Cloning and Sequence Analysis of a Cysteine Proteinase Inhibitor Gene from Seedless Litchi

[Objective] This study aimed to clone and analyze the cysteine proteinase inhibitor gene from seedless litchi. [Method] According to the EST se- quence of cysteine proteinase inhibitor in constructed SSH snhtraetive library of seedless litchi abortion, nucleotide sequence of the cysteine proteinase inhibitor gene was obtained by using RACE technology and analyzed by using bioinformatics software. [ Result ] A cysteine protease inhibitor gene was obtained with the sequence of 635 bp containing a 321 bp open reading frame. It was predicted that the erlcoded protein contained 106 amino acids with conserved domain of cysteine proteinase inhibitor and had relatively high homology with the cysteine proteinase inhibitor gene of several species, [ Conclusion] This study laid the foundation for further ex- ploring the physiological functions of this cysteine proteinase inhibitor gene in plants.

Cloning of a Potato Proteinase Inhibitor Gene PINII-2x from Diploid Potato(Solanum phurejia L.) and Transgenic Investigation of Its Potential to Confer Insect Resistance in Rice

Both cDNA and a genomic DNA fragment encoding a new potato proteinase inhibitor Ⅱ were isolated from a diploid potato IVP101 （Solanum phurejia L.） and named PINII-2x. Nucleotlde sequencing confirmed that the DNA fragment of PINll-2xwas 580 bp, including a 115-bp intron and two exons. The deduced PINII-2x proteln contained an Intact signal peptide and two active sites. The PINII-2x gene and its deduced PINII-2x protein had 88% and 93% homology with another tetraploid potato proteinase inhibitor Ⅱ, respectively. Northern blotting analysis Indicated that the mRNA of PINII-2x gene was wound induced in potato leaves. Binary vector pNAR301 and pNAR302 were constructed for rice transformation, in which the PINII-2x cDNA was driven, respectively, by rice actin I promoter （Actl） and maize ubiquitin promoter （Ubll）. Via an Agrobacteriummediated method, these two constructs were transferred into japonica rice cv. Xiushui 63. PCR and Southern blotUng analysis for transgenic rice revealed the integration of the PINII-2x gene. Northern blotting analysis also confirmed transcripts of the PINII.2x gene in transgenic rice plants. Insect bloassays using stripe stem borer （Chilo auppressalis Walker） demonstrated that the average weight and body length of larvae In transgenic plants were only nearly 50% and 61% of those of larvae in control plants, respectively. These results Indicate that the PINII-2x gene should be an effective insect-resistance gene and could be valuable for application in crop breeding for insect resistance.

Co-expression of the proteinase inhibitors oryzacystatin I and oryzacystatin II in transgenic potato alters Colorado potato beetle larval development

Colorado potato beetle （CPB; Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say, Coleoptera： Chrysomelidae） has shown a remarkable adaptability to a variety of control measures. Although oryzacystatin I and II （OCI and OCII） have potential in controlling pests that use cysteine proteinases for food digestion, expression of a single OC gene in potato exhibited a minimal or no effect on CPB fitness traits. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of coexpressed OCI and OCII in potato （Solanum tuberosum L.） cultivars Desiree, Draga6evka and Jelica on CPB larvae. Growth parameters, consumption rates and food utilization, as well as activity of proteases of CPB larvae were assayed. Second and third instar larvae fed on transformed leaves molted earlier and had higher relative growth and consumption rates than larvae fed on nontransformed leaves, while efficiency of food utilization was unaffected. In contrast, fourth instar maximum weight gain and amount of leaves consumed were about 20% lower for the larvae fed on transgenic potato. Analysis of total protease activity of third instar larvae revealed reduction in overall proteolytic activity measured by azocasein hydrolysis, accompanied with inhibition ofcysteine proteinase activity 24 h after ingestion of potato leaves expressing OCI and OCII. However, after long-term feeding on transformed leaves proteolytic activities of larvae became similar to the controls. Although feeding on OCI/OCII leaves did not affect larval survival, coexpression of OC genes reduced the development time and thus significantly decreased plant damage caused by CPB larvae.

