A novel system for gene silencing using siRNAs in rice leaf and stem-derived protoplasts

Background  

Transient assays using protoplasts are ideal for processing large quantities of genetic data coming out of hi-throughput assays. Previously, protoplasts have routinely been prepared from dicot tissue or cell suspension cultures and yet a good system for rice protoplast isolation and manipulation is lacking.     

Rapid metabolic profiling of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nicotiana tabacum</Emphasis> defence responses against <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phytophthora nicotianae</Emphasis> using direct infrared laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry and principal component analysis

Background  

Successful defence of tobacco plants against attack from the oomycete Phytophthora nicotianae includes a type of local programmed cell death called the hypersensitive response. Complex and not completely understood signaling processes are required to mediate the development of this defence in the infected tissue. Here, we demonstrate that different families of metabolites can be monitored in small pieces of infected, mechanically-stressed, and healthy tobacco leaves using direct infrared laser desorption ionization orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The defence response was monitored for 1 - 9 hours post infection.     

Isolation of intact sub-dermal secretory cavities from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eucalyptus</Emphasis>

Background  

The biosynthesis of plant natural products in sub-dermal secretory cavities is poorly understood at the molecular level, largely due to the difficulty of physically isolating these structures for study. Our aim was to develop a protocol for isolating live and intact sub-dermal secretory cavities, and to do this, we used leaves from three species of Eucalyptus with cavities that are relatively large and rich in essential oils.     

Somaclonal variation with early juice-sac granulation obtained by inter-specific protoplast fusion in citrus

Summary

Six plants with an early juice–sac granulation trait derived from inter-specific protoplast fusions between embryogenic calli of ‘Bonanza’ navel orange (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) and mesophyll protoplasts of ‘Dahongpao Red’ tangerine (C. reticulata Blanco) were analysed by flow cytometry and by using molecular markers, including simple sequence repeats (SSR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The results indicated that all six plants were diploids and had inherited their nuclear DNA from the embryogenic callus parent ‘Bonanza’ navel orange. However, an analysis of morphological and fruit characteristics, and measurements of components of the cell walls in the juice-sacs, showed that they were not true-to-type for ‘Bonanza’ navel orange, especially for fruit traits such as juice-sac granulation and navel structure. These results confirmed that these plants were not hybrids, and were more likely to be somaclonal variants that arose during the regeneration of the navel orange protoplasts. These plants will provide material for studying the mechanism of granulation in juice-sacs, a common phenomenon during the storage of pummelo and other citrus fruits.     

Physiological and anatomical features of the silvering disorder of Cucurbita

Summary

Leaf silvering is a physiological disorder of marrows, Cucurbita pepo, exacerbated by drought. Silvered leaves had spaces between the upper epidermis and the mesophyll cells and within the mesophyll. The palisade cells were smaller and spongy mesophyll cells fewer. Completely silvered leaves contained 14% less chlorophyll per unit leaf blade area than green leaves. The rate of photosynthesis decreased as severity of silvering increased. The rate of photosynthesis was about 30% lower in the completely silvered than in the green leaves at saturating and above-saturating light and CO₂. The results suggest that in silvered plants the CO₂ absorption mechanism has been affected.     

Detecting N-myristoylation and S-acylation of host and pathogen proteins in plants using click chemistry

Background

The plant plasma membrane is a key battleground in the war between plants and their pathogens. Plants detect the presence of pathogens at the plasma membrane using sensor proteins, many of which are targeted to this lipophilic locale by way of fatty acid modifications. Pathogens secrete effector proteins into the plant cell to suppress the plant’s defense mechanisms. These effectors are able to access and interfere with the surveillance machinery at the plant plasma membrane by hijacking the host’s fatty acylation apparatus. Despite the important involvement of protein fatty acylation in both plant immunity and pathogen virulence mechanisms, relatively little is known about the role of this modification during plant-pathogen interactions. This dearth in our understanding is due largely to the lack of methods to monitor protein fatty acid modifications in the plant cell.

Results

We describe a rapid method to detect two major forms of fatty acylation, N-myristoylation and S-acylation, of candidate proteins using alkyne fatty acid analogs coupled with click chemistry. We applied our approach to confirm and decisively demonstrate that the archetypal pattern recognition receptor FLS2, the well-characterized pathogen effector AvrPto, and one of the best-studied intracellular resistance proteins, Pto, all undergo plant-mediated fatty acylation. In addition to providing a means to readily determine fatty acylation, particularly myristoylation, of candidate proteins, this method is amenable to a variety of expression systems. We demonstrate this using both Arabidopsis protoplasts and stable transgenic Arabidopsis plants and we leverage Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves as a means for high-throughput evaluation of candidate proteins.

