Unpalatable plants induce a species-specific associational effect on neighboring communities.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Erfanian MB
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8277879 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Despite our understanding of chemical defenses and their consequences for plant performance and herbivores, we know little about whether defensive chemicals in plant tissues, such as alkaloids, and their spatial variation within a population play unappreciated and critical roles in plant-herbivore interactions. Neighboring plants can decrease or increase attractiveness of a plant to herbivores, an example of a neighborhood effect. Chemical defensive traits may contribute to neighborhood effects in plant-herbivore interactions. We examined the effects of nicotine in leaves (a non-emitted defense chemical) on plant-herbivore interactions in a spatial context, using two varieties of Nicotiana tabacum with different nicotine levels. A common garden experiment demonstrated that visits by grasshoppers decreased with increasing density of neighboring plants with a greater nicotine level. In contrast, visits of leaf caterpillars were not affected by neighbors, irrespective of nicotine levels. Thus, our results clearly highlighted that the neighborhood effect caused by the nicotine in leaves depended on the insect identity, and it was mediated by plant-herbivore interactions, rather than plant-plant interactions. This study demonstrates that understanding of effects of plant defensive traits on plant-herbivore interactions requires careful consideration of the spatial distribution of plant defenses, and provides support for the importance of spatial context to accurately capture the ecological and evolutionary consequences of plant-herbivore interactions.
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Project description:Encapsulation of cisplatin (CDDP) into nanoparticles (NPs) with high drug loading and encapsulation efficiency has been difficult due to the poor solubility of CDDP. However, this barrier has been overcome with a reverse microemulsion method appropriating CDDP's poor solubility to our advantage promoting the synthesis of a pure cisplatin nanoparticle with a high drug loading capacity (approximately 80.8 wt %). Actively targeted CDDP NPs exhibited significant accumulation in human A375M melanoma tumor cells in vivo. In addition, CDDP NPs achieved potent antitumor efficacy through the neighboring effect at a dose of 1 mg/kg when injected weekly via iv without inducing nephrotoxicity. The neighboring effect regards an observation made in vivo when the tumor cells that took up CDDP NPs released active drug following apoptosis. Via diffusion, surrounding cells that were previously unaffected showed intake of the released drug and their apoptosis soon followed. This observation was also made in vitro when A375M melanoma tumor cells incubated with CDDP NPs exhibited release of active drug and induced apoptosis on untreated neighboring cells. However, the neighboring effect was unique to rapidly proliferating tumor cells. Liver functional parameters and H&E staining of liver tissue in vivo failed to detect any difference between CDDP NP treated and control groups in terms of tissue health. By simultaneously promoting an increase in cytotoxicity and a lesser degree of side effects over free CDDP, CDDP NPs show great therapeutic potential with lower doses of drug while enhancing anticancer effectiveness.
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Project description:Many plants release airborne volatile compounds in response to wounding due to pathogenic assault. These compounds serve as plant defenses and are involved in plant signaling. Here, we study the effects of pectin methylesterase (PME)-generated methanol release from wounded plants ("emitters") on the defensive reactions of neighboring "receiver" plants. Plant leaf wounding resulted in the synthesis of PME and a spike in methanol released into the air. Gaseous methanol or vapors from wounded PME-transgenic plants induced resistance to the bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum in the leaves of non-wounded neighboring "receiver" plants. In experiments with different volatile organic compounds, gaseous methanol was the only airborne factor that could induce antibacterial resistance in neighboring plants. In an effort to understand the mechanisms by which methanol stimulates the antibacterial resistance of "receiver" plants, we constructed forward and reverse suppression subtractive hybridization cDNA libraries from Nicotiana benthamiana plants exposed to methanol. We identified multiple methanol-inducible genes (MIGs), most of which are involved in defense or cell-to-cell trafficking. We then isolated the most affected genes for further analysis: ?-1,3-glucanase (BG), a previously unidentified gene (MIG-21), and non-cell-autonomous pathway protein (NCAPP). Experiments with Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and a vector encoding two tandem copies of green fluorescent protein as a tracer of cell-to-cell movement showed the increased gating capacity of plasmodesmata in the presence of BG, MIG-21, and NCAPP. The increased gating capacity is accompanied by enhanced TMV reproduction in the "receivers". Overall, our data indicate that methanol emitted by a wounded plant acts as a signal that enhances antibacterial resistance and facilitates viral spread in neighboring plants.
