Uptake, Subcellular Distribution, and Chemical Forms of Cadmium in Wild-Type and Mutant Rice

Wild-type(Zhonghua 11) and mutant rice(Oryza sativa L.) plants were used to investigate the effect of cadmium(Cd) application on biomass production,to characterize the inffux of Cd from roots to shoots,and to determine the form,content,and subcellular distribution of Cd in the roots,leaf sheaths,and leaves of the rice plants.Seedlings were cultivated in a nutrient solution and were treated with 0.5 mmol L-1 of Cd2+ for 14 d.The sensitivity of rice plants to Cd toxicity was tested by studying the changes in biomass production and by observing the onset of toxicity symptoms in the plants.Both the wild-type and mutant rice plants developed symptoms of Cd stress.In addition,Cd application significantly(P ≤ 0.01) decreased dry matter production of roots,leaf sheaths,and leaves of both types,especially the mutant.The Cd content in roots of the mutant was significantly(P ≤ 0.05) higher than that of the wild-type rice.However,there was no significant di?erence in the Cd content of roots,leaf sheaths,and leaves between the wild-type and mutant rice.Most of the Cd was bound to the cell wall of the roots,leaf sheaths,and leaves,and the mutant had greater Cd content in cell organelles than the wild type.The uneven subcellular distribution could be responsible for the Cd sensitivity of the mutant rice.Furthermore,different chemical forms of Cd were found to occur in the roots,leaf sheaths,and leaves of both types of rice plants.Ethanol-,water-,and NaCl-extractable Cd had greater toxicity than the other forms of Cd and induced stunted growth and chlorosis in the plants.The high Cd content of the toxic forms of Cd in the cell organelles could seriously damage the cells and the metabolic processes in mutant rice plants.

Evidences for involvement of endogenous cAMP in Arabidopsis defens responses to Verticillium toxins

Although there were reports suggesting the involvement of endogenous cAMP in plant defense signaling cascades, there is no direct evidence supporting this notion yet and the detailed mechanism is unclear. In the present study, we have used pathogenic fungi Verticillium dahliae and Arabidopsis plants as a model system of plant-microb interaction to demonstrate the function of endogenous cAMP in Arabidopsis defense responses. Both V. dahliae inoculation and Verticillium toxins injection induced typical “wilt” symptoms in Arabidopsis seedlings. When either 8-Br-AMP (a membrane permeable cAMP analogue) or salicylic acid (SA) was applied to Arabidopsis, the plants became resistant to V. dahliae toxins. However, addition of 8-Br-AMP did not increase the resistance of Arabidopsis transgenic plants deficient in SA to the toxins, suggesting that cAMP might act upstream of SA in plant defense signaling pathway. Indeed, 8-Br-cAMP and forskolin, an activator of adenylyl cyclase, significantly stimulated the endogenous SA level in plants, whereas DDA, an inhibitor of adenylyl cyclase dramatically reduced toxin-induced SA increase. Both the endog- enous cAMP and SA increased significantly in Arabidopsis seedlings treated with toxins. Furthermore, transcription level of pathogenesis-related protein 1 gene (PR1) was strongly induced by both 8-Br-cAMP and the toxin treatment. Taken together, our data demonstrate that endogenous cAMP is involved in plant defense responses against Verticillium- secreted toxins by regulating the production of the known signal SA in plant defense pathway.

RiceDB:A Web-Based Integrated Database for Annotating Rice Microarray

RiceDB, a web-based integrated database to annotate rice microarray in various biological contexts was developed. It is composed of eight modules. RiceMap module archives the process of Affymetrix probe sets mapping to different databases about rice, and aims to the genes represented by a microarray set by retrieving annotation information via the identifier or accession number of every database; RiceGO module indicates the association between a microarray set and gene ontology （GO） categories; RiceKO module is used to annotate a microarray set based on the KEGG biochemical pathways; RiceDO module indicates the information of domain associated with a microarray set; RiceUP module is used to obtain promoter sequences for all genes represented by a microarray set; RiceMR module lists potential microRNA which regulated the genes represented by a microarray set; RiceCD and RiceGF are used to annotate the genes represented by a microarray set in the context of chromosome distribution and rice paralogous family distribution. The results of automatic annotation are mostly consistent with manual annotation. Biological interpretation of the microarray data is quickened by the help of RiceDB.