TY - THES A1 - Zhang, Yi T1 - Regulation of Agrobacterial Oncogene Expression in Host Plants T1 - Regulierung der Expression der Onkogene aus Agrobakterien in Wirtspflanzen N2 - Virulent Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains transfer and integrate a DNA region of the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid, the T-DNA, into the plant genome and thereby cause crown gall disease. The most essential genes required for crown gall development are the T-DNA-encoded oncogenes, IaaH (indole-3-acetamide hydrolase), IaaM (tryptophan monooxygenase) for auxin, and Ipt (isopentenyl transferase) for cytokinin biosynthesis. When these oncogenes are expressed in the host cell, the levels of auxin and cytokinin increase and cause cell proliferation. The aim of this study was to unravel the molecular mechanisms, which regulate expression of the agrobacterial oncogenes in plant cells. Transcripts of the three oncogenes were expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana crown galls induced by A. tumefaciens strain C58 and the intergenic regions (IGRs) between their coding sequences (CDS) were proven to have promoter activity in plant cells. These promoters possess eukaryotic sequence structures and contain cis-regulatory elements for the binding of plant transcription factors. The high-throughput protoplast transactivation (PTA) system was used and identified the Arabidopsis thaliana transcription factors WRKY18, WRKY40, WRKY60 and ARF5 to activate the Ipt oncogene promoter. No transcription factor promoted the activity of the IaaH and IaaM promoters, despite the fact that the sequences contained binding elements for type B ARR transcription factors. Likewise, the treatment of Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts with cytokinin (trans-zeatin) and auxin (1-NAA) exerted no positive effect on IaaH and IaaM promoter activity. In contrast, the Ipt promoter strongly responded to a treatment with auxin and only modestly to cytokinin. The three Arabidopsis WRKYs play a role in crown gall development as the wrky mutants developed smaller crown galls than wild-type plants. The WRKY40 and WRKY60 genes responded very quickly to pathogen infection, two and four hours post infection, respectively. Transcription of the WRKY18 gene was induced upon buffer infiltration, which implicates a response to wounding. The three WRKY proteins interacted with ARF5 and with each other in the plant nucleus, but only WRKY40 together with ARF5 increased activation of the Ipt promoter. Moreover, ARF5 activated the Ipt promoter in an auxin-dependent manner. The severe developmental phenotype of the arf5 mutant prevented studies on crown gall development, nevertheless, the reduced crown gall growth on the transport inhibitor response 1 (TIR1) tir1 mutant, lacking the auxin sensor, suggested that auxin signaling is required for optimal crown gall development. In conclusion, A. tumefaciens recruits the pathogen defense related WRKY40 pathway to activate Ipt expression in T-DNA-transformed plant cells. IaaH and IaaM gene expression seems not to be controlled by transcriptional activators, but the increasing auxin levels are signaled via ARF5. The auxin-depended activation of ARF5 boosts expression of the Ipt gene in combination with WRKY40 to increase cytokinin levels and induce crown gall development. N2 - Virulente Bakterien des Stamms Agrobakterium tumefaciens, transferieren und integrieren einen Teil ihrer DNA, die T-DNA aus dem Tumor induzierenden Plasmid (Ti), in das Pflanzengenom. Dadurch wird die Tumorbildung induziert und die Krankheit bricht aus. Die wichtigsten Gene, die für die Entwicklung eines Tumors benötigt werden, sind auf der T-DNA lokalisierte Onkogene: IaaH (indole-3-aceetamide hydrolase), IaaM (tryptophan monooxygenase) für die Auxin Biosynthese und Ipt (isopentenyl transferase) für die Cytokinin Biosynthese. Werden diese Onkogene in der Wirtszelle exprimiert, steigt der Gehalt an Auxin und Cytokinin und fördert die Zellteilung. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war es die molekularen Mechanismen, die die Expression der agrobakteriellen Onkogene in Pflanzenzellen regulieren, aufzuklären. Transkripte der drei Onkogene wurden in Tumoren an Arabidopsis thaliana exprimiert. Die Tumore wurden durch den A. tumefaciens Stamm C58 induziert. Dabei konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Sequenzabschnitte zwischen den Onkogenen (IGRs: intergenic regions) eine Promoteraktivität in der Pflanzenzelle besitzen. Diese Promoter haben eukaryotische Sequenzstrukturen und enthalten cis-Elemente, an die pflanzliche Transkriptionsfaktoren binden. Mit Hilfe der PTA (high-throughput protoplast transactivation) Methode wurden die pflanzlichen Transkriptionsfaktoren WRKY18, WRKY40, WRKY60 und ARF5 von Arabidopsis thaliana identifiziert, welche den Promoter des Ipt Onkogens aktivieren. Für IaaH und IaaM konnte kein Transkriptionsfaktor, der die Promotersequenzen aktiviert, identifiziert werden, obwohl die Promotersequenzen Bindedomänen für den Typ B ARR Transkriptionsfaktor enthalten. Ebenso zeigte die Behandlung von Arabidopsis Protoplasten aus dem Mesophyll mit Cytokinin (trans-zeatin) und Auxin (1-NAA) keinen positiven Effekt auf die Aktivität des IaaH und des IaaM Promoters, wohingegen der Ipt Promoter stark auf eine Behandlung mit Auxin und leicht auf eine Behandlung mit Cytokinin reagierte. Die drei WRKYs aus Arabidopsis spielen eine Rolle in der Tumorentwicklung, da die wrky Mutante kleinere Tumore zeigt, als die Wild Typ Pflanzen. Die Gene WRKY40 und WRKY60 reagieren sehr schnell, innerhalb von zwei, beziehungsweise vier Stunden, auf eine Pathogen Infektion. Die Transkription des WRKY18 Gens wurde durch die Infiltration von Puffer in Blätter induziert, dies lässt auf eine Reaktion im Zusammenhang mit Wunderzeugung schließen. Die drei WRKY Proteine interagieren mit einander und mit ARF5 im Zellekern der Pflanzenzelle, aber nur WRKY40 und ARF5 können gemeinsam den Ipt Promoter aktivieren. Zusätzlich kann ARF5 den Ipt Promoter, in Abhängigkeit von Auxin, aktivieren. Wegen starker Entwicklungsstörungen der arf5 Mutante, konnte das Tumorwachstum an dieser Mutante nicht untersucht werden. Das reduzierte Tumorwachstum an der tri1 (transport inhibitor response, TIR) Mutante, der ein Auxinsensor fehlt, deutet auf die Notwendigkeit des Auxinsignalwegs für optimales Tumorwachstum hin. Zusammengefasst benutzt A. tumefaciens den WRKY40 Signalweg, der mit der Pathogen Abwehr verbunden ist, um die Ipt Expression in der mit T-DNA transformierten Pflanzenzelle zu aktivieren. Die Genexpression von IaaH und IaaM schein nicht von Transkriptionsfaktoren abhängig zu sein, aber erhöhte Auxin Werte werden von ARF5 erkannt. Die Auxin abhängige Aktivierung von ARF5 verstärkt die Expression des Ipt Gens gemeinsam mit WRKY40 um die Cytokin Werte in der Pflanzenzelle zu erhöhen und somit die Tumorentwicklung einzuleiten. KW - Agrobacterium tumefaciens KW - Transcription factor KW - Onkogen KW - Genexpression KW - Oncogene KW - Regulation Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-102578 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tome, Filipa A1 - Nägele, Thomas A1 - Adamo, Mattia A1 - Garg, Abhroop A1 - Marco-Ilorca, Carles A1 - Nukarinen, Ella A1 - Pedrotti, Lorenzo A1 - Peviani, Alessia A1 - Simeunovic, Andrea A1 - Tatkiewicz, Anna A1 - Tomar, Monika A1 - Gamm, Magdalena T1 - The low energy signaling network JF - Frontiers in Plant Science N2 - Stress impacts negatively on plant growth and crop productivity, causing extensive losses to agricultural production worldwide. Throughout their life, plants are often confronted with multiple types of stress that affect overall cellular energy status and activate energy-saving responses. The resulting low energy syndrome (LES) includes transcriptional, translational, and metabolic reprogramming and is essential for stress adaptation. The conserved kinases sucrose-non-fermenting-1-related protein kinase-1 (SnRK1) and target of rapamycin (TOR) play central roles in the regulation of LES in response to stress conditions, affecting cellular processes and leading to growth arrest and metabolic reprogramming. We review the current understanding of how TOR and SnRK1 are involved in regulating