Maize ZmVPP5 is a truncated Vacuole H^＋-PPase that confers hypersensitivity to salt stress

In plants, Vacuole H^+-PPases(VPPs) are important Aproton pumps and encoded by multiple genes. In addition to full-length VPPs, several truncated forms are expressed, but their biological functions are unknown. In this study, we functionally characterized maize vacuole H^+-PPase 5(ZmVPP5), a truncated VPP in the maize genome. Although ZmVPP5 shares high sequence similarity with ZmVPP1 ZmVPP5 lacks the complete structure of the conserved proton transport and the inorganic pyrophosphatase-related domain. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that ZmVPP5 might be derived from an incomplete gene duplication event. ZmVPP5 is expressed in multiple tissues, and ZmVPP5 was detected in the plasma membrane, vacuole membrane and nuclei of maize cells. The overexpression of ZmVPP5 in yeast cells caused a hypersensitivity to salt stress. Transgenic maize lines with overexpressed ZmVPP5 also exhibited the salt hypersensitivity phenotype. A yeast two-hybrid analysis identified the ZmBag6 like protein as a putative ZmVPP5-interacting protein. The results of bimolecular luminescence complementation(Bi LC)assay suggest an interaction between ZmBag6-like protein and ZmVPP5 in vivo. Overall, this study suggests that ZmVPP5 might act as a VPP antagonist and participate in the cellular response to salt stress. Our study of ZmVPP5 has expanded the understanding of the origin and functions of truncated forms of plant VPPs.

Quantification of TOC and TN in reservoir sediments using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

This study aims to quantitatively assess the total organic carbon(TOC)and total nitrogen(TN)content of reservoir sediments in southwest China using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIRS).FTIRS measurements were performed on 187 sediment samples from four reservoirs to develop calibration models that relate FTIR spectral information with conventional property concentrations using partial least squares regression(PLSR).Robust calibration models were established for TOC and TN content.The external validation of these models yielded a significant correlation between FTIR-inferred and conventionally measured concentrations of R^(2)=0.88 for TOC,R^(2)=0.90 for TN.This method can be performed with a small sample size and is non-destructive throughout the simple measurement process.The TOC and TN content in the sediment can be determined with high effectiveness without being overly expensive,making it an advantageous method when measuring a large number of samples.