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Project description:The community composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was analyzed in roots of Gentiana verna, Gentiana acaulis, and accompanying plant species from two species-rich Swiss alpine meadows located in the same area. The aim of the study was to elucidate the impact of host preference or host specificity on the AMF community in the roots. The roots were analyzed by nested PCR, restriction fragment length polymorphism screening, and sequencing of ribosomal DNA small-subunit and internal transcribed spacer regions. The AMF sequences were analyzed phylogenetically and used to define monophyletic sequence types. The AMF community composition was strongly influenced by the host plant species, but compositions did not significantly differ between the two sites. Detailed analyses of the two cooccurring gentian species G. verna and G. acaulis, as well as of neighboring Trifolium spp., revealed that their AMF communities differed significantly. All three host plant taxa harbored AMF communities comprising multiple phylotypes from different fungal lineages. A frequent fungal phylotype from Glomus group B was almost exclusively found in Trifolium spp., suggesting some degree of host preference for this fungus in this habitat. In conclusion, the results indicate that within a relatively small area with similar soil and climatic conditions, the host plant species can have a major influence on the AMF communities within the roots. No evidence was found for a narrowing of the mycosymbiont spectrum in the two green gentians, in contrast to previous findings with their achlorophyllous relatives.
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Project description:Microbial communities in activated sludge (AS) are the core of sanitation in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Microbial communities in AS have shown seasonal changes, however, long-term experiments (>2 years) are rarely conducted, limiting our understanding of the true seasonal dynamics in WWTPs. In this study, we resolved the microbial seasonal dynamics at the species level in four municipal full-scale WWTPs, sampled every 7–10 days, during 3–5 consecutive years. By applying a new time-series analysis approach, we revealed that the seasonal pattern was species-specific, where species belonging to the same functional guild or genus may show different seasonal dynamics. Species could be grouped into cohorts according to their seasonal patterns, where seasonal cohorts showed repeatable annual dynamics across years and plants. Species were also grouped according to their net growth rate in the AS (i.e., growing species and disappearing species). Growing species were more prevailing in spring and autumn cohorts, while disappearing species, which were only present due to the continuous immigration from influent wastewater, were mostly associated with winter and spring cohorts. Most known process-critical species, such as nitrifiers, polyphosphate accumulating organisms and filamentous organisms, showed distinct species-specific patterns. Overall, our study showed that overarching seasonal patterns affected microbial species in full-scale AS plants, with similar seasonal patterns across plants for many dominant species. These recurrent seasonal variations should be taken into account in the operation, understanding and management of the WWTPs.
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Project description:Profiles of symbiotic microbial communities ("microbiomes") can provide insight into the natural history and ecology of their hosts. Using high throughput DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA V4 region, microbiomes of five shark species in South Florida (nurse, lemon, sandbar, Caribbean reef, and tiger) have been characterized for the first time. The microbiomes show species specific microbiome composition, distinct from surrounding seawater. Shark anatomical location (gills, teeth, skin, cloaca) affected the diversity of microbiomes. An in-depth analysis of teeth communities revealed species specific microbial communities. For example, the genus Haemophilus, explained 7.0% of the differences of the teeth microbiomes of lemon and Caribbean reef sharks. Lemon shark teeth communities (n = 11) contained a high abundance of both Vibrio (10.8 ± 26.0%) and Corynebacterium (1.6 ± 5.1%), genera that can include human pathogenic taxa. The Vibrio (2.8 ± 6.34%) and Kordia (3.1 ± 6.0%) genera and Salmonella enterica (2.6 ± 6.4%) were the most abundant members of nurse shark teeth microbial communities. The Vibrio genus was highly represented in the sandbar shark (54.0 ± 46.0%) and tiger shark (5.8 ± 12.3%) teeth microbiomes. The prevalence of genera containing potential human pathogens could be informative in shark bite treatment protocols and future research to confirm or deny human pathogenicity. We conclude that South Florida sharks host species specific microbiomes that are distinct from their surrounding environment and vary due to differences in microbial community composition among shark species and diversity and composition among anatomical locations. Additionally, when considering the confounding effects of both species and location, microbial community diversity and composition varies.
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