Project description:Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a disease of the central nervous system that progressively affects the motor system. Epidemiological studies have provided evidence that exposure to agriculture-related occupations or agrichemicals elevate a person’s risk for PD. Here, we sought to examine the possible epigenetic changes associated with working on a plantation on Oahu, HI and/or exposure to organochlorines (OGC) in PD cases. We measured genome-wide DNA methylation using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450K BeadChip array in matched peripheral blood and postmortem brain biospecimens in PD cases (n=20) assessed for years of plantation work and presence of organochlorines in brain tissue. The comparison of 10+ to 0 years of plantation work exposure detected 7 and 123 differentially methylated loci (DML) in brain and blood DNA, respectively (P<0.0001). The comparison of cases with 4+ to 0-2 detectable levels of OGC, identified 8 and 18 DML in brain and blood DNA, respectively (P <0.0001). Pathway analyses revealed links to key neurotoxic and neuropathologic pathways related to impaired immune and proinflammatory responses as well as impaired clearance of damaged proteins, as found in the predominantly glial cell population in these environmental exposure-related PD cases.
Project description:Comparative transcriptome analysis of early interaction events in Scots pine root tissues following challenge with a pathogenic, saprophytic or symbiotic fungus. Seedlings of P. sylvestris (19 days post germination) were transferred to wet, sterile filter paper on Petri-plates. Thereafter, the roots of the seedlings were inoculated with the mycelial homogenate of either Heterobasidion annosum (FP5, P-type) a pathogenic root rot fungus which attacks Norway spruce, Scots pine and broad leaf trees or Laccaria bicolor, an obligate ectomycorrhizal symbiont or Trichoderma aureoviride- an obligate saprotroph. Thereafter, incubated for 30 minutes, during which time some hyphae adhered to the roots. The inoculated seedlings (ten) were then transferred to another wet sterile filter paper placed on 1% water agar in Petri dishes. A second set of moist sterile filter paper was laid over the roots. The region of the Petri-dish containing the roots was covered with aluminium foil and the edges of the plate sealed with parafilm. The seedlings were then incubated for 24 hr under a photoperiod of 16h light at 20 ºC. Control seedlings were âinoculatedâ with sterile distilled water.
Project description:Pine wilt disease is a worldwide dangerous pine disease. We used Masson pine (Pinus massoniana) clones, selected through traditional breeding and testing for 20 years, with high resistance to study the molecular mechanism of resistance to pine wood nematode (PWN, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus). A total of 3491 proteins were identified from seedling tissue, among which 2783 proteins contained quantitative information. Total 42 proteins were up-regulated and 96 proteins were down-regulated in resistant lines. Of them, function enrichment analysis found that significant differences in proteins with pectin esterase activity or peroxidase activity. Proteins participating in salicylic acid metabolism, antioxidant stress reaction, polysaccharide degradation, glucose acid ester sheath lipid biosynthesis, sugar glycosaminoglycans degradation pathway also changed significantly. PRM results showed that pectin acetyl esterase, carbonic anhydrase, peroxidase and chitinase were significantly down-regulated, while aspartic protease was significantly up-regulated, which was consistent with proteomic data.These results suggested that Masson pine could degrade nematode-related proteins by increasing protease to inhibit their infestation, and enhance the resistance of Masson pine to PWN by down-regulating the carbon metabolism to limit available carbon to PWN or to be involved in cell wall components or tissue softening. Most downregulated proteins seem to take back seats prior to pathogen attacks. The highly resistant Masson pine, very likely, has evolved multiple pathways, both the passive and active, to defense against PWN infestation.