Correlation of Inhibitor Proteinase in Varieties and Lines of Cotton(Gossypium hirsutum L.) to Different Geographic Population of Verticillium dathliae Klebahn

Breeding for wilt resistance and its theoretical basis are primarily responsible for increases in cotton yield and fiber quality. Breeding for immunity is the most efficient method in our struggle with infectious diseases.

THE PRIMARY STRUCTURE OF ARROWHEAD PROTEINASE INHIBITOR

After the reduction and carboxymethylation of disulfide bonds, arrowhead proteinase inhibitors A and B were cleaved either by proteinases or by cyanogen bromide, the fractionated and purified peptides were then subjected to sequencing by a gas phase automatic sequencer, the primary structures were completed by the alignment of the peptides sequenced with overlapping peptides. Both inhibitors A and B consist of 150 amino acid residues with three pairs of disulfide bonds, share 90% homology in structure, and are markedly different from all other Ser proteinase inhibitors so far known. Hence, the arrowhead inhibitor may belong to a new inhibitor family. Based on their structure characteristics, it was deduced that both their two reactive sites might be located in the positions of Lys-Ser (45-46) and Arg-Tyr-Lys (77-79), respectively. Among 13 mutated residues in inhibitors A and B, the substitution of residue Arg in position 87 of inhibitor B for residue Leu in A might be the main cause of leading to difference in their inhibitory activities.

Studies on Introduction of Arrowhead Proteinase Inhibitor Gene into N． tobacco Protoplasts

The Arrowhead Proteinase Inhibitor(API)gene was introduced into the protoplasts or mesophyll cells of N.tobacco by PEG-mediated.The transformed protoplasts undergoing dirrerentiation of callus and regeneration of plantlet have been growing into transgenic plants. Restriction endonuclease analysis of products amplificated by PCR indicates the existence of the API gene in the transformed plantlet.The extract of the leaves from the transformed plants shows trypsin inhibitory activity,which indicates the expression of the introduced API gene and the transformed plants can accumulate the inhibitor. However, the variation of the inhlbitory activity of the transformed plants reveals the importance of the integration site of the API gene in the genome.

GhWRKY75 positively regulates GhPR6-5b via binding to a W-box TTGAC(C/T)to orchestrate cotton resistance to Verticillium dahliae

Verticillium dahliae is an important fungal pathogen affecting cotton yield and quality.Therefore,the mining of V.dahlia-resistance genes is urgently needed.Proteases and protease inhibitors play crucial roles in plant defense responses.However,the functions and regulatory mechanisms of the protease inhibitor PR6 gene family remain largely unknown.This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the PR6 gene family in the cotton genome.We performed genome-wide identification and functional characterization of the cotton GhPR6 gene family,which belongs to the potato protease inhibitor I family of inhibitors.Thirty-nine PR6s were identified in Gossypium arboreum,G.raimondii,G.barbadense,and G.hirsutum,and they were clustered into four groups.Based on the analysis of pathogen-induced and Ghlmm transcriptome data,Gh PR6-5b was identified as the key gene for V.dahliae resistance.Virus-induced gene silencing experiments revealed that cotton was more sensitive to V.dahliae V991after PR6-5b silencing.The present study established that GhWRKY75 plays an important role in resistance to Verticillium wilt in cotton by positively regulating GhPR6-5b expression by directly binding to the W-box TTGAC(T/C).Our findings established that GhWRKY75 is a potential candidate for improving cotton resistance to V.dahliae,and provide primary information for further investigations and the development of specific strategies to bolster the defense mechanisms of cotton against V.dahliae.

Cotton Plants Transformed with the Activated Chimeric Cry1Ac and API-B Genes

A chimeric gene, Bt29K, composed of coding sequences of activated Cry1Ac insecticidal protein and an endoplasm reticulum-retarding signal peptide, was synthesized. A plant expression vector containing two expression cassettes for the Bt29K and API-B genes was constructed. These two insect-resistant genes were transferred into two cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) varieties ( or lines) via Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and nine homozygous transgenic cotton lines showing a mortality of 90.0% - 99.7% to cotton ballworm (Heliothis armigera) larvae and good agronomic traits were selected through six generations. Molecular biology analysis revealed that one or two copies of the insecticidal protein genes were integrated into the transgenic cotton genome and activated Cry1Ac and API-B protein expression was at a level of 0.17% and 0.09% of the total soluble protein in the transgenic cotton leaves, respectively. Comparison of the insect-resistance of the homozygous lines expressing the activated chimeric Cry1Ac and API-B with that expressing Cry1Ac only revealed that the insect-resistance of the former is apparently higher than the latter. These results also indicate that the strategy to construct a plant expression vector expressing two different insect-resistant genes reported here is reasonable.

