Multiplex CRISPR editing of wood for sustainable fiber production.

The domestication of forest trees for a more sustainable fiber bioeconomy has long been hindered by the complexity and plasticity of lignin, a biopolymer in wood that is recalcitrant to chemical and enzymatic degradation. Here, we show that multiplex CRISPR editing enables precise woody feedstock design for combinatorial improvement of lignin composition and wood properties. By assessing every possible combination of 69,123 multigenic editing strategies for 21 lignin biosynthesis genes, we deduced seven different genome editing strategies targeting the concurrent alteration of up to six genes and produced 174 edited poplar variants. CRISPR editing increased the wood carbohydrate-to-lignin ratio up to 228% that of wild type, leading to more-efficient fiber pulping. The edited wood alleviates a major fiber-production bottleneck regardless of changes in tree growth rate and could bring unprecedented operational efficiencies, bioeconomic opportunities, and environmental benefits.

TRPC7 facilitates cell growth and migration by regulating intracellular Ca2+ mobilization in lung adenocarcinoma cells.

Transient receptor potential canonical 7 (TRPC7) has been reported to mediate aging-associated tumorigenesis, but the role of TRPC7 in cancer malignancy is still unclear. TRPC7 is associated with tumor size in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and the present study further evaluated the underlying mechanism of TRPC7 in the regulation of cancer progression. The clinicopathological role of TRPC7 was assessed using immunohistochemistry staining and the pathological mechanism of TRPC7 in lung adenocarcinoma cells was determined using cell cycle examination, invasion and calcium response assays, and immunoblot analysis. The results indicated that high TRPC7 expression was associated with a lower 5-year survival rate compared with low TRPC7 expression, which suggested that TRPC7 expression was inversely associated with overall survival in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. TRPC7 serves a pathological role by facilitating the enhancement of cell growth and migration with increased phosphorylation of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II, AKT and ERK. TRPC7 knockdown in lung adenocarcinoma cells restrained cell cycle progression and cell migration by interrupting the TRPC7-mediated Ca2+ signaling-dependent AKT and MAPK signaling pathways. These findings demonstrated for the first time a role of oncogenic TRPC7 in the regulation of cancer malignancy and could provide a novel therapeutic molecular target for patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Nociceptive transient receptor potential canonical 7 (TRPC7) mediates aging-associated tumorigenesis induced by ultraviolet B.

Aging, cancer, and longevity have been linked to intracellular Ca2+ signaling and nociceptive transient receptor potential (TRP) channels. We found that TRP canonical 7 (TRPC7) is a nociceptive mechanoreceptor and that TRPC7 channels specifically mediate the initiation of ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced skin aging and tumor development due to p53 gene family mutations. Within 30 min after UVB irradiation, TRPC7 mediