Explore the vast range of titles available.

Plant trichomes, protrusions formed from specialized aboveground epidermal cells, provide protection against various biotic and abiotic stresses. Trichomes can be unicellular, bicellular or multicellular, with multiple branches or no branches at all. Unicellular trichomes are generally not secretory, whereas multicellular trichomes include both secretory and non-secretory hairs. The secretory trichomes release secondary metabolites such as artemisinin, which is valuable as an antimalarial agent. Cotton trichomes, also known as cotton fibers, are an important natural product for the textile industry. In recent years, much progress has been made in unraveling the molecular mechanisms of trichome formation in Arabidopsis thaliana , Gossypium hirsutum , Oryza sativa , Cucumis sativus , Solanum lycopersicum , Nicotiana tabacum , and Artemisia annua . Here, we review current knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying fate determination and initiation, elongation, and maturation of unicellular, bicellular and multicellular trichomes in several representative plants. We emphasize the regulatory roles of plant hormones, transcription factors, the cell cycle and epigenetic modifications in different stages of trichome development. Finally, we identify the obstacles and key points for future research on plant trichome development, and speculated the development relationship between the salt glands of halophytes and the trichomes of non-halophytes, which provides a reference for future studying the development of plant epidermal cells.

Homeodomain leucine zipper (HD-ZIP) proteins are plant-specific transcription factors that contain a homeodomain (HD) and a leucine zipper (LZ) domain. The highly conserved HD binds specifically to DNA and the LZ mediates homodimer or heterodimer formation. HD-ZIP transcription factors control plant growth, development, and responses to abiotic stress by regulating downstream target genes and hormone regulatory pathways. HD-ZIP proteins are divided into four subclasses (I–IV) according to their sequence conservation and function. The genome-wide identification and expression profile analysis of HD-ZIP proteins in model plants such as Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) and rice ( Oryza sativa ) have improved our understanding of the functions of the different subclasses. In this review, we mainly summarize and discuss the roles of HD-ZIP proteins in plant response to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, low temperature, and harmful metals. HD-ZIP proteins mainly mediate plant stress tolerance by regulating the expression of downstream stress-related genes through abscisic acid (ABA) mediated signaling pathways, and also by regulating plant growth and development. This review provides a basis for understanding the roles of HD-ZIP proteins and potential targets for breeding abiotic stress tolerance in plants.

Salinity is a major and complex abiotic stress that inhibits plant growth and reduces crop yield. Given the global increase in soil salinity, there is a need to develop salt-tolerant species. L. is an important oilseed crop with some level of salt tolerance. However, few studies have evaluated its salt tolerance thoroughly or screened for traits that can be reliably evaluated for salt tolerance. Here, we evaluated salt tolerance in 549 inbred lines with different genetic backgrounds using the membership function value (MFV) of certain traits, including the germination rate, root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh weight, and total fresh weight. According to the evaluation criteria-mean MFV, 50 highly salt-tolerant, 115 salt-tolerant, 71 moderately salt-tolerant, 202 salt-sensitive, and 111 highly salt-sensitive inbred lines were screened at the germination stage. We also developed a mathematical evaluation model and identified that the salt tolerance index of shoot fresh weight is a single trait that reliably represents the salt tolerance of germplasm at the germination stage. These results are useful for evaluating and breeding salt-tolerant germplasm.

RING zinc finger proteins have a conserved RING domain, mainly function as E3 ubiquitin ligases, and play important roles in plant growth, development, and the responses to abiotic stresses such as drought, salt, temperature, reactive oxygen species, and harmful metals. RING zinc finger proteins act in abiotic stress responses mainly by modifying and degrading stress-related proteins. Here, we review the latest progress in research on RING zinc finger proteins, including their structural characteristics, classification, subcellular localization, and physiological functions, with an emphasis on abiotic stress tolerance. Under abiotic stress, RING zinc finger proteins on the plasma membrane may function as sensors or abscisic acid (ABA) receptors in abiotic stress signaling. Some RING zinc finger proteins accumulate in the nucleus may act like transcription factors to regulate the expression of downstream abiotic stress marker genes through direct or indirect ways. Most RING zinc finger proteins usually accumulate in the cytoplasm or nucleus and act as E3 ubiquitin ligases in the abiotic stress response through ABA, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), and ethylene signaling pathways. We also highlight areas where further research on RING zinc finger proteins in plants is needed.

