Biology subjects

Moreno-Villena, J. J.

Publications and source records attributed to Moreno-Villena, J. J..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Spatially resolved fetal and maternal cell contributions to severe Preeclampsia

The molecular and cellular pathophysiology of the fetal-maternal interface in preeclamsia remains poorly understood, but it is increasingly clear that both fetus and mother make independent contributions to it. Here, we spatially distinguish them from each other and from gestational age for the severe form of the disease, interrogating tissues and cell types beyond the placenta for the Early and Late presentation of the condition. In addition to concerted hypoxia, angiogenic imbalance, fibrosis and aberrant metabolism in the placenta, new maternal immune signatures, including changes in macrophages, mitochondrial dysfunction and interferon signalling in the placenta, myometrium or chorioamniotic membranes, offer an explanation to systemic inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in the mother. These tissue and cell-specific responses are potential targets for therapy, with their prompt consideration in Early gestational disease likely beneficial due to its severity. Thus, timely intervention during gestation could change the extremely poor prognosis of severe disease.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Spatial resolution of an integrated C4+CAM photosynthetic metabolism

C4 and CAM photosynthesis have repeatedly evolved in plants over the past 30 million years. Because both repurpose the same set of enzymes but differ in their spatial and temporal deployment, they have long been considered as distinct and incompatible adaptations. Remarkably, Portulaca contains multiple C4 species that perform CAM when droughted. Spatially explicit analyses of gene expression reveal that C4 and CAM systems are completely integrated in P. oleracea, with CAM and C4 carbon fixation occurring in the same cells and CAM-generated metabolites likely incorporated directly into the C4 cycle. Flux balance analysis corroborates the gene expression and predicts an integrated C4+CAM system under drought. This first spatially explicit description of a C4+CAM photosynthetic metabolism presents a new blueprint for crop improvement.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Gene co-expression reveals the modularity and integration of C4 and CAM in Portulaca

C4 photosynthesis and Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) have been considered as largely independent adaptations in spite of sharing key biochemical modules. Portulaca is a geographically widespread clade of over 100 annual and perennial angiosperm species that primarily use C4, but facultatively exhibit CAM when drought stressed, a photosynthetic system known as C4+CAM. It has been hypothesized that C4+CAM is rare because of pleiotropic constraints, but these have not been deeply explored. We generated a chromosome-level genome assembly of P. amilis and sampled mRNA from P. amilis and P. oleracea during CAM induction. Gene co-expression network analyses identified C4 and CAM gene modules shared and unique to both Portulaca species. A conserved CAM module linked phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) to starch turnover during the day-night transition and was enriched in circadian clock regulatory motifs in the P. amilis genome. Preservation of this co-expression module regardless of water status suggests that Portulaca constitutively operate a weak CAM cycle that is transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally upregulated during drought. C4 and CAM mostly used mutually exclusive genes for primary carbon fixation and it is likely that nocturnal CAM malate stores are shuttled into diurnal C4 decarboxylation pathways, but we find evidence that metabolite cycling may occur at low levels. C4 likely evolved in Portulaca through co-option of redundant genes and integration of the diurnal portion of CAM. Thus, the ancestral CAM system did not strongly constrain C4 evolution because photosynthetic gene networks are not co-regulated for both daytime and nighttime functions.

evolutionary biology↗