Conclusions

Protein fatty acylation is a targeting tactic employed by both plants and their pathogens. The metabolic labeling approach leveraging alkyne fatty acid analogs and click chemistry described here has the potential to provide mechanistic details of the molecular tactics used at the host plasma membrane in the battle between plants and pathogens.

     

Development of expression vectors based on pepino mosaic virus

Background  

Plant viruses are useful expression vectors because they can mount systemic infections allowing large amounts of recombinant protein to be produced rapidly in differentiated plant tissues. Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) (genus Potexvirus, family Flexiviridae), a widespread plant virus, is a promising candidate expression vector for plants because of its high level of accumulation in its hosts and the absence of severe infection symptoms. We report here the construction of a stable and efficient expression vector for plants based on PepMV.     

A high-throughput method for isolation of salicylic acid metabolic mutants

Background  

Salicylic acid (SA) is a key defense signal molecule against biotrophic pathogens in plants. Quantification of SA levels in plants is critical for dissecting the SA-mediated immune response. Although HPLC and GC/MS are routinely used to determine SA concentrations, they are expensive and time-consuming. We recently described a rapid method for a bacterial biosensor Acinetobacter sp. ADPWH_lux-based SA quantification, which enables high-throughput analysis. In this study we describe an improved method for fast sample preparation, and present a high-throughput strategy for isolation of SA metabolic mutants.     

An improved method for preparing Agrobacterium cells that simplifies the Arabidopsis transformation protocol

Background  

The Agrobacterium vacuum (Bechtold et al 1993) and floral-dip (Clough and Bent 1998) are very efficient methods for generating transgenic Arabidopsis plants. These methods allow plant transformation without the need for tissue culture. Large volumes of bacterial cultures grown in liquid media are necessary for both of these transformation methods. This limits the number of transformations that can be done at a given time due to the need for expensive large shakers and limited space on them. Additionally, the bacterial colonies derived from solid media necessary for starting these liquid cultures often fail to grow in such large volumes. Therefore the optimum stage of plant material for transformation is often missed and new plant material needs to be grown.     

Protocol: Streamline cloning of genes into binary vectors in Agrobacterium via the Gateway® TOPO vector system

Background

Freezing tolerance is an important factor in the geographical distribution of plants and strongly influences crop yield. Many plants increase their freezing tolerance during exposure to low, nonfreezing temperatures in a process termed cold acclimation. There is considerable natural variation in the cold acclimation capacity of Arabidopsis that has been used to study the molecular basis of this trait. Accurate methods for the quantitation of freezing damage in leaves that include spatial information about the distribution of damage and the possibility to screen large populations of plants are necessary, but currently not available. In addition, currently used standard methods such as electrolyte leakage assays are very laborious and therefore not easily applicable for large-scale screening purposes.

Results

We have performed freezing experiments with the Arabidopsis accessions C24 and Tenela, which differ strongly in their freezing tolerance, both before and after cold acclimation. Freezing tolerance of detached leaves was investigated using the well established electrolyte leakage assay as a reference. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging was used as an alternative method that provides spatial resolution of freezing damage over the leaf area. With both methods, LT₅₀ values (i.e. temperature where 50% damage occurred) could be derived as quantitative measures of leaf freezing tolerance. Both methods revealed the expected differences between acclimated and nonacclimated plants and between the two accessions and LT₅₀ values were tightly correlated. However, electrolyte leakage assays consistently yielded higher LT₅₀ values than chlorophyll fluorescence imaging. This was to a large part due to the incubation of leaves for electrolyte leakage measurements in distilled water, which apparently led to secondary damage, while this pre-incubation was not necessary for the chlorophyll fluorescence measurements.

Conclusion

Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging is an alternative method to accurately determine the freezing tolerance of leaves. It is quick and inexpensive and the system could potentially be used for large scale screening, allowing new approaches to elucidate the molecular basis of plant freezing tolerance.     

A simple way to identify non-viable cells within living plant tissue using confocal microscopy

Background  

Plant cell death is a normal process during plant development. Mutant plants may exhibit misregulation of this process, which can lead to severe growth defects. Simple ways of visualising cell death in living plant tissues can aid the study of plant development and physiology.     

