Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Natural rubber is the main component of latex obtained from laticifer cells of Hevea brasiliensis. For improving rubber yield, it is essential to understand the genetic molecular mechanisms responsible for laticifer differentiation and rubber biosynthesis. Jasmonate enhances both secondary laticifer differentiation and rubber biosynthesis. Here, we carried out time-course RNA-seq analysis in suspension-cultured cells treated with methyljasmonic acid (MeJA) to characterize the gene expression profile. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that the term "cell differentiation" was enriched in upregulated genes at 24 hours after treatment, but inversely, the term was enriched in downregulated genes at 5 days, indicating that MeJA could induce cell differentiation at an early stage of the response. Jasmonate signaling is activated by MYC2, a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-type transcription factor (TF). The aim of this work was to find any links between transcriptomic changes after MeJA application and regulation by TFs. Using an in vitro binding assay, we traced candidate genes throughout the whole genome that were targeted by four bHLH TFs: Hb_MYC2-1, Hb_MYC2-2, Hb_bHLH1, and Hb_bHLH2. The latter two are highly expressed in laticifer cells. Their physical binding sites were found in the promoter regions of a variety of other TF genes, which are differentially expressed upon MeJA exposure, and rubber biogenesis-related genes including SRPP1 and REF3. These studies suggest the possibilities that Hb_MYC2-1 and Hb_MYC2-2 regulate cell differentiation and that Hb_bHLH1 and Hb_bHLH2 promote rubber biosynthesis. We expect that our findings will help to increase natural rubber yield through genetic control in the future.

DOI： 10.3390/plants9060674

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Publisher：公益社団法人 日本植物学会  

DOI： 10.24480/bsj-review.10b1.00154

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

The plant cell wall is an important and abundant biomass with great potential for use as a modern recyclable resource. For effective utilization of this cellulosic biomass, its ability to degrade efficiently is key point. With the aim of modifying the cell wall to allow easy decomposition, we used chemical biological technology to alter its structure. As a first step toward evaluating the chemicals in the cell wall we employed a phenotype-based approach using high-throughput screening. As the plant cell wall is essential in determining cell morphology, phenotype-based screening is particularly effective in identifying compounds that bring about alterations in the cell wall. For rapid and reproducible screening, tobacco BY-2 cell is an excellent system in which to observe cell morphology. In this chapter, we provide a detailed chemical biological methodology for studying cell morphology using tobacco BY-2 cells.

DOI： 10.1007/978-1-4939-7874-8_7

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：OXFORD UNIV PRESS  

Plants have a remarkable ability to perceive and respond to various wavelengths of light and initiate regulation of different cascades of light signaling and molecular components. While the perception of red light and the mechanisms of its signaling involving phytochromes are largely known, knowledge of the mechanisms of blue light signaling is still limited. Chemical genetics involves the use of diverse small active or synthetic molecules to evaluate biological processes. By combining chemicals and analyzing the effects they have on plant morphology, we identified a chemical, 3-bromo-7-nitroindazole (3B7N), that promotes hypocotyl elongation of wild-type Arabidopsis only under continuous blue light. Further evaluation with loss-of-function mutants confirmed that 3B7N inhibits photomorphogenesis through cryptochrome-mediated light signaling. Microarray analysis demonstrated that the effect of 3B7N treatment on gene expression in cry1cry2 is considerably smaller than that in the wild type, indicating that 3B7N specifically interrupts cryptochrome function in the control of seedling development in a light-dependent manner. We demonstrated that 3B7N directly binds to CRY1 protein using an in vitro binding assay. These results suggest that 3B7N is a novel chemical that directly inhibits plant cryptochrome function by physical binding. The application of 3B7N can be used on other plants to study further the blue light mechanism and the genetic control of cryptochromes in the growth and development of plant species.

DOI： 10.1093/pcp/pcw181

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

The cell wall is one major determinant of plant cell morphology, and is an attractive bioresource. Here, we report a novel strategy to modify plant cell wall property by small molecules. Lasalocid sodium (LS) was isolated by chemical screening to identify molecules that affect the cell morphology of tobacco BY-2 cells. LS treatment led to an increase in cell wall thickness, whilst the quantity and sugar composition of the cell wall remained unchanged in BY-2 cells. The chemical also disordered the cellular arrangement of hypocotyls of Arabidopsis plants, resulting in a decrease in hypocotyl length. LS treatment enhanced enzymatic saccharification efficiency in both BY-2 cells and Arabidopsis plants. Microarray analysis on Arabidopsis showed that exposure to LS upregulated type III peroxidase genes, of which some are involved in lignin biogenesis, and jasmonic acid response genes, and phloroglucinol staining supported the activation of lignification by the LS treatment. As jasmonic acid-mediated lignification is a typical reaction to cell wall damage, it is possible that LS induces cell wall loosening, which can trigger cell wall damage response. Thus, LS is a unique chemical for modification of cell wall and morphology through changes in cell wall architecture.

DOI： 10.1038/srep34602

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：JAPANESE SOC PLANT CELL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY  

The internal ribosome entry site (IRES) enables polycistronic expression of multiple genes from a single mRNA controlled by one promoter. In general, only the most 5' coding sequence is abundantly translated from polycistronic mRNAs in eukaryotic cells; IRES-mediated translation allows additional coding sequences at other positions to be translated at detectable levels. However, IRES-mediated translation often results in much lower protein expression than translation of single-gene mRNAs. We first aimed to improve IRES-mediated gene expression with a transient expression system based on Nicotiana benthamiana. We demonstrated that the presence of two cassettes comprised of an IRES-mediated Venus coding sequence results in higher Venus expression than one cassette. The double IRES cassette system is expected to be useful for expressing a gene of interest polycistronically in plants. Using the double IRES cassette system, we found that polycistronic expression of a reporter gene and two copies of an IRES-mediated RNA silencing suppressor gene protected the transcribed mRNA from RNA silencing-mediated degradation. This is the first report of a mRNA self-protection system from RNA silencing by IRES-mediated expression of a viral suppressor in plants.