JTE-522-induced apoptosis in human gastric adenocarinoma cell line AGS cells by caspase activation accompanying cytochrome C release,membrane translocation of Bax and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential

AIM: To investigate the role of the mitochondrial pathway in JTE-522-induced apoptosis and to investigate the relationship between cytochrome C release, caspase activity and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Deltapsim). METHODS: Cell culture, cell counting, ELISA assay, TUNEL, flow cytometry, Western blot and fluorometric assay were employed to investigate the effect of JTE-522 on cell proliferation and apoptosis in AGS cells and related molecular mechanism. RESULTS: JTE-522 inhibited the growth of AGS cells and induced the apoptosis. Caspases 8 and 9 were activated during apoptosis as judged by the appearance of cleavage products from procaspase and the caspase activities to cleave specific fluorogenic substrates. To elucidate whether the activation of caspases 8 and 9 was required for the apoptosis induction, we examined the effect of caspase-specific inhibitors on apoptosis. The results showed that caspase inhibitors significantly inhibited the apoptosis induced by JTE-522. In addition, the membrane translocation of Bax and cytosolic release of cytochrome C accompanying with the decrease of the uptake of Rhodamin 123, were detected at an early stage of apoptosis. Furthermore, Bax translocation, cytochrome C release, and caspase 9 activation were blocked by Z-VAD.fmk and Z-IETD-CHO. CONCLUSION: The present data indicate a crucial association between activation of caspases 8, 9, cytochrome C release, membrane translocation of Bax, loss of Deltapsim and JTE-522-induced apoptosis in AGS cells.

Construction of Plant Expression Vector Carrying Two Insecticidal Genes and Obtain Insect resistant Transgenic Tobacco Plants

A plant expression vector carrying both pea lectin gene and Soybean trypsin inhibitor gene has been constructed and transferred into tobacco via Agrobacterium mediated transformation. Transgenic plants are further confirmed by ELISA, PCR and PCR Southern assays. Results of bioassays show that transgenic plants display notably inhibitory effects to larvae development and survival of Heliothis armigera Hubner.

Effect of Exogenous MJA Treatment of Tea Plants on the Growth of Geometrid Larvae

The effect of tea plant Camellia sinensis induced by exogenous methyl jasmonate （MJA） on lipoxygenase （LOX）, polyphenol oxidase （PPO） and proteinase inhibitor （PI） activity in the leaves of tea plants, as well as the growth and midgut proteinase activity of the geometrid Ectropis obliqua larvae were studied. MJA significantly induced LOX, PPO and PI activity in leaves of tea plants. When geometrid larvae have fed on leaves of tea plants treated with MJA, the activities of the high alkaline trypsin-like enzyme and chymotrypsin-like enzyme in their midgut were significantly inhibited, but the activities of the low alkaline trypsin-like enzyme in their midgut were unaffected, leading to imbalance between different types of proteinase activity in the midgut of the larvae and in turn, the growth were inhibited. These chains of response may be an important mechanism of the direct resistance induced by MJA-treatment of tea plant on geometrid larvae.

Momordica charantia trypsin inhibitor Ⅱ inhibits growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera

Bitter gourd （Momordica charantia L.） seeds contain several squash-type serine proteinase inhibitors （PIs）, which inhibit the digestive proteinases of the polyphagous insect pest Helicoverpa armigera. In the present work isolation of a DNA sequence encoding the mature peptide of a trypsin inhibitor McTI-Ⅱ, its cloning and expression as a recombinant protein using Pichia pastoris have been reported. Recombinant McTI-Ⅱ inhibited bovine trypsin at 1 ： 1 molar ratio, as expected, but did not inhibit chymotrypsin or elastase. McTI-Ⅱ also strongly inhibited trypsin-like proteinases （81% inhibition） as well as the total proteolytic activity of digestive proteinases （70% inhibition） from the midgut of H. armigera larvae. The insect larvae fed with McTI-Ⅱ-incorporated artificial diet suffered over 70% reduction in the average larval weight after 12 days of feeding. Moreover, ingestion of McTI-Ⅱ resulted in 23% mortality in the larval population. The strong antimetabolic activity of McTI-Ⅱ toward H. armigera indicates its probable use in developing insect tolerance in susceptible plants.

