a 2-phytyl-1,4-<i>β</i>-naphthoquinone methyltransferase protein, exhibiting one non-synonymous type single nucleotide polymorphism (nsSNP) at candidate site (Chr8:27994761, C-G). The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) verified the higher expression level of the K2S line on the 14 DAP than that of the K2Q line. The analysis of comparative transcriptomes (RNA-sequencing) identified a total of 940 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) associated with rind coloration in the two parental lines at three dynamic stages of development (0, 7, and 14 DAP). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis revealed key genes (<i>C01G023430</i>, <i>C04G071470</i>, <i>C09G165830</i>, <i>C07G128820</i>, <i>C08G148460</i>, and <i>C08G155040</i>) that share the same pathway as the <i>Cla97C08G161570</i> gene and exhibited high levels of differential expression trend. Further, RT-qPCR verified that these genes display the same expression pattern as the <i>Cla97C08G161570</i> gene, and expression levels in the dark green rind lines were significantly higher than those in the light green rind lines, suggesting the significant role in modulating the pigmentation activity.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1553166"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11965938/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global transcriptome dynamics of seagrass flowering and seed development process: insights from the iconic seagrass <i>Zostera marina</i> L.","authors":"Yu Zhang, Shidong Yue, Xinhua Wang, Mingjie Liu, Shaochun Xu, Xiaomei Zhang, Yi Zhou","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1545658","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1545658","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Seagrasses are the only group of higher angiosperms capable of fully living in seawater, playing a significant role in plant evolutionary history. However, studies on the molecular regulatory networks underlying sexual reproduction in seagrasses remain limited. This study evaluated the morphological changes of the spathe during eelgrass sexual reproduction and analyzed global transcriptome dynamics across eight sequential stages. The key findings are as follows:(1) Key flowering integrators such as FT, SOC1, AP1, and LFY exhibited high expression levels during the early stages, indicating their involvement in the induction of eelgrass flowering, consistent with terrestrial plants. (2) Based on the classical model of floral organ development in terrestrial plants - the \"ABCDE model, genes related to the development of stamens, carpels, and ovules of eelgrass, including B-, C-, D-, and E-class genes, were identified. (3) Photosynthesis was temporarily suppressed after the initiation of sexual reproduction, and gradually resumed during the seed development stage, suggesting that the developed seed may perform photosynthesis. The Fv/Fm value (0.641 ± 0.028) of seeds at the developed seed stage further indicated that these seeds are indeed capable of photosynthesis. These findings provide important insights into the potential mechanisms underlying seagrass sexual reproduction and enrich knowledge of its reproductive genetics.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1545658"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11965923/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of long-term loquat cultivation on rhizosphere soil characteristics and AMF community structure: implications for fertilizer management.","authors":"Yu Zhang, Zhenteng Liang, Liangxun Zheng, Xinyang Wang, Hui Chen, Tingying Xu, Ming Tang","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1549384","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1549384","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in assisting the growth of different fruit tree species is well-established, yet the impact of loquat cultivation under long-term human management on the rhizosphere soil characteristics and AMF community structure remains unresolved. To address this knowledge gap, we collected roots and soil samples from 20-year-old loquat in a loquat germplasm resources nursery with consistent water and nutrient conditions including one wild species (YS), three pure species (GXQH, MHH, DWX), and four hybrid species (ZJ90, JT, JTH, ZU7). Our analysis revealed that AMF colonization rates ranged from 40.57% to 65.54%, with <i>Glomus</i> (30.72%) and <i>Paraglomus</i> (29.46%) being the dominant genera across all varieties. <i>Paraglomus</i> dominated in pure species, while <i>Glomus</i> prevailed in wild species. YS exhibited the highest AMF richness than cultivars. Significant variations in soil nutrients and enzyme activities in the rhizosphere among different varieties. Total nitrogen (TN) and total potassium (TK) were significantly negatively correlated with relative abundance of AMF genera, suggesting that nitrogen and potassium may reduce AMF abundance. Mantel test showed that total carbon (TC) and soil organic matter (SOM) were the key factors influencing AMF community composition (<i>P</i><0.01). These nutrients were positively correlated with dominant AMF genus (0.06, R² = 0.05) but negatively with rare genus such as <i>Ambispora</i> (-0.08, R² = 0.24). Overall, these findings confirmed that plant varieties or genotypes drive changes in AMF communities and further demonstrated that long-term nutrient enrichment reduces the diversity of loquat rhizosphere AMF communities. These results support the use of AMF biofertilizers and reducing fertilizer application.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1549384"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11966047/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"CTDA: an accurate and efficient cherry tomato detection algorithm in complex environments.","authors":"Zhi Liang, Caihong Zhang, Zhonglong Lin, Guoqiang Wang, Xiaojuan Li, Xiangjun Zou","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1492110","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1492110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>In the natural harvesting conditions of cherry tomatoes, the robotic vision for harvesting faces challenges such as lighting, overlapping, and occlusion among various environmental factors. To ensure accuracy and efficiency in detecting cherry tomatoes in complex environments, the study proposes a precise, realtime, and robust target detection algorithm: the CTDA model, to support robotic harvesting operations in unstructured environments.