Draft Genome Sequence of Mortierella alpina Strain LL118, Isolated from an Aspen (Populus tremuloides) Leaf Litter Sample.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Yang S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8612081 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:We document high rates of triploidy in aspen (Populus tremuloides) across the western USA (up to 69% of genets), and ask whether the incidence of triploidy across the species range corresponds with latitude, glacial history (as has been documented in other species), climate, or regional variance in clone size. Using a combination of microsatellite genotyping, flow cytometry, and cytology, we demonstrate that triploidy is highest in unglaciated, drought-prone regions of North America, where the largest clone sizes have been reported for this species. While we cannot completely rule out a low incidence of undetected aneuploidy, tetraploidy or duplicated loci, our evidence suggests that these phenomena are unlikely to be significant contributors to our observed patterns. We suggest that the distribution of triploid aspen is due to a positive synergy between triploidy and ecological factors driving clonality. Although triploids are expected to have low fertility, they are hypothesized to be an evolutionary link to sexual tetraploidy. Thus, interactions between clonality and polyploidy may be a broadly important component of geographic speciation patterns in perennial plants. Further, cytotypes are expected to show physiological and structural differences which may influence susceptibility to ecological factors such as drought, and we suggest that cytotype may be a significant and previously overlooked factor in recent patterns of high aspen mortality in the southwestern portion of the species range. Finally, triploidy should be carefully considered as a source of variance in genomic and ecological studies of aspen, particularly in western U.S. landscapes.
| S-EPMC3485218 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Plants have evolved heavy metal tolerance mechanisms to adapt and cope with nickel (Ni) toxicity. Decrypting whole gene expression of Trembling Aspen (Pinus tremuloides) under nickel stress could elucidate the nickel resistance/tolerance mechanisms. The main objectives of the present research were to 1) characterize the P. tremuloides transcriptome, and 2) compare gene expression dynamics between nickel-resistant and nickel-susceptible P. tremuloides genotypes with Whole Transcriptome (WT) sequencing. Illumina Sequencing generated 27-45 million 2X150 paired-end reads of raw data per sample. The alignment performed with StringTie Software added two groups of transcripts to the draft genome annotation. One group contained 32,677 new isoforms that match to 17,254 genes. The second group contained 17,349 novel transcripts that represent 16,157 novel genes. Overall, 52,987 genes were identified from which 36,770 genes were selected as differently expressed. With the high stringency (two-fold change, FDR value ≤ 0.05 and logFC value ≥1 (upregulated) or ≤ -1 (downregulated), after GSEA analysis and filtering for gene set size, 575 gene sets were upregulated and 146 were downregulated in nickel resistant phenotypes compared to susceptible genotypes. For biological process, genes associated with translation were significantly upregulated while signal transduction and cellular protein process genes were downregulated in resistant compared to susceptible genotypes. For molecular function, there was a significant downregulation of genes associated with DNA binding in resistant compared to susceptible lines. Significant upregulation was observed in genes located in ribosome while downregulation of genes in chloroplast and mitochondrion were preponderant in resistant genotypes compared to susceptible. Hence, from a whole transcriptome level, an upregulation in ribosomal and translation activities was identified as the main response to Ni toxicity in the resistant plants. More importantly, this study revealed that a metal transport protein (Potrs038704g29436 -ATOX1-related copper transport) was among the top upregulated genes in resistant genotypes when compared to susceptible plants. Other identified upregulated genes associated with abiotic stress include genes coding for Dirigent Protein 10, GATA transcription factor, Zinc finger protein, Auxin response factor, Bidirectional sugar transporter, and thiamine thiazole synthase.
| S-EPMC9560071 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), a widespread and keystone tree species in North America, experienced heat and drought stress in the years 2002 and 2003 in the southwestern United States. This led to widespread aspen mortality that has altered the composition of forests, and is expected to occur again if climate change continues. Understanding interactions between aspen and its environments is essential to understanding future mortality risk in forests. Polyploidy, which is common in aspen, can modify plant structure and function and therefore plant-environment interactions, but the influence of polyploidy on aspen physiology is still not well understood. Furthermore, the ploidy types of aspen have different biogeographies, with triploids being most frequent at lower latitudes in generally warmer and drier climates, while the northerly populations are virtually 100% diploid. This suggests that ploidy-environment interactions differ, and could mean that the ploidy types have different vulnerabilities to environmental stress. In this study, to understand aspen ploidy-environment interactions, we measured 38 different traits important to carbon uptake, water loss and water-use efficiency in diploid and triploid aspen in Colorado. We found that triploid aspen had lower stand density, and greater leaf area, leaf mass, leaf mass per area, percent nitrogen content, chlorophyll content and stomatal size. These differences corresponded to greater potential net carbon assimilation (A, measured using A/Ci curves, and chlorophyll fluorescence) and stomatal conductance (gs) in triploids than diploids. While triploid aspen had higher intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE, calculated from measurements of δ13C in leaf tissue), they also had greater potential water loss from higher measured gs and lower stomatal sensitivity to increasing vapor pressure deficit. Therefore, despite greater iWUE, triploids may have lower resilience to climate-induced stress. We conclude that ploidy type strongly influences physiological traits and function, and mediates drought stress responses in quaking aspen.