N 6 -methyladenosine (m 6 A) modification is an important mechanism in miRNA processing and maturation, but the role of its aberrant regulation in human diseases remained unclear. Here, we demonstrate that oncogenic primary microRNA-25 (miR-25) in pancreatic duct epithelial cells can be excessively maturated by cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) via enhanced m 6 A modification that is mediated by NF-κB associated protein (NKAP). This modification is catalyzed by overexpressed methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3) due to hypomethylation of the METTL3 promoter also caused by CSC. Mature miR-25, miR-25-3p, suppresses PH domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase 2 (PHLPP2), resulting in the activation of oncogenic AKT-p70S6K signaling, which provokes malignant phenotypes of pancreatic cancer cells. High levels of miR-25-3p are detected in smokers and in pancreatic cancers tissues that are correlated with poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. These results collectively indicate that cigarette smoke-induced miR-25-3p excessive maturation via m 6 A modification promotes the development and progression of pancreatic cancer. Cigarette smoke induces microRNA dysregulation in cancers. Here, the authors show that cigarette smoke promotes the maturation of oncogenic primary miR-25 due to METTL3 hypomethylation, and mature miR-25 suppresses PH domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase 2, resulting in oncogenic AKT activation in pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is accompanied by endocrine dysfunction, particularly involving dysregulation of the insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling pathways. Clinical manifestations such as hyperglycemia and insulin resistance are common and have been linked to aberrant expression of insulin-like growth factor-binding proteins (IGFBPs). However, the specific roles and mechanisms of IGFBP family genes in PDAC remain unclear. We conducted a multi-dimensional integrative analysis using publicly available PDAC cohorts, stratifying patients based on IGFBP gene expression profiles. A prognostic model was constructed to classify patients into risk groups. To explore the biological mechanisms underlying IGFBP involvement in PDAC, we further incorporated single-cell transcriptomic sequencing and spatial transcriptomic data to investigate the relationship between IGFBP expression and the tumor immune microenvironment. Our prognostic model effectively stratified PDAC patients into distinct risk categories with significant survival differences. High-risk patients demonstrated specific IGFBP expression patterns associated with aggressive tumor biology. Single-cell and spatial transcriptomic analyses revealed that IGFBP family genes modulate immune cell infiltration and spatial immune heterogeneity within the tumor microenvironment. This study identified the IGFBP family genes as key modulators of PDAC progression and immune landscape remodeling. These findings supported the potential of IGFBP family genes as prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets, offering new insights into PDAC biology and opportunities for personalized treatment strategies.

Predicting protein‒protein interactions (PPIs) plays a crucial role in understanding biological processes. Although biological experimental methods can identify PPIs, they are costly, time-consuming, labor-intensive, and often lack stability. In contrast, computational approaches for PPI prediction, particularly deep learning methods, can efficiently learn representations from protein sequences. However, the generalizability, robustness, and stability of computational PPI prediction models still need improvement, especially for species with limited verified PPI data. Protein embeddings generated by protein language models can extract features from protein sequences and reflect hierarchical biological structures, making them suitable for predicting PPIs. Therefore, in this study, we propose a novel protein sequence-based PPI prediction framework designed for generalized PPI assessment by integrating two protein language models (PLMs) and an enhanced deep neural network (MPIDNN-GPPI). Specifically, the sequences are embedded using two protein language models, Ankh and ESM-2. A deep neural network is then used to learn representations from the feature vectors produced by PLMs. Subsequently, a multi-head attention mechanism is introduced to capture long-range dependencies and fuse them with DNN-derived representations. Finally, a deep neural network is applied to assess the probability of interaction between two proteins. To evaluate the performance of MPIDNN-GPPI, nine PPI datasets were collected from the STRING database, covering a diverse set of species: five datasets from mammals ( D. melanogaster , C. elegan s, S. cerevisiae , H. sapiens, and M. musculus ), and four datasets from plants ( O. sativa , A. thaliana , G. max , and Z. mays ). When trained on H. sapiens , MPIDNN-GPPI achieved AUC values of 0.959, 0.966, 0.954, and 0.916 on independent test sets for M. musculus , D. melanogaster , C. elegans , and S. cerevisiae , respectively. These results represent the best performance among all PPI models compared in this study. Similarly, when trained on O. sativa , the model achieved AUC values of 0.96, 0.95, and 0.913 on independent datasets for A. thaliana , G. max , and Z. mays , respectively. Ablation experiments demonstrated that models combining Ankh and ESM-2 outperformed those relying on a single protein language model. Furthermore, MPIDNN-GPPI, which incorporates multi-head attention and deep neural networks (DNN), achieved superior performance compared to models using DNN alone. These findings indicate that MPIDNN-GPPI possesses strong generalization capability for cross-species PPI prediction. The proposed model, trained on one species, can be effectively applied to accurately predict PPIs in other species.

Combined with the spatial data processing capability of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Pan Jiazheng method is extended from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D), and a 3D landslide surge height calculation method is proposed based on grid column units. First, the data related to the landslide are rasterized to form grid columns, and a force analysis model of 3D landslides is established. Combining the vertical strip method with Newton's laws of motion, dynamic equilibrium equations are established to solve the surge height. Moreover, a 3D landslide surge height calculation expansion module is developed in the GIS environment, and the results are compared with those of the 2D Pan Jiazheng method. Comparisons showed that the maximum surge height obtained by the proposed method is 24.6% larger than that based on the Pan Jiazheng method. Compared with the traditional 2D method, the 3D method proposed in this paper better represent the actual spatial state of the landslide and is more suitable for risk assessment.

Background: Increasing evidence supports the belief that the pleckstrin homology domain family A (PHLDA) family is associated with the development of a variety of cancers. However, the function of the PHLDA family members in PAAD is still unclear. Methods: Comprehensive bioinformatic analyses using R (version 3.6.3), Cytoscape (version 3.9.1), UALCAN, etc., were performed to study the clinicopathological characteristics, prognostic value, immune features, and functional mechanisms of the PHLDA family members in PAAD. Results: The PHLDA family members showed significantly elevated expression in PAAD compared with paracancerous or normal tissues. Their high expression or amplification were significantly correlated with worse clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in PAAD patients. In addition, the role of the PHLDA family members in the immune regulation is diverse and complex. Mechanistically, TP53 mutations were significantly associated with the promoter methylation and expression levels of the PHLDA family members, which were activated in multiple oncogenic pathways, including the EMT, RAS/MAPK, and TSC/mTOR pathways. Moreover, we found that their expression levels were significantly correlated with the sensitivity of multiple traditional chemotherapeutic drugs and novel targeted MEK1/2 inhibitors. Conclusion: The PHLDA family members play an oncogenic role in the development of PAAD and might serve as new biomarkers or therapeutic targets.

Plant epidermal cells, such as trichomes, root hairs, salt glands, and stomata, play pivotal roles in the growth, development, and environmental adaptation of terrestrial plants. Cell fate determination, differentiation, and the formation of epidermal structures represent basic developmental processes in multicellular organisms. Increasing evidence indicates that C2H2 zinc finger proteins play important roles in regulating the development of epidermal structures in plants and plant adaptation to unfavorable environments. Here, we systematically summarize the molecular mechanism underlying the roles of C2H2 zinc finger proteins in controlling epidermal cell formation in plants, with an emphasis on trichomes, root hairs, and salt glands and their roles in plant adaptation to environmental stress. In addition, we discuss the possible roles of homologous C2H2 zinc finger proteins in trichome development in non-halophytes and salt gland development in halophytes based on bioinformatic analysis. This review provides a foundation for further study of epidermal cell development and abiotic stress responses in plants.