the response of plants to low energy conditions. The central role in the regulation of cellular processes, the reprogramming of metabolism, and the phenotypic consequences of these two kinases will be discussed in light of current knowledge and potential future developments. KW - stress KW - metabolism KW - T6P KW - energy signaling KW - TOR KW - bZIP KW - SnRK1 KW - messenger-RNA translation KW - bZIP transcription fators KW - amino-acid-metabolism Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-115813 SN - 1664-462X VL - 5 IS - 353 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Szambowska, Anna A1 - Tessmer, Ingrid A1 - Kursula, Petri A1 - Usskilat, Christian A1 - Prus, Potr A1 - Pospiech, Helmut A1 - Grosse, Frank T1 - DNA binding properties of human Cdc45 suggest a function as molecular wedge for DNA unwinding JF - Nucleic Acids Research N2 - The cell division cycle protein 45 (Cdc45) represents an essential replication factor that, together with the Mcm2-7 complex and the four subunits of GINS, forms the replicative DNA helicase in eukaryotes. Recombinant human Cdc45 (hCdc45) was structurally characterized and its DNA-binding properties were determined. Synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, small-angle X-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy revealed that hCdc45 exists as an alpha-helical monomer and possesses a structure similar to its bacterial homolog RecJ. hCdc45 bound long (113-mer or 80-mer) single-stranded DNA fragments with a higher affinity than shorter ones (34-mer). hCdc45 displayed a preference for 3' protruding strands and bound tightly to single-strand/double-strand DNA junctions, such as those presented by Y-shaped DNA, bubbles and displacement loops, all of which appear transiently during the initiation of DNA replication. Collectively, our findings suggest that hCdc45 not only binds to but also slides on DNA with a 3'-5' polarity and, thereby acts as a molecular 'wedge' to initiate DNA strand displacement. KW - protein secondary structure KW - circular dichroism spectra KW - small-angle scattering KW - single-stranded-DNA KW - cyclin-dependent kinases KW - ray solution scattering KW - saccharmyces cerevisiae KW - escherichia coli KW - recj exonuclease KW - s-phase Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117538 SN - 1362-4962 VL - 42 IS - 4 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmitt, Dominik R. A1 - Kuper, Jochen A1 - Elias, Agnes A1 - Kisker, Caroline T1 - The Structure of the TFIIH p34 Subunit Reveals a Von Willebrand Factor A Like Fold JF - PLoS ONE N2 - RNA polymerase II dependent transcription and nucleotide excision repair are mediated by a multifaceted interplay of subunits within the general transcription factor II H (TFIIH). A better understanding of the molecular structure of TFIIH is the key to unravel the mechanism of action of this versatile protein complex within these vital cellular processes. The importance of this complex becomes further evident in the context of severe diseases like xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne's syndrome and trichothiodystrophy, that arise from single point mutations in TFIIH subunits. Here we describe the structure of the p34 subunit of the TFIIH complex from the eukaryotic thermophilic fungus Chaetomium thermophilum. The structure revealed that p34 contains a von Willebrand Factor A (vWA) like domain, a fold which is generally known to be involved in protein-protein interactions. Within TFIIH p34 strongly interacts with p44, a positive regulator of the helicase XPD. Putative protein-protein interfaces are analyzed and possible binding sites for the p34-p44 interaction suggested. KW - sequence motif analysis KW - iodides KW - protein-protein interactions KW - protein domains KW - molecular structure KW - electron density KW - protein structure KW - crystal structure Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119471 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 9 IS - 7 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Röder, Pia V. A1 - Geillinger, Kerstin E. A1 - Zietek, Tamara S. A1 - Thorens, Bernard A1 - Koepsell, Hermann A1 - Daniel, Hannelore T1 - The Role of SGLT1 and GLUT2 in Intestinal Glucose Transport and Sensing JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Intestinal glucose absorption is mediated by SGLT1 whereas GLUT2 is considered to provide basolateral exit. Recently, it was proposed that GLUT2 can be recruited into the apical membrane after a high luminal glucose bolus allowing bulk absorption of glucose by facilitated diffusion. Moreover, SGLT1 and GLUT2 are suggested to play an important role in intestinal glucose sensing and incretin secretion. In mice that lack either SGLT1 or GLUT2 we re-assessed the role of these transporters in intestinal glucose uptake after radiotracer glucose gavage and performed Western blot analysis for transporter abundance in apical membrane fractions in a comparative approach. Moreover, we examined the contribution of these transporters to glucose-induced changes in plasma GIP, GLP-1 and insulin levels. In mice lacking SGLT1, tissue retention of tracer glucose was drastically reduced throughout the entire small intestine whereas GLUT2-deficient animals exhibited higher tracer contents in tissue samples than wild type animals. Deletion of SGLT1 resulted also in reduced blood glucose elevations and abolished GIP and GLP-1 secretion in response to glucose. In mice lacking GLUT2, glucose-induced insulin but not incretin secretion was impaired. Western blot analysis revealed unchanged protein levels of SGLT1 after glucose gavage. GLUT2 detected in apical membrane fractions mainly resulted from contamination with basolateral membranes but did not change in density after glucose administration. SGLT1 is unequivocally the prime intestinal glucose transporter even at high luminal glucose concentrations. Moreover, SGLT1 mediates glucose-induced incretin secretion. Our studies do not provide evidence for GLUT2 playing any role in either apical glucose influx or incretin secretion. KW - rat small-intestine KW - brush border membrane KW - apical GLUT2 KW - incretin secretion KW - diffusive component KW - sugar absorption KW - mice KW - calcium absorption KW - phosphorylation KW - cotransporter Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-117262 VL - 9 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Oli, Swarna A1 - Abdelmohsen, Usama Ramadan A1 - Hentschel, Ute A1 - Schirmeister, Tanja T1 - Identification of Plakortide E from the Caribbean Sponge Plakortis halichondroides as a Trypanocidal Protease Inhibitor using Bioactivity-Guided Fractionation JF - MARINE DRUGS N2 - In this paper, we report new protease inhibitory activity of plakortide E towards cathepsins and cathepsin-like parasitic proteases. We further report on its anti-parasitic activity against Trypanosoma brucei with an IC50 value of 5 mu M and without cytotoxic effects against J774.1 macrophages at 100 mu M concentration. Plakortide E was isolated from the sponge Plakortis halichondroides using enzyme assay-guided fractionation and identified by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Furthermore, enzyme kinetic studies confirmed plakortide E as a non-competitive, slowly-binding, reversible inhibitor of rhodesain. KW - plakortis halichondroides KW - plakortide E. KW - protease inhibitor KW - slowly-binding reversible inhibitor KW - cathepsin KW - trypanosoma brucei KW - cysteine protease KW - malaria parasites KW - cathepsin-L KW - in-vitro KW - rhodesain Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-116536 SN - 1660-3397 VL - 12 IS - 5 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Macintyre, Lynsey A1 - Zhang, Tong A1 - Viegelmann, Christina A1 - Martinez, Ignacio Juarez A1 - Cheng, Cheng A1 - Dowdells, Catherine A1 - Abdelmohsen, Usama Ramadan A1 - Gernert, Christine A1 - Hentschel, Ute A1 - Edrada-Ebel, RuAngelie T1 - Metabolomic Tools for Secondary Metabolite Discovery from Marine Microbial Symbionts JF - Marine Drugs N2 - Marine invertebrate-associated symbiotic bacteria produce a plethora of novel secondary metabolites which may be structurally unique with interesting pharmacological properties. Selection of strains usually relies on