Isolation and culture of mesophyll protoplast from apricot

Summary

Yields of 10⁶–10⁷ apricot mesophyll protoplasts g fw^–1 were obtained depending on factors such as plasmolysing pretreatment, digesting enzymes and digestion time. Onozuka R-10 (1%) in combination with Pectolyase Y-23 (0.1%) and Hemicellulase (1%) was found best for protoplast isolation among several enzyme combinations tested. Viability was 83% with this enzyme combination. Plasmolysis of leaves for 90 min in a 13% sorbitol solution greatly increased the number of protoplasts obtained. Optimum incubation time of 13–16 h produced the best combination of yield and viability. During the purification of protoplasts a critical step was the centrifugation of the sucrose gradient at 75 g with a dramatic decrease in the recovery of protoplasts at lower and higher centrifugation speeds. Protoplasts were cultured under different media composition and growth regulator combinations. Limited growth and division of protoplasts embedded in agarose drops were obtained.     

A petal breakstrength meter for Arabidopsis abscission studies

Background  

Abscission is the regulated dropping of plant organs, such as leaves or flower petals. This process involves a break down of the cell wall between layers of cells in the abscission zone, causing the organ to become detached. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana undergoes floral organ abscission. Various experimental methods have been used to study Arabidopsis floral organ abscission, including measuring the petal breakstrength, or the amount of force required to pull a petal from the receptacle. Petal breakstrength provides a quantitative insight into the physical integrity of the petal abscission zone.     

High-efficiency colony formation and whole plant regeneration from mesophyll protoplasts of Pelargonium × hortorum ‘Panaché Sud’

Summary

This study aimed to establish a plant regeneration system from protoplasts of Pelargonium hortorum, efficient enough to be used for further direct gene transfer experiments. A rapid and efficient system that allowed high efficiency colony formation (40%) and whole plant regeneration (83%), as well as rooting within 4 months, was established using mesophyll protoplasts of the cultivar ‘Panaché Sud’. Protoplast culture in liquid medium was found to be better than culture on solid medium both for cell division and colony formation. The optimum density for high colony formation (31-40%) from viable cultivated protoplasts was 3 – 5 10⁴ protoplasts ml^–1. Reducing the osmotic pressure and increasing the macronutrient and sucrose contents of the culture medium after the first week of culture facilitated the rapid development of colonies. The transfer of microcalli to mannitol-free callus-induction medium produced green calli in all cases. The highest frequency of bud and shoot regeneration from protoplast-derived calli (83%; 6.6 per callus) was obtained at a density of 3 10⁴, on medium containing 0.2 mg l^–1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), 1.0 mg l^–1 zeatin and 0.1 mg l^–1 thidiazuron (TDZ). The best results were obtained when the medium was gelled with Gelrite^® and cultures were maintained under low light (12 µmol s^–1 m^–2). Sixty-five percent of protoplast-derived calli underwent bud and shoot regeneration and 2.6 rootable plantlets were obtained per callus after 3 weeks on elongation medium. All acclimatised plants grew normally and gave fertile flowers. However, flow cytometry on 42 plants showed that 40 of these were tetraploids, and only two were diploids, like the mother plant. This protocol can now be used in transformation experiments and applied to other genotypes to improve regeneration.     

A novel fluorescent pH probe for expression in plants

Background  

The pH is an important parameter controlling many metabolic and signalling pathways in living cells. Recombinant fluorescent pH indicators (pHluorins) have come into vogue for monitoring cellular pH. They are derived from the most popular Aequorea victoria GFP (Av-GFP). Here, we present a novel fluorescent pH reporter protein from the orange seapen Ptilosarcus gurneyi (Pt-GFP) and compare its properties with pHluorins for expression and use in plants.     

Protocol: A high-throughput DNA extraction system suitable for conifers

Background  

High throughput DNA isolation from plants is a major bottleneck for most studies requiring large sample sizes. A variety of protocols have been developed for DNA isolation from plants. However, many species, including conifers, have high contents of secondary metabolites that interfere with the extraction process or the subsequent analysis steps. Here, we describe a procedure for high-throughput DNA isolation from conifers.     

Computer aided data acquisition tool for high-throughput phenotyping of plant populations

Background  

The data generated during a course of a biological experiment/study can be sometimes be massive and its management becomes quite critical for the success of the investigation undertaken. The accumulation and analysis of such large datasets often becomes tedious for biologists and lab technicians. Most of the current phenotype data acquisition management systems do not cater to the specialized needs of large-scale data analysis. The successful application of genomic tools/strategies to introduce desired traits in plants requires extensive and precise phenotyping of plant populations or gene bank material, thus necessitating an efficient data acquisition system.