Loss of green color in leaves results from chlorophyll (Chl) degradation in chloroplasts, but little is known about how Chl catabolism is regulated throughout leaf development. Using the staygreen (sgr) mutant in rice (Oryza sativa), which maintains greenness during leaf senescence, we identified Sgr, a senescence-associated gene encoding a novel chloroplast protein. Transgenic rice overexpressing Sgr produces yellowish-brown leaves, and Arabidopsis thaliana pheophorbide a oxygenase-impaired mutants exhibiting a stay-green phenotype during dark-induced senescence have reduced expression of Sgr homologs, indicating that Sgr regulates Chl degradation at the transcriptional level. We show that the leaf staygreenness of the sgr mutant is associated with a failure in the destabilization of the light-harvesting chlorophyll binding protein (LHCP) complexes of the thylakoid membranes, which is a prerequisite event for the degradation of Chls and LHCPs during senescence. Transient overexpression of Sgr in Nicotiana benthamiana and an in vivo pull-down assay show that Sgr interacts with LHCPII, indicating that the Sgr-LHCPII complexes are formed in the thylakoid membranes. Thus, we propose that in senescing leaves, Sgr regulates Chl degradation by inducing LHCPII disassembly through direct interaction, leading to the degradation of Chls and Chl-free LHCPII by catabolic enzymes and proteases, respectively.

The activation of innate immunity requires the amplification of signals induced by pattern-recognition receptors for bacterial products. We have investigated the role of the newly described cytokine IL-32 in the amplification of cytokine production induced by the two most clinically relevant families of microbial receptors, the cell-surface Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the intracellular nuclear oligomerization domain (NOD) receptor family. IL-32 synergized with the NOD1-and NOD2-specific muropeptides of peptidoglycans for the release of IL-1␤ and IL-6 (a 3-to 10-fold increase). In contrast, IL-32 did not influence the cytokine production induced via TLRs. The synergistic effect of IL-32 and synthetic muramyl dipeptide (MDP) on cytokine production was absent in the cells of patients with Crohn's disease bearing the NOD2 frameshift mutation 3020insC, demonstrating that the IL-32͞MDP synergism depends on NOD2. This in vitro synergism between IL-32 and NOD2 ligands was consistent with a marked constitutive expression of IL-32 in human colon epithelial tissue. In addition, the potentiating effect of IL-32 on the cytokine production induced by the synthetic muropeptide FK-156 was absent in NOD1-deficient macrophages, supporting the interaction between IL-32 and NOD1 pathways. When specific caspase inhibitors were used, the synergism between IL-32 and MDP͞NOD2 depended on the activation of caspase 1. Only additive effects of IL-32 and muropeptides were observed for TNF-␣ production. The modulation of intracellular NOD2 pathways by IL-32, but not cell-surface TLRs, and the marked expression of IL-32 in colon mucosa suggest a role of IL-32 in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease.Toll-like receptors ͉ cytokines

Sol-gel-derived Mg(OH)(2) gel was coated onto TiO(2) nanoparticles, and the subsequent thermal topotactic decomposition of the gel formed a highly nanoporous MgO crystalline coating. The specific surface area of the electrode that was prepared from the core-shell-structured TiO(2) nanoparticles significantly increased compared with that of the uncoated TiO(2) electrode. The increase in the specific surface area of the MgO-coated TiO(2) electrode was attributed to the highly nanoporous MgO coating layer that resulted from the topotactic reaction. Dye adsorption behavior and solar cell performance were significantly enhanced by employing the MgO-coated TiO(2) electrode. Optimized coating of a MgO layer on TiO(2) nanoparticles enhanced the energy conversion efficiency as much as 45% compared to that of the uncoated TiO(2) electrode. This indicates that controlling the extrinsic parameters such as the specific surface area is very important to improve the energy conversion efficiency of TiO(2)-based solar cells.

Neutrophils are critical initiators and effectors of the innate immune system and express Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4. Although signaling through pathways involving phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K) and the downstream kinase Akt (protein kinase B) plays a central role in modulating neutrophil chemotaxis and superoxide generation in response to engagement of G protein-coupled receptors, the importance of these kinases in affecting inflammatory responses of neutrophils stimulated through TLR2 has not been examined. In these experiments, we found activation of Akt in neutrophils stimulated with the TLR2-specific ligands peptidoglycan and the lipopeptide tri-palmitoyl-S-glyceryl-Cys-Ser-(Lys)4 that occurred earlier and was of greater magnitude than that present after exposure to the TLR4 agonist LPS. The release of the proinflammatory mediators TNF-α and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by PI3-K blockade. The IC50 for inhibition of peptidoglycan-stimulated Akt activation and macrophage inflammatory protein-2 release correlated closely, indicating linkage of these two events. PI3-K blockade did not inhibit nuclear translocation of NF-κB, but did prevent Ser536 phosphorylation of the p65 subunit of NF-κB, an event required for maximal transcriptional activity of NF-κB. Inhibition of PI3-K also prevented activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase and extracellular receptor-activated kinase 1/2 in TLR2-stimulated neutrophils. These results demonstrate that the PI3-K-Akt axis occupies a central role in TLR2-induced activation of neutrophils.