DOI： 10.5511/plantbiotechnology.15.0120b

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Eukaryotes possess several RNA surveillance mechanisms that prevent undesirable aberrant RNAs from accumulating. Arabidopsis XRN2, XRN3, and XRN4 are three orthologs of the yeast 5'-to-3' exoribonuclease, Rat1/Xrn2, that function in multiple RNA decay pathways. XRN activity is maintained by FIERY1 (FRY1), which converts the XRN inhibitor, adenosine 3', 5'-bisphosphate (PAP), into 5'AMP. To identify the roles of XRNs and FRY1 in suppression of non-coding RNAs, strand-specific genome-wide tiling arrays and deep strand-specific RNA-Seq analyses were carried out in fry1 and xrn single and double mutants. In fry1-6, about 2000 new transcripts were identified that extended the 3' end of specific mRNAs; many of these were also observed in genotypes that possess the xrn3-3 mutation, a partial loss-of-function allele. Mutations in XRN2 and XRN4 in combination with xrn3-3 revealed only a minor effect on 3' extensions, indicating that these genes may be partially redundant with XRN3. We also observed the accumulation of 3' remnants of many DCL1-processed microRNA (miRNA) precursors in fry1-6 and xrn3-3. These findings suggest that XRN3, in combination with FRY1, is required to prevent the accumulation of 3' extensions that arise from thousands of mRNA and miRNA precursor transcripts.

DOI： 10.1534/g3.111.001362

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Sucrose plays an important role in several cellular processes since it is a general source of metabolic energy, serves as a precursor for starch and cellulose synthesis, and is a metabolic starting point for carboxylate- and amino acid synthesis. While plant vacuole is the main cellular storage pool, where sucrose accumulates to high concentrations, only a small number of vacuolar sugar transporters have been identified and characterized to date. We initially identified a vacuolar sucrose transporter (NtSUT4) from tobacco BY-2 cells and established transgenic tobacco BY-2 cell lines that overexpress NtSUT4-GFP (BY-SUTG cells). Using a model system for synchronous cell elongation in miniprotoplasts (evacuolated cells) prepared from tobacco BY-2 cells, we found that NtSUT4-GFP overexpression inhibited cell growth towards the cell major axis. Moreover, under the same conditions, we found that the cell walls were well stained by calcofluor in BY-SUTG cells than in wild type BY-2 cells. These results suggest that NtSUT4 is involved in cell shape via sucrose homeostasis in plant cells.

DOI： 10.1007/s10265-010-0377-7

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Authorship：Lead author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Aquaporin is a water channel that increases water permeability through membranous structures. In plants, vacuoles are essential organelles that undergo dynamic volume changes during cell growth. To understand the contribution of aquaporins to plant cell growth, we developed a transgenic tobacco BY-2 cell line overexpressing the tonoplast intrinsic protein (TIP), gammaTIP. Vacuolar membranes of isolated vacuoles from gammaTIP-overexpressing cells showed higher water permeation activities than those from wild-type cells. We then examined the role of gammaTIP in vacuolar regeneration of evacuolated tobacco BY-2 protoplasts (miniprotoplasts). Vacuolar regeneration from thin to thick tube-network vacuoles and subsequent development of large vacuoles was accelerated in miniprotoplasts of this cell line. A parallel increase in the rate of cell expansion indicated a tight relationship between vacuolar development and cellular volume increases. Interestingly, overexpression of tobacco gammaTIP also enhanced cell division. Thus, increased vacuolar aquaporin activity may accelerate both cell expansion and cell division by increasing water permeability through the vacuolar membrane.

DOI： 10.1093/pcp/pcn181

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Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)  

Actin microfilaments (MFs) participate in many fundamental processes in plant growth and development. Here, we report the co-localization of the actin MF and vacuolar membrane (VM), as visualized by vital VM staining with FM4-64 in living tobacco BY-2 cells stably expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fimbrin (BY-GF11). The MFs were intensively localized on the VM surface and at the periphery of the cytoplasmic strands rather than at their center. The co-localization of MFs and VMs was confirmed by the observation made using transient expression of red fluorescent protein (RFP)-fimbrin in tobacco BY-2 cells stably expressing GFP-AtVam3p (BY-GV7) and BY-2 cells stably expressing gamma-tonoplast intrinsic protein (gamma-TIP)-GFP fusion protein (BY-GG). Time-lapse imaging revealed dynamic movement of MF structures which was parallel to that of cytoplasmic strands. Disruption of MF structures disorganized cytoplasmic strand structures and produced small spherical vacuoles in the VM-accumulating region. Three-dimensional reconstructions of the vacuolar structures revealed a disconnection of these small spherical vacuoles from the large vacuoles. Real-time observations and quantitative image analyses demonstrated rapid movements of MFs and VMs near the cell cortex, which were inhibited by the general myosin ATPase inhibitor, 2,3-butanedion monoxime (BDM). Moreover, both bistheonellide A (BA) and BDM treatment inhibited the reorganization of the cytoplasmic strands and the migration of daughter cell nuclei at early G1 phase, suggesting a requirement for the acto-myosin system for vacuolar morphogenesis during cell cycle progression. These results suggest that MFs support the vacuolar structures and that the acto-myosin system plays an essential role in vacuolar morphogenesis.

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