Pefabloc- A sulfonyl fluoride serine protease inhibitor blocks induction of Diotericin in Drosoohila 1（2）mbn cells

Insects protect themselves against microbial infection by an efficient innate immune system that is activated by recognition ofinvariant microbial surface molecules. In the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster the presence of bacteria is associated with expression of antimicrobial peptides in host immune-competent tissues. Host receptors detect infection and relay the signal to mount the appropriate immune response. In Drosophila hemocyte- like l（2）mbn cells pre-infection treatment with Pefabloc, a commonly used serine protease inhibitor, induced two major effects： it blocked expression of the antibacterial peptide Diptericin in response to live Gram-negative bacteria and bacterial surface molecules （crude lipopolysaccharide contaminated by peptidoglycans） and it induced morphological changes.

Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease

The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)is changing the world like never before.This crisis is unlikely contained in the absence of effective therapeutics or vaccine.The papain-like protease(PLpro)of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)plays essential roles in virus replication and immune evasion,presenting a charming drug target.Given the PLpro proteases of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV share significant homology,inhibitor developed for SARS-CoV PLpro is a promising starting point of therapeutic development.In this study,we sought to provide structural frameworks for PLpro inhibitor design.We determined the unliganded structure of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro mutant C111 S,which shares many structural features of SARS-CoV PLpro.This crystal form has unique packing,high solvent content and reasonable resolution 2.5 A°,hence provides a good possibility for fragment-based screening using crystallographic approach.We characterized the protease activity of PLpro in cleaving synthetic peptide harboring nsp2/nsp3 juncture.We demonstrate that a potent SARS-CoV PLpro inhibitor GRL0617 is highly effective in inhibiting protease activity of SARSCoV-2 with the IC50 of 2.2?0.3 mmol/L.We then determined the structure of SARS-CoV-2 PLpro complexed by GRL0617 to 2.6 A°,showing the inhibitor accommodates the S3 e S4 pockets of the substrate binding cleft.The binding of GRL0617 induces closure of the BL2 loop and narrows the substrate binding cleft,whereas the binding of a tetrapeptide substrate enlarges the cleft.Hence,our results suggest a mechanism of GRL0617 inhibition,that GRL0617 not only occupies the substrate pockets,but also seals the entrance to the substrate binding cleft hence prevents the binding of the LXGG motif of the substrate.

Rice gene expression profiles responding to larval feeding of the striped stem borer at the 1st to 2nd instar stage

The objective of this study was to identify rice genes that are in response to the striped stem borer （SSB） （Chilo suppressalis Walker） feeding at the first to second larval stage. Using combined suppression subtractive hybridization （SSH） and dot blot approaches, we analyzed the induced defense genes that took place during the first 72 h of infesting intact rice （Oryza sativa L.） plants in sheath tissues with SSB larvae. By sequencing the whole SSH library, 39 expressed sequence tags involved in disease stress, insect stress or other stress responses were identified to be up-regulated by SSB larvae feeding. Among these genes, rice allene oxide cyclase （AOC）, terpene synthase （TPS） and four proteinase inhibitor （PI） genes were up-regulated by SSB larvae feeding. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that four rice PI genes were already up-regulated at 6 h, and reached peaks between 6 h to 12 h. In addition, the transcription ofgene involving in jasmonate signaling pathway such as allene oxide cyclase （AOC） concerning rice early defense response to SSB feeding was activated after rice feeding by SSB for 2 h. Although the expression office terpene synthase （TPS） gene, involved in the biosynthesis ofmonoterpenes or diterpenes, was already up-regulated at 7 h, a significant increase in the expression was delayed until 12 h and reached its peak at 24 h. The present study identified six SSB-response genes and their expression patterns, which provides evidence and information to understand insect stress-response in plants.