Project description:Drought stress is the main environmental factor influencing hemp growth and yield. However, little is known about the response mechanism of hemp to drought stress. A total of 44.10 M tags and 8.91G bases were sequenced in the control hemp (CK) and drought stress hemp (DS) libraries. A total of 1292 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 883 up-regulated genes and 409 down-regulated genes, were identified. These results may contribute toward improving our understanding about the drought stress regulatory mechanism of hemp, and improving its drought tolerance ability.
Project description:Lignin and lignans are both deriving from the monolignol pathway. Despite the similarity of their building blocks, they fulfil different functions in planta. Lignin strengthens the tissues of the plant, while lignans are involved in plant defence and growth regulation. Their biosyntheses are tuned both spatially and temporally to suit the development of the plant (water conduction, reaction to stresses). It was previously shown that the growing hemp hypocotyl is a valid system to study secondary growth and the molecular events accompanying lignification. The present work confirms the validity of this system, by using it to study the regulation of lignin and lignan biosyntheses. Microscopic observations, lignin analysis, proteomics, together with targeted RT-qPCR and in situ laccase and peroxidase activity assays were carried out to understand the dynamics of lignan/lignin synthesis during the development of the hemp hypocotyl. Based on phylogenetic analysis and targeted gene expression, we suggest a role for the hemp dirigent and dirigent-like proteins. The transdisciplinary approach adopted resulted in the gene- and protein-level quantification of the main enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of monolignols and their oxidative coupling (laccases and class III peroxidases), in lignin deposition (dirigent-like proteins) and in the determination of the stereoconformation of lignans (dirigent proteins). Our work sheds light on how, in the growing hemp hypocotyl, the provision of the precursors needed to synthesize the aromatic biopolymers lignin and lignans is regulated at the transcriptional and proteomic level.
Project description:Drought stress is the main environmental factor influencing hemp growth and yield. However, little is known about the response mechanism of hemp to drought stress. A total of 44.10 M tags and 8.91G bases were sequenced in the control hemp (CK) and drought stress hemp (DS) libraries. A total of 1292 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 883 up-regulated genes and 409 down-regulated genes, were identified. These results may contribute toward improving our understanding about the drought stress regulatory mechanism of hemp, and improving its drought tolerance ability. 3' tag-based DGE libraries were generated to exam the differentially expressed gene between drought-stressed and well-watered hemp
Project description:Proper retting process of hemp stems, in which efficient separation of cellulose fiber from the rest of the stem is promoted by indigenous microorganisms able to degrade pectin, is essential for fiber production and quality. This research aimed to investigate the effect of a pre-treatment dew retting in field of hemp stalks on the pectinolytic enzymatic activity and microbiota dynamic during lab-scale water retting process. A strong increase in the pectinase activity as well as in the aerobic and anaerobic pectinolytic concentration was observed from 14 to 21 days, especially using hemp stalks that were not subjected to a pre-retting treatment on field (WRF0 0.690 ± 0.05 U/mL). Results revealed that the microbial diversity significantly varied over time during the water retting and the development of microbiota characterizing the water retting of hemp stalks of different biosystems used in this study was affected by pre-treatment conditions in the field and water retting process and by an interaction between the two methods. Although at the beginning of the experiment a high biodiversity was recorded in all biosystems, the water retting led to a selection of microbial populations in function of the time of pre-treatment in field, especially in bacterial populations. The use of hemp stems did not subject to a field pre-treatment seems to help the development of a homogeneous and specific pectinolytic microbiota with a higher enzymatic activity in respect to samples exposed to uncontrolled environmental conditions for 10, 20, or 30 days before the water retting process. KEY POINTS: • Microbial diversity significantly varied over time during water retting. • Water retting microbiota was affected by dew pre-treatment in the field. • Retting of no pretreated hemp allows the development of specific microbiota with high enzymatic activity.