Biology subjects

Sha, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Sha, G..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

CDP-DAG synthases regulate plant growth and broad-spectrum disease resistance

Phosphatidic acid (PA) functions as a cell membrane component and signaling molecule in plants. PA metabolism has multiple routes, in one of which PA is converted into cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol (CDP-DAG) by CDP-DAG synthases (CDSs). CDS genes are highly conserved in plants. Here, we found that knock-down of the CDS gene enhanced the resistance of Arabidopsis thaliana to multiple pathogens, with a growth penalty. When Arabidopsis leaves were treated with chitin or flg22, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in cds mutants was significantly higher than that in the wild-type (WT). Similarly, phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in the cds1cds2 double mutant was significantly increased compared to the WT. By integrating lipidomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics data, PA accumulation was observed in mutants cds1cds2, activating the jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathway, and increasing transcript levels of plant defense-related genes. Significant accumulation of the downstream metabolites including serotonin and 5-methoxyindole was also found, which plays important roles in plant immunity. In conclusion, our study indicated the role of CDSs in broad-spectrum disease resistance in Arabidopsis and that CDSs are involved in plant metabolic regulation.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Mutation of phosphatidate phosphohydrolase genes confers broad-spectrum disease resistance in plants

Phosphatidic acid (PA) is considered as a second messenger that interacts with protein kinases, phosphatases and NADPH oxidases, amplifying the signal to initiate plant defense signaling responses (Li and Wang, 2019). In rice, mutation of RBL1 causes the accumulation of PA, enhancing multipathogen resistance (Sha et al., 2023). In our previous study, we attempted to rescue rbl1 mutant by overexpressing phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (PAH) genes. However, overexpression of PAH2 reduced the PA level but did not affect the disease resistance, which made us to reconsider the importance of PA and PAH in rice immunity. Here, we identified that mutation of PAHs caused PA accumulation and enhanced multipathogen resistance in rice and Arabidopsis.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Inhibitor of cardiolipin biosynthesis-related enzyme MoGep4 confers broad-spectrum anti-fungal activity

Plant pathogens cause devastating diseases, leading to serious losses to agriculture. Mechanistic understanding of pathogenesis of plant pathogens lays the foundation for the development of fungicides for disease control. Mitophagy, a specific form of autophagy, is important for fungal virulence. The role of cardiolipin, mitochondrial signature phospholipid, in mitophagy and pathogenesis is largely unknown in plant pathogenic fungi. The functions of enzymes involved in cardiolipin biosynthesis and relevant inhibitors were assessed using a set of assays, including genetic deletion, plant infection, lipidomics, chemical-protein interaction, chemical inhibition, and field trials. Our results showed that the cardiolipin biosynthesis-related gene MoGEP4 of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae regulates growth, conidiation, cardiolipin biosynthesis, and virulence. Mechanistically, MoGep4 regulated mitophagy and Mps1-MAPK phosphorylation, which are required for virulence. Chemical alexidine dihydrochloride (AXD) inhibited the enzyme activity of MoGep4, cardiolipin biosynthesis and mitophagy. Importantly, AXD efficiently inhibited the growth of 10 plant pathogens and controlled rice blast and Fusarium head blight in the field. Our study demonstrated that MoGep4 regulates mitophagy, Mps1 phosphorylation and pathogenesis in M. oryzae. In addition, we found that the MoGep4 inhibitor, AXD, displays broad-spectrum antifungal activity and is a promising candidate for fungicide development.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2021

Molecular mechanism behind the involvement of apple flavonoid glycosyltransferase gene MdGT1 in the color of apple leaves

Nowadays, the plant family 1 UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs) are more and more investigated owing to their contribution to the plant secondary metabolism and diverse biological roles. Apple (Malus domestica) is one of the most widely cultivated fruit trees with great economical importance. However, poor knowledge is known about the apple UGTs. In this study, we identified 229 members of family 1 through a genome-wide analysis of the apple UGTs, which were clustered into 18 groups, from A to R. We also performed detailed analysis to 34 apple UGTs with quantitavive RT-PCR, and discovered a number of stress-regulated UGTs. Among them, we characterized the role of MD09G1064900, also named as MdUGT83L3, which is significantly induced by salt and cold. In vivo analysis showed that it has high activity towards cyanidin, and moderate activity towards quercetin and keampferol. The transgenic callus and regenerated apple plants overexpressing MdUGT83L3 showed enhanced tolerance to salt and cold treatments. Overexpression of MdUGT83L3 also increased anthocyanin accumulation in the callus tissues and enhanced ROS clearing upon exposed to salt and cold stresses. Futhermore, via yeast-two-hybrid assay, EMSA and CHIP analysis, we also found that MdUGT83L3 could be directly regualted by MdMYB88. Our study indicated that MdUGT83L3, under the regulation of MdMYB88, plays important roles in salt and cold stress adaptation via modulating flavonoid metabolism in apple.

molecular biology↗