literature searching, genetic screening and bioactivity results, often without considering the chemical novelty and abundance of secondary metabolites being produced by the microorganism until the time-consuming bioassay-guided isolation stages. To fast track the selection process, metabolomic tools were used to aid strain selection by investigating differences in the chemical profiles of 77 bacterial extracts isolated from cold water marine invertebrates from Orkney, Scotland using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Following mass spectrometric analysis and dereplication using an Excel macro developed in-house, principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to differentiate the bacterial strains based on their chemical profiles. NMR H-1 and correlation spectroscopy (COSY) were also employed to obtain a chemical fingerprint of each bacterial strain and to confirm the presence of functional groups and spin systems. These results were then combined with taxonomic identification and bioassay screening data to identify three bacterial strains, namely Bacillus sp. 4117, Rhodococcus sp. ZS402 and Vibrio splendidus strain LGP32, to prioritize for scale-up based on their chemically interesting secondary metabolomes, established through dereplication and interesting bioactivities, determined from bioassay screening. KW - multivariate analysis KW - metabolic profiling KW - metabolomics KW - dereplication KW - symbiotic bacteria KW - mass spectrometry KW - NMR KW - sponge holicolona-simulans KW - bryozoan bugula-neritina KW - polyketide synthase gene Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-116097 SN - 1660-3397 VL - 12 IS - 6 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kreuzwieser, Jürgen A1 - Scheerer, Ursel A1 - Kruse, Jörg A1 - Burzlaff, Tim A1 - Honsel, Anne A1 - Alfarraj, Saleh A1 - Georgiev, Palmen A1 - Schnitzler, Jörg-Peter A1 - Ghirardo, Andrea A1 - Kreuzer, Ines A1 - Hedrich, Rainer A1 - Rennenberg, Heinz T1 - The Venus flytrap attracts insects by the release of volatile organic compounds JF - Journal of Experimental Botany N2 - Does Dionaea muscipula, the Venus flytrap, use a particular mechanism to attract animal prey? This question was raised by Charles Darwin 140 years ago, but it remains unanswered. This study tested the hypothesis that Dionaea releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to allure prey insects. For this purpose, olfactory choice bioassays were performed to elucidate if Dionaea attracts Drosophila melanogaster. The VOCs emitted by the plant were further analysed by GC-MS and proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). The bioassays documented that Drosophila was strongly attracted by the carnivorous plant. Over 60 VOCs, including terpenes, benzenoids, and aliphatics, were emitted by Dionaea, predominantly in the light. This work further tested whether attraction of animal prey is affected by the nutritional status of the plant. For this purpose, Dionaea plants were fed with insect biomass to improve plant N status. However, although such feeding altered the VOC emission pattern by reducing terpene release, the attraction of Drosophila was not affected. From these results it is concluded that Dionaea attracts insects on the basis of food smell mimicry because the scent released has strong similarity to the bouquet of fruits and plant flowers. Such a volatile blend is emitted to attract insects searching for food to visit the deadly capture organ of the Venus flytrap. KW - carnivorus plants KW - dionaea muscipula KW - drosophila melanogaster KW - VOC emissions KW - nitrogen status KW - olfactory bioassay KW - plant-animal interaction Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121161 VL - 65 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jahn, Martin T. A1 - Schmidt, Katrin A1 - Mock, Thomas T1 - A novel cost effective and high-throughput isolation and identification method for marine microalgae JF - Plant Methods N2 - BACKROUND: Marine microalgae are of major ecologic and emerging economic importance. Biotechnological screening schemes of microalgae for specific traits and