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The model, based on YOLOv8, introduces a lightweight downsampling method to restructure the backbone network, incorporating adaptive weights and receptive field spatial characteristics to ensure that low-dimensional small target features are not completely lost. By using softpool to replace maxpool in SPPF, a new SPPFS is constructed, achieving efficient feature utilization and richer multi-scale feature fusion. Additionally, by incorporating a dynamic head driven by the attention mechanism, the recognition precision of cherry tomatoes in complex scenarios is enhanced through more effective feature capture across different scales.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>CTDA demonstrates good adaptability and robustness in complex scenarios. Its detection accuracy reaches 94.3%, with recall and average precision of 91.5% and 95.3%, respectively, while achieving a mAP@0.5:0.95 of 76.5% and an FPS of 154.1 frames per second. Compared to YOLOv8, it improves mAP by 2.9% while maintaining detection speed, with a model size of 6.7M.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the CTDA model in cherry tomato detection under complex environments. While improving detection accuracy, the model also enhances adaptability to lighting variations, occlusion, and dense small target scenarios, and can be deployed on edge devices for rapid detection, providing strong support for automated cherry tomato picking.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1492110"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11965914/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"StatFaRmer: cultivating insights with an advanced R shiny dashboard for digital phenotyping data analysis.","authors":"Daniil S Ulyanov, Alana A Ulyanova, Dmitry Y Litvinov, Alina A Kocheshkova, Alexandra Yu Kroupina, Nadejda M Syedina, Viktoria S Voronezhskaya, Andrey V Vasilyev, Gennady I Karlov, Mikhail G Divashuk","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1475057","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1475057","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Digital phenotyping is a fast-growing area of hardware and software research and development. Phenotypic studies usually require determining whether there is a difference in some trait between plants with different genotypes or under different conditions. We developed StatFaRmer, a user-friendly tool tailored for analyzing time series of plant phenotypic parameters, ensuring seamless integration with common tasks in phenotypic studies. For maximum versatility across phenotypic methods and platforms, it uses data in the form of a set of spreadsheets (XLSX and CSV files). StatFaRmer is designed to handle measurements that have variation in timestamps between plants and the presence of outliers, which is common in digital phenotyping. Data preparation is automated and well-documented, leading to customizable ANOVA tests that include diagnostics and significance estimation for effects between user-defined groups. Users can download the results from each stage and reproduce their analysis. It was tested and shown to work reliably for large datasets across various experimental designs with a wide range of plants, including bread wheat (<i>Triticum aestivum</i>), durum wheat (<i>Triticum durum</i>), and triticale (× <i>Triticosecale</i>); sugar beet (<i>Beta vulgaris</i>), cocklebur (<i>Xanthium strumarium</i>) and lettuce (<i>Lactuca sativa</i>), corn (<i>Zea mays</i>) and sunflower (<i>Helianthus annuus</i>), and soybean (<i>Glycine max</i>). StatFaRmer is created as an open-source Shiny dashboard, and simple instructions on installation and operation on Windows and Linux are provided.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1475057"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11965913/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of a lytic Ralstonia phage cocktail and evaluation of its control efficacy against tobacco bacterial wilt.","authors":"Haoxin He, Ke Yi, Lei Yang, Yongfeng Jing, Lifu Kang, Zhihao Gao, Dong Xiang, Ge Tan, Yunsheng Wang, Qian Liu, Lin Xie, Shiya Jiang, Tianbo Liu, Wu Chen","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1554992","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1554992","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Bacterial wilt (BW) caused by <i>Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum</i> is a devastating soil-borne disease. Bacteriophages are important biocontrol resources that rapidly and specifically lyse host bacteria, showing good application potential in agricultural production.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study isolated nine phages (YL1-YL9) and, using host range and pot experiments, identified two broader host range phages (YL1 and YL4) and two higher control efficacy phages (YL2 and YL3), which were combined to obtain five cocktails (BPC-1-BPC-5).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Pot experiments showed that BPC-1 (YL3 and YL4) had the highest control efficacy (99.25%). Biological characterization revealed that these four phages had substantial thermal stability and pH tolerance. Whole genome sequencing and analysis showed that YL1, YL2, YL3, and YL4 belonged to the genus <i>Gervaisevirus</i>. AlphaFold 3 predictions of tail fiber protein II structures showed that YL1 differed significantly from the other phages. Amino acid sequence alignment revealed that the ORF66 (YL1) \"tip domain\" of contained a higher proportion of aromatic and positively charged amino acids. However, the surface of the ORF69 (YL4) \"tip domain\" exhibited more positively charged residues than ORF66 (YL2) and ORF70 (YL3). These characteristics are hypothesized to confer a broader host range to YL1 and YL4.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>This study demonstrates that phages assembling a broad host range and high control efficacy have better biocontrol potential, providing high-quality resources for the biological control of BW.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1554992"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11966396/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity, functionality, and stability: shaping ecosystem multifunctionality in the successional sequences of alpine meadows and alpine steppes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.","authors":"Xin Jin, Abby Deng, Yuejun Fan, Kun Ma, Yangan Zhao, Yingcheng Wang, Kaifu Zheng, Xueli Zhou, Guangxin Lu","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1436439","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1436439","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent investigations on the Tibetan Plateau have harnessed advancements in digital ground vegetation surveys, high temporal resolution remote sensing data, and sophisticated cloud computing technologies to delineate successional dynamics between alpine meadows and alpine steppes. However, these efforts have not thoroughly explored how different successional stages affect key ecological parameters, such as species and functional diversity, stability, and ecosystem multifunctionality, which are fundamental to ecosystem resilience and adaptability. Given this gap, we systematically investigate variations in vegetation diversity, functional diversity, and the often-overlooked dimension of community stability across the successional gradient from alpine meadows to alpine steppes. We further identify the primary environmental drivers of these changes and evaluate their collective impact on ecosystem multifunctionality. Our analysis reveals that, as vegetation communities progress from alpine meadows toward alpine steppes, multi-year average precipitation and temperature decline significantly, accompanied by reductions in soil nutrients. These environmental shifts led to decreased species diversity, driven by lower precipitation and reduced soil nitrate-nitrogen levels, as well as community differentiation influenced by declining soil pH and precipitation. Consequently, as species loss and community differentiation intensified, these changes diminished functional diversity and eroded community resilience and resistance, ultimately reducing grassland ecosystem multifunctionality. Using linear mixed-effects model and structural equation modeling, we found that functional diversity is the foremost determinant of ecosystem multifunctionality, followed by species diversity. Surprisingly, community stability also significantly influences ecosystem multifunctionality-a factor rarely highlighted in previous studies. These findings deepen our understanding of the interplay among diversity, functionality, stability, and ecosystem multifunctionality, and support the development of an integrated feedback model linking environmental drivers with ecological attributes in alpine grassland ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1436439"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11966483/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mapping and characterization of a novel powdery mildew resistance locus (PM2) in <i>Cannabis sativa</i> L.","authors":"Soren Seifi, Keegan M Leckie, Ingrid Giles, Taylor O'Brien, John O MacKenzie, Marco Todesco, Loren H Rieseberg, Gregory J Baute, Jose M Celedon","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1543229","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1543229","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Breeding genetic resistance to economically important crop diseases is the most sustainable strategy for disease management and enhancing agricultural and horticultural productivity, particularly where the application of synthetic pesticides is prohibited. Powdery mildew disease, caused by the biotrophic fungal pathogen <i>Golovinomyces ambrosiae</i>, is one of the most prevalent threats to the cannabis and hemp industry worldwide.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we used bulked-segregant analysis combined with high-throughput RNA sequencing (BSRSeq) to identify and map a novel single dominant resistance (R) locus (designated PM2), that strongly suppresses powdery mildew infection and sporulation in <i>Cannabis sativa</i>.</p><p><strong>Results and discussion: </strong>BSA mapped PM2 to chromosome 9. Histochemical analysis revealed that PM2-induced resistance is mediated by a highly localized hypersensitive response mainly in the epidermal cells of the host. Importantly, genetic markers capable of tracking PM2 resistance in breeding populations were developed using associated SNPs identified in this study. The ability to track PM2 will allow for successful introgression of PM resistance into elite cannabis cultivars and help move towards a more sustainable cannabis industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1543229"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11966446/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143779957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modification of aggregation-prone regions of Arabidopsis glutamyl-tRNA reductase leads to increased stability while maintaining enzyme activity.","authors":"Shuiling Ji, Peng Wang, Bernhard Grimm","doi":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1556843","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fpls.2025.1556843","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The aggregation-prone region (APR) is a hydrophobic polypeptide motif that promotes protein aggregation, most commonly in the unfolded or misfolded state. It has been described that chaperones can shield the APRs of proteins, thereby preventing aggregate formation during <i>de novo</i> protein synthesis and stress response. Glutamyl-tRNA reductase (GluTR) is a key enzyme in tetrapyrrole biosynthesis (TBS) which catalyzes the rate-limiting step of 5-aminolevulinic acid synthesis. The GluTR sequence contains two APRs located at the N-terminus, which are suggested to be associated with the dysregulation of protein homeostasis during folding and refolding processes or under stress conditions. It remains open if these APRs directly contribute to GluTR aggregation <i>in vivo</i>, and how their removal or the modification might impact the aggregation and stability. In this study, we altered and removed the GluTR-APRs to investigate their effects on the stability and enzymatic activity of GluTR. Deletion of the APRs has been shown to be highly disruptive to the structure of GluTR, and a substitution mutation of V→P in each APR has also lowered the GluTR stability and activity. In contrast, the mutation V→T resulted in a modest reduction (18-30%) in GluTR aggregation <i>in vitro</i>, which was associated with a 27% improvement in GluTR stability <i>in vivo</i> relative to the wild-type enzyme. These results indicate that a point mutation in APR can improve GluTR stability without significantly affecting enzyme activity, thus imposing a potential direction for bioengineering of GluTR to improve productivity of the TBS pathway in plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":12632,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Plant Science","volume":"16 ","pages":"1556843"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11969407/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143795139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}