| S-EPMC6527095 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:The genus Populus is accepted as a model system for molecular tree biology. To investigate gene functions in Populus spp. trees, generating stable transgenic lines is the common technique for functional genetic studies. However, a limited number of genes have been targeted due to the lengthy transgenic process. Transient transformation assays complementing stable transformation have significant advantages for rapid in vivo assessment of gene function. The aim of this study is to develop a simple and efficient transient transformation for hybrid aspen and to provide its potential applications for functional genomic approaches. RESULTS:We developed an in planta transient transformation assay for young hybrid aspen cuttings using Agrobacterium-mediated vacuum infiltration. The transformation conditions such as the infiltration medium, the presence of a surfactant, the phase of bacterial growth and bacterial density were optimized to achieve a higher transformation efficiency in young aspen leaves. The Agrobacterium infiltration assay successfully transformed various cell types in leaf tissues. Intracellular localization of four aspen genes was confirmed in homologous Populus spp. using fusion constructs with the green fluorescent protein. Protein-protein interaction was detected in transiently co-transformed cells with bimolecular fluorescence complementation technique. In vivo promoter activity was monitored over a few days in aspen cuttings that were transformed with luciferase reporter gene driven by a circadian clock promoter. CONCLUSIONS:The Agrobacterium infiltration assay developed here is a simple and enhanced throughput method that requires minimum handling and short transgenic process. This method will facilitate functional analyses of Populus genes in a homologous plant system.
| S-EPMC3476444 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Plant ecologists have debated the mechanisms used by plants to cope with the impact of herbivore damage. While plant resistance mechanisms have received much attention, plant compensatory growth as a type of plant tolerance mechanisms has been less studied. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to evaluate compensatory growth for trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) seedlings under varying intensities and frequencies of simulated defoliation, with or without nutrient enriched media. For the purpose of this study, changes in biomass production and non-structural carbohydrate concentrations (NSC) of roots and leaves were considered compensatory responses. All defoliated seedlings showed biomass accumulation under low defoliation intensity and frequency, regardless of resource availability; however, as defoliation intensity and frequency increased, compensatory growth of seedlings was altered depending on resource availability. Seedlings in a resource-rich environment showed complete compensation, in contrast responses ranged from undercompensation to complete compensation in a resource-limited environment. Furthermore, at the highest defoliation intensity and frequency, NSC concentrations in leaves and roots were similar between defoliated and non-defoliated seedlings in a resource-rich environment; in contrast, defoliated seedlings with limited resources sustained the most biomass loss, had lower amounts of stored NSC. Using these results, we developed a new predictive framework incorporating the interactions between frequency and intensity of defoliation and resource availability as modulators of plant compensatory responses.
| S-EPMC4106189 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Carbon starvation as a mechanism of tree mortality is poorly understood. We exposed seedlings of aspen (Populus tremuloides) to complete darkness at 20 or 28 °C to identify minimum non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations at which trees die and to see if these levels vary between organs or with environmental conditions. We also first grew seedlings under different shade levels to determine if size affects survival time under darkness due to changes in initial NSC concentration and pool size and/or respiration rates. Darkness treatments caused a gradual dieback of tissues. Even after half the stem had died, substantial starch reserves were still present in the roots (1.3-3% dry weight), indicating limitations to carbohydrate remobilization and/or transport during starvation in the absence of water stress. Survival time decreased with increased temperature and with increasing initial shade level, which was associated with smaller biomass, higher respiration rates, and initially smaller NSC pool size. Dead tissues generally contained no starch, but sugar concentrations were substantially above zero and differed between organs (~2% in stems up to ~7.5% in leaves) and, at times, between temperature treatments and initial, pre-darkness shade treatments. Minimum root NSC concentrations were difficult to determine because dead roots quickly began to decompose, but we identify 5-6% sugar as a potential threshold for living roots. This variability may complicate efforts to identify critical NSC thresholds below which trees starve.
| S-EPMC5853906 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Quaking aspens (Populus tremuloides Michx.) are found in diverse habitats throughout North America. While the biogeography of aspens' distribution has been documented, the drivers of the phenotypic diversity of aspen are still being explored. In our study, we examined differences in climate between northern and southwestern populations of aspen, finding large-scale differences between the populations. Our results suggest that northern and southwestern populations live in distinct climates and support the inclusion of genetic and phenotypic data with species distribution modeling for predicting aspens' distribution.
| S-EPMC4863026 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundRoot hypoxia has detrimental effects on physiological processes and growth in most plants. The effects of hypoxia can be partly alleviated by ethylene. However, the tolerance mechanisms contributing to the ethylene-mediated hypoxia tolerance in plants remain poorly understood.ResultsIn this study, we examined the effects of root hypoxia and exogenous ethylene treatments on leaf gas exchange, root hydraulic conductance, and the expression levels of several aquaporins of the plasma membrane intrinsic protein group (PIP) in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) seedlings. Ethylene enhanced net photosynthetic rates, transpiration rates, and root hydraulic conductance in hypoxic plants. Of the two subgroups of PIPs (PIP1 and PIP2), the protein abundance of PIP2s and the transcript abundance of PIP2;4 and PIP2;5 were higher in ethylene-treated trembling aspen roots compared with non-treated roots under hypoxia. The increases in the expression levels of these aquaporins could potentially facilitate root water transport. The enhanced root water transport by ethylene was likely responsible for the increase in leaf gas exchange of the hypoxic plants.ConclusionsExogenous ethylene enhanced root water transport and the expression levels of PIP2;4 and PIP2;5 in hypoxic roots of trembling aspen. The results suggest that ethylene facilitates the aquaporin-mediated water transport in plants exposed to root hypoxia.
| S-EPMC8140438 | biostudies-literature
Project description:4-Coumarate:CoA ligases (4CLs, EC 6.2.1.12) are a group of enzymes necessary for maintaining a continuous metabolic flux for the biosynthesis of plant phenylpropanoids, such as lignin and flavonoids, that are essential to the survival of plants. So far, various biochemical and molecular studies of plant 4CLs seem to suggest that 4CL isoforms in plants are functionally indistinguishable in mediating the biosynthesis of these phenolics. However, we have discovered two functionally and structurally distinct 4CL genes, Pt4CL1 and Pt4CL2 (63% protein sequence identity), that are differentially expressed in aspen (Populus tremuloides). The Escherichia coli-expressed and purified Pt4CL1 and Pt4CL2 proteins exhibited highly divergent substrate preference as well as specificity that reveal the association of Pt4CL1 with the biosynthesis of guaiacyl-syringyl lignin and the involvement of Pt4CL2 with other phenylpropanoid formation. Northern hybridization analysis demonstrated that Pt4CL1 mRNA is specifically expressed in lignifying xylem tissues and Pt4CL2 mRNA is specifically expressed in epidermal layers in the stem and the leaf, consistent with the promoter activities of Pt4CL1 and Pt4CL2 genes based on the heterologous promoter-beta-glucouronidase fusion analysis. Thus, the expression of Pt4CL1 and Pt4CL2 genes is compartmentalized to regulate the differential formation of phenylpropanoids that confer different physiological functions in aspen; Pt4CL1 is devoted to lignin biosynthesis in developing xylem tissues, whereas Pt4CL2 is involved in the biosynthesis of other phenolics, such as flavonoids, in epidermal cells.
| S-EPMC20274 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Over the past several decades, growth declines and mortality of trembling aspen throughout western Canada and the United States have been linked to drought, often interacting with outbreaks of insects and fungal pathogens, resulting in a "sudden aspen decline" throughout much of aspen's range. In 2015, we noticed an aggressive fungal canker causing widespread mortality of aspen throughout interior Alaska and initiated a study to quantify potential drivers for the incidence, virulence, and distribution of the disease. Stand-level infection rates among 88 study sites distributed across 6 Alaska ecoregions ranged from <1 to 69%, with the proportion of trees with canker that were dead averaging 70% across all sites. The disease is most prevalent north of the Alaska Range within the Tanana Kuskokwim ecoregion. Modeling canker probability as a function of ecoregion, stand structure, landscape position, and climate revealed that smaller-diameter trees in older stands with greater aspen basal area have the highest canker incidence and mortality, while younger trees in younger stands appear virtually immune to the disease. Sites with higher summer vapor pressure deficits had significantly higher levels of canker infection and mortality. We believe the combined effects of this novel fungal canker pathogen, drought, and the persistent aspen leaf miner outbreak are triggering feedbacks between carbon starvation and hydraulic failure that are ultimately driving widespread mortality. Warmer early-season temperatures and prolonged late summer drought are leading to larger and more severe wildfires throughout interior Alaska that are favoring a shift from black spruce to forests dominated by Alaska paper birch and aspen. Widespread aspen mortality fostered by this rapidly spreading pathogen has significant implications for successional dynamics, ecosystem function, and feedbacks to disturbance regimes, particularly on sites too dry for Alaska paper birch.
| S-EPMC8032200 | biostudies-literature