laboratory experiments to advance our knowledge on algal biology and evolution strongly benefit from culture collections reflecting a maximum of the natural inter- and intraspecific diversity. However, standard procedures for strain isolation and identification, namely DNA extraction, purification, amplification, sequencing and taxonomic identification still include considerable constraints increasing the time required to establish new cultures. RESULTS: In this study, we report a cost effective and high-throughput isolation and identification method for marine microalgae. The throughput was increased by applying strain isolation on plates and taxonomic identification by direct PCR (dPCR) of phylogenetic marker genes in combination with a novel sequencing electropherogram based screening method to assess the taxonomic diversity and identity of the isolated cultures. For validation of the effectiveness of this approach, we isolated and identified a range of unialgal cultures from natural phytoplankton communities sampled in the Arctic Ocean. These cultures include the isolate of a novel marine Chlorophyceae strain among several different diatoms. CONCLUSIONS: We provide an efficient and effective approach leading from natural phytoplankton communities to isolated and taxonomically identified algal strains in only a few weeks. Validated with sensitive Arctic phytoplankton, this approach overcomes the constraints of standard molecular characterisation and establishment of unialgal cultures." KW - cultivation KW - direct PCR KW - isolation KW - marine microalgae KW - taxonomy Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121255 VL - 10 IS - 26 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hyun, Tae Kyung A1 - van der Graaff, Eric A1 - Albacete, Alfonso A1 - Eom, Seung Hee A1 - Grosskinsky, Dominik K. A1 - Böhm, Hannah A1 - Janschek, Ursula A1 - Rim, Yeonggil A1 - Ali, Walid Wahid A1 - Kim, Soo Young A1 - Roitsch, Thomas T1 - The Arabidopsis PLAT Domain Protein1 is Critically Involved in Abiotic Stress Tolerance JF - PLOS ONE N2 - Despite the completion of the Arabidopsis genome sequence, for only a relatively low percentage of the encoded proteins experimental evidence concerning their function is available. Plant proteins that harbour a single PLAT (Polycystin, Lipoxygenase, Alpha-toxin and Triacylglycerol lipase) domain and belong to the PLAT-plant-stress protein family are ubiquitously present in monocot and dicots. However, the function of PLAT-plant-stress proteins is still poorly understood. Therefore, we have assessed the function of the uncharacterised Arabidopsis PLAT-plant-stress family members through a combination of functional genetic and physiological approaches. PLAT1 overexpression conferred increased abiotic stress tolerance, including cold, drought and salt stress, while loss-of-function resulted in opposite effects on abiotic stress tolerance. Strikingly, PLAT1 promoted growth under non-stressed conditions. Abiotic stress treatments induced PLAT1 expression and caused expansion of its expression domain. The ABF/ABRE transcription factors, which are positive mediators of abscisic acid signalling, activate PLAT1 promoter activity in transactivation assays and directly bind to the ABRE elements located in this promoter in electrophoretic mobility shift assays. This suggests that PLAT1 represents a novel downstream target of the abscisic acid signalling pathway. Thus, we showed that PLAT1 critically functions as positive regulator of abiotic stress tolerance, but also is involved in regulating plant growth, and thereby assigned a function to this previously uncharacterised PLAT domain protein. The functional data obtained for PLAT1 support that PLAT-plant-stress proteins in general could be promising targets for improving abiotic stress tolerance without yield penalty. KW - salicylic acid KW - gene expression KW - signal transduction KW - cold stress KW - salt stress KW - abscisic acid KW - endoplasmatic reticulum KW - transcription factors KW - pseudomonas syringae KW - plants response Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-114648 VL - 9 IS - 11 ER -