An increasing number of microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play crucial regulatory roles in the process of plant development. Here, we used high-throughput sequencing combined with computational analysis to characterize miRNAomes from the ovules of wild-type upland cotton and a fiberless mutant during fiber initiation. Comparative miRNAome analysis combined with northern blotting and RACE-PCR revealed seven fiber initiation-related miRNAs expressed in cotton ovules and experimentally validated targets of these miRNAs are involved in different cellular responses and metabolic processes, including transcriptional regulation, auxin and gibberellin signal transduction, actin bundles, and lignin biosynthesis. This paper describes a complex regulatory network consisting of these miRNAs expressed in cotton ovules to coordinate fiber initiation responses. In addition, 36 novel miRNAs and two conserved miRNAs were newly identified, nearly doubling the number of known cotton miRNA families to a total of 78. Furthermore, a chromatin remodeling complex subunit and a pre-mRNA splicing factor are shown for the first time to be miRNA targets. To our knowledge, this study is the first systematic investigation of fiber initiation-related miRNAs and their targets in the developing cotton ovule, deepening our understanding of the important regulatory functions of miRNAs in cotton fiber initiation.

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays crucial roles in plant growth and development, as well as in response to various environmental stresses. To date, many regulatory genes involved in the ABA response network have been identified; however, their roles have remained to be fully elucidated. In this study, we identified AtYY1, an Arabidopsis homolog of the mammalian C2H2 zinc-finger transcription factor Yin Yang 1 (YY1), as a novel negative regulator of the ABA response. AtYY1 is a dual-function transcription factor with both repression and activation domains. The expression of AtYY1 was induced by ABA and stress conditions including high salt and dehydration. The yy1 mutant was more sensitive to ABA and NaCl than the wild-type, while overexpressing AtYY1 plants were less sensitive. AtYY1 loss also enhanced ABA-induced stomatal closing and drought resistance. Moreover, AtYY1 can bind the ABA REPRESSOR1 (ABR1) promoter and directly upregulate ABR1 expression, as well as negatively regulate ABA- and salt-responsive gene expression. Additional analysis indicated that ABA INSENSITIVE4 (ABI4) might positively regulate AtYY1 expression and that ABR1 can antagonize this regulation. Our findings provide direct evidence that AtYY1 is a novel negative regulator of the ABA response network and that the ABI4-AtYY1-ABR1 regulatory pathway may fine-tune ABA-responsive gene expression in Arabidopsis.

Abstract Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by ineffective hematopoiesis. Anemia is the defining cytopenia of MDS patients, yet the molecular mechanisms for dyserythropoiesis in MDSs remain to be fully defined. Recent studies have revealed that heterozygous loss-of-function mutation of DNA dioxygenase TET2 is 1 of the most common mutations in MDSs and that TET2 deficiency disturbs erythroid differentiation. However, mechanistic insights into the role of TET2 on disordered erythropoiesis are not fully defined. Here, we show that TET2 deficiency leads initially to stem cell factor (SCF)–dependent hyperproliferation and impaired differentiation of human colony-forming unit–erythroid (CFU-E) cells, which were reversed by a c-Kit inhibitor. We further show that this was due to increased phosphorylation of c-Kit accompanied by decreased expression of phosphatase SHP-1, a negative regulator of c-Kit. At later stages, TET2 deficiency led to an accumulation of a progenitor population, which expressed surface markers characteristic of normal CFU-E cells but were functionally different. In contrast to normal CFU-E cells that require only erythropoietin (EPO) for proliferation, these abnormal progenitors required SCF and EPO and exhibited impaired differentiation. We termed this population of progenitors “marker CFU-E” cells. We further show that AXL expression was increased in marker CFU-E cells and that the increased AXL expression led to increased activation of AKT and ERK. Moreover, the altered proliferation and differentiation of marker CFU-E cells were partially rescued by an AXL inhibitor. Our findings document an important role for TET2 in erythropoiesis and have uncovered previously unknown mechanisms by which deficiency of TET2 contributes to ineffective erythropoiesis.

XynB from Aspergillus niger ATCC1015 (AnXynB) is a mesophilic glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 11 xylanase which holds great potentials in a wide variety of industrial applications. In the present study, the catalytic activity and stability of AnXynB were improved by a combination of computational and experimental approaches. Virtual mutation and molecular dynamics simulations indicated that the introduction of Glu and Asn altered the interaction network at the - 3 subsite. Interestingly, the double mutant S41N/T43E displayed 72% increase in catalytic activity when compared to the wild type (WT). In addition, it also showed a better thermostability than the WT enzyme. Kinetic determination of the T43E and S41N/T43E mutants suggested that the higher xylanase activity is probably due to the increasing binding affinity of enzyme and substrate. Consequently, the enzyme activity and thermostability of AnXynB was both increased by selective site-directed mutagenesis at the - 3 subsite of its active site architecture which provides a good example for a successfully engineered enzyme for potential industrial application. Moreover, the molecular evolution approach adopted in this study led to the design of a library of sequences that captures a meaningful functional diversity in a limited number of protein variants.

The active site architecture of glycoside hydrolase (GH) is a contiguous subregion of the enzyme constituted by residues clustered in the three-dimensional space, recognizing the monomeric unit of ligand through hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions. Mutations of the key residues in the active site architecture of the GH12 family exerted different impacts on catalytic efficiency. Binding affinities between the aromatic amino acids and carbohydrate rings were quantitatively determined by isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and the quantum mechanical (QM) method, showing that the binding capacity order of Tyr>Trp>His (and Phe) was determined by their side-chain properties. The results also revealed that the binding constant of a certain residue remained unchanged when altering its location, while the catalytic efficiency changed dramatically. Increased binding affinity at a relatively distant subsite, such as the mutant of W7Y at the −4 subsite, resulted in a marked increase in the intermediate product of cellotetraose and enhanced the reactivity of endoglucanase by 144%; while tighter binding near the catalytic center, i.e. W22Y at the −2 subsite, enabled the enzyme to bind and hydrolyze smaller oligosaccharides. Clarification of the specific roles of the aromatics at different subsites may pave the way for a more rational design of GHs.