• KSBB Journal
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.143-148
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• 1995

The effects of various elicitors, metabolic inhibitors and growth regulators on the production of diterpenoid anticancer agent taxol were investigated in cell suspension cultures of Taxus brevifolia. Cell cultures of T. brevifolia were treated by 5 kinds of biotic elicitors, 5 kinds of abiotic elicitors, 2 kinds of metabolic inhibitors and 8 kinds of growth regulators at the end of exponential growth phase. Among those treatments, chlorocholine chloride-an inhibitor of plant steroid metabolism-increased the taxol production most significantly. From a series of optimization studies, it was found that the addition of 1mM of chlorocholine chloride at the 9th day of culture was the best for taxol production. Taxol yield under this condition was 0.72mg/$\ell$.

• BMB Reports
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.439-447
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• 2013

Rice is a monocot gramineous crop, and one of the most important staple foods. Rice is considered a model species for most gramineous crops. Extensive research on rice has provided critical guidance for other crops, such as maize and wheat. In recent years, climate change and exacerbated soil degradation have resulted in a variety of abiotic stresses, such as greenhouse effects, lower temperatures, drought, floods, soil salinization and heavy metal pollution. As such, there is an extremely high demand for additional research, in order to address these negative factors. Studies have shown that the alternative splicing of many genes in rice is affected by stress conditions, suggesting that manipulation of the alternative splicing of specific genes may be an effective approach for rice to adapt to abiotic stress. With the advancement of microarrays, and more recently, next generation sequencing technology, several studies have shown that more than half of the genes in the rice genome undergo alternative splicing. This mini-review summarizes the latest progress in the research of splicing and alternative splicing in rice, compared to splicing in humans. Furthermore, we discuss how additional studies may change the landscape of investigation of rice functional genomics and genetically improved rice.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.313-322
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• 2020

Eukaryotes transport biomolecules between intracellular organelles and between cells and the environment via vesicle trafficking. Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNARE proteins) play pivotal roles in vesicle and membrane trafficking. These proteins are categorized as Qa, Qb, Qc, and R SNAREs and form a complex that induces vesicle fusion for targeting of vesicle cargos. As the core components of the SNARE complex, the SNAP25 Qbc SNAREs perform various functions related to cellular homeostasis. The Arabidopsis thaliana SNAP25 homolog AtSNAP33 interacts with Qa and R SNAREs and plays a key role in cytokinesis and in triggering innate immune responses. However, other Arabidopsis SNAP25 homologs, such as AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30, are not well studied; this includes their localization, interactions, structures, and functions. Here, we discuss three biological functions of plant SNAP25 orthologs in the context of AtSNAP33 and highlight recent findings on SNAP25 orthologs in various plants. We propose future directions for determining the roles of the less well-characterized AtSNAP29 and AtSNAP30 proteins.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.684-691
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• 2019

Evolution of adaptive mechanisms to abiotic stress is essential for plant growth and development. Plants adapt to stress conditions by activating the abscisic acid (ABA) signaling pathway. It has been suggested that the ABA receptor, clade A protein phosphatase, SnRK2 type kinase, and SLAC1 anion channel are important components of the ABA signaling pathway. In this study, we report that the shaker type potassium (K⁺) channel, GORK, modulates plant responses to ABA and abiotic stresses. Our results indicate that the full length of PP2CA is needed to interact with the GORK C-terminal region. We identified a loss of function allele in gork that displayed ABA-hyposensitive phenotype. gork and pp2ca mutants showed opposite responses to ABA in seed germination and seedling growth. Additionally, gork mutant was tolerant to the NaCl and mannitol treatments, whereas pp2ca mutant was sensitive to the NaCl and mannitol treatments. Thus, our results indicate that GORK enhances the sensitivity to ABA and negatively regulates the mechanisms involved in high salinity and osmotic stresses via PP2CA-mediated signals.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.195-206
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• 2005

Spatial and temporal expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) gene and proteins has been recognized as inducible defense response in pepper plants. Gene expression and/or protein accumulation of PR-1, $\beta-1,3-glucanase$ and chitinase was predominantly found in pepper plants during the inoculations by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria, Phytophthora capsici and Colletotrichum coccodes. PR-1 and chitinase genes were also induced in pepper plants in response to environmental stresses, such as high salinity and drought. PR-1 and chitinase gene expressions by biotic and abiotic stresses were regulated by their own promoter regions containing several stress-related cis-acting elements. Overexpression of pepper PR-1 or chitinase genes in heterogeneous transgenic plants showed enhanced disease resistance as well as environmental stress tolerances. In this review, we focused on the putative function of pepper PR-1, $\beta-1,3-glucanase$ and chitinase proteins and/or genes at the biochemical, molecular and cytological aspects.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.255-260
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• 2009

The translation elongation factor 1A, eEF1A, catalyzes the binding of aminoacyl-tRNA to the A-site of the ribosome by a GTP-dependent mechanism. By subtractive suppression hybridization technique, we have isolated a soybean low-temperature inducible gene, SLTI100 encoding translation elongation factor 1A. Multiple sequence alignments and phylogenic analysis showed that SLTI100 and other eEF1As originated from diverse organisms are highly conserved. RNA expression of SLTI100 was specifically induced by low temperature, high salt, ABA, or drought stress. Based on the subcellular localization of the corresponding gene product fused to GFP, we were able to confirm that SLTI100-GFP was restricted to the nucleus and cytoplasm. We propose that soybean eEF1A may play an important role in translational regulation during abiotic stress responses in plants.

• BMB Reports
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.271-276
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• 2009

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L). Lam.) is relatively tolerant to unfavorable growth conditions such as drought, yet has not been exploited to provide a better understanding of the molecular basis of drought stress tolerance. We obtained 983 high-quality expressed sequence tags of 100 bp or longer (average length of 700 bp) from cDNA libraries of detached white fibrous root tissues by subjecting them to dehydration for 6 h. The 431 cDNAs were each assigned a function by alignment using the BLASTX algorithm. Among them, three genes associated with various abiotic stresses and nine genes not previously associated with drought stress were selected for expression pattern analysis through detailed reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The direct and indirect relationships of the 12 genes with drought tolerance mechanisms were ascertained at different developmental stages and under various stress conditions.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is an abundant form of genetic variation within individuals of species. DNA polymorphism can arise throughout the whole genome at different frequencies in different species. SNP may cause phenotypic diversity among individuals, such as individuals with different color of plants or fruits, fruit size, ripening, flowering time adaptation, quality of crops, grain yields, or tolerance to various abiotic and biotic factors. SNP may result in changes in amino acids in the exon of a gene (asynonymous). SNP can also be silent (present in coding region but synonymous). It may simply occur in the noncoding regions without having any effect. SNP may influence the promoter activity for gene expression and finally produce functional protein through transcription. Therefore, the identification of functional SNP in genes and analysis of their effects on phenotype may lead to better understanding of their impact on gene function for varietal improvement. In this mini-review, we focused on evidences revealing the role of functional SNPs in genes and their phenotypic effects for the purpose of crop improvements.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.281-292
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• 2016

Plants can recognize and respond in various ways to diverse environmental stresses, including pathogenic microorganisms, salt, drought, and low temperature. Salicylic acid (SA) is one phytohormone that plays important roles in the regulation of plant growth and development. Nonexpressor of pathogenesis-related genes 1 (NPR1) was originally identified as a core protein that could function as a transcriptional co-regulator and SA receptor during systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a plant immune response that could activate PR genes after pre-exposure of a pathogen. Although the function of NPR1 in plant defense response and the role of SA hormone in the regulation of plant physiological processes have been well characterized, the biological role of NPR1 in plant abiotic stress responses is largely unknown. In this review, we will summarize and discuss the current understanding of NPR1 function in response to plant environmental stresses.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2014

Remorins, a family of plant-specific proteins containing a variable N-terminal region and conserved C-terminal domain, play a role in various biotic and abiotic stresses, including host-microbe interactions. However, their functions remain to be completely elucidated, especially for the Arabidopsis thaliana remorin group 4 (AtREM4). To elucidate the role of remorins in Arabidopsis, we first showed that AtREM4s have typical molecular characteristics of the remorins, such as induction by various types of biotic and abiotic stresses, localization in plasma membrane and homo- and hetero-oligomeric interaction. Next, we showed that their loss-of-function mutants displayed reduced susceptibility to geminiviruses, Beet Curly Top Virus and Beet Severe Curly Top Virus, while overexpressors enhanced susceptibility. Moreover, we found that they interacted with SnRK1, which phosphorylated AtREM4.1, and were degraded by the 26S proteasome pathway. These results suggest that AtREM4s may be involved in the SnRK1-mediated signaling pathway and play a role as positive regulators of the cell cycle during geminivirus infection.