Biology subjects

Jiao, Z.

Publications and source records attributed to Jiao, Z..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Temporal Small RNA Expression Profiling Under Drought Reveals a Potential Regulatory Role of snoRNAs in Drought Responses of Maize

Small RNAs (sRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs that play roles in many biological processes, including drought responses in plants. However, how the expression of sRNAs dynamically changes with the gradual imposition of drought stress in plants is largely unknown. We generated time-series sRNA sequence data from maize seedlings under drought stress and under well-watered conditions at the same time points. Analyses of length, functional annotation, and abundance of 736,372 non-redundant sRNAs from both drought and well-watered data, as well as genome copy number and chromatin modifications at the corresponding genomic regions, revealed distinct patterns of abundance, genome organization, and chromatin modifications for different sRNA classes of sRNAs. The analysis identified 6,646 sRNAs whose regulation was altered in response to drought stress. Among drought-responsive sRNAs, 1,325 showed transient down-regulation by the seventh day, coinciding with visible symptoms of drought stress. The profiles revealed drought-responsive microRNAs, as well as other sRNAs that originated from ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), splicing small nuclear RNAs, and small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNA). Expression profiles of their sRNA derivers indicated that snoRNAs might play a regulatory role through regulating stability of rRNAs and splicing small nuclear RNAs under drought condition.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

Genome-wide characterization, evolutionary analysis of WRKY genes in Cucurbitaceae species and assessment of its roles in resisting to powdery mildew disease

The WRKY proteins constitute a large family of transcription factors that have been known to play a wide range of regulatory roles in multiple biological processes. Over the past few years, many reports have focused on analysis of evolution and biological function of WRKY genes at the whole genome level in different plant species. However, little information is known about WRKY genes in melon (Cucumis melo L.). In the present study, a total of 56 putative WRKY genes were identified in melon, which were randomly distributed on their respective chromosomes. A multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis using melon, cucumber and watermelon predicted WRKY domains indicated that melon WRKY proteins could be classified into three main groups (I-III). Our analysis indicated that no recent duplication events of WRKY genes were detected in melon, and strong purifying selection was observed among the 85 orthologous pairs of Cucurbitaceae species. Expression profiles of CmWRKY derived from RNA-seq data and quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) analyses showed distinct expression patterns in various tissues, and the expression of 16 CmWRKY were altered following powdery mildew infection in melon. Besides, we also found that a total of 24 WRKY genes were co-expressed with 11 VQ family genes in melon. Our comparative genomic analysis provides a foundation for future functional dissection and understanding the evolution of WRKY genes in cucurbitaceae species, and will promote powdery mildew resistance study in melon.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2018

Cable Energy Function of Cortical Axons: Equivalent Formulas

Cortical neurons generally have rich morphologies in dendrite arbor and axonal branches, which make it difficulty in estimate energy consumption during action potential (AP) propagation in neuronal communication. It is an unsolved issue in driving general analytical equations to estimate energy cost for those axons and dendrites with different terminations. Most previous energy calculations of AP-related metabolic cost are still based on the Na + -counting method. Here, we apply principles of physics and mathematical analysis to construct several forms of cable energy function of AP conduction along axons with different boundary conditions. These derived energy equations extend Hodgkin-Huxley theory and prove to be highly more accurate in estimation the energy consumption during AP propagation along cortical axons and dendrites with any kind of ion channels than that using the Na + -counting method.\n\nSummaryAccurate energy estimation of action potential conduction along axons with different complex terminal conditions is an unsolved issue. We have applied principles of physics and mathematical analysis to derive several forms of cable energy function of action potential conduction along cortical axons with different boundary conditions, and we have proved that these functions are equivalent. The energy calculations of action potential metabolic cost by using our cable energy function is proved to be highly accurate than that based on the Na + -counting method. This mathematical framework allows us to estimate the energy used by AP propagation along cortical axons and dendrites with any kind of ion channels more accurately than that using the Na + -counting method. Accurate calculation of energy consumption of AP conduction may be crucial in the estimation of energy expenditure, from subcellular to whole-brain level. In addition, the analytical formula of energy calculation is valuable in investigating the key factors that influence energy consumption and reveal trade-offs between energetic constraints and neural coding efficiency for individual neurons with rich morphology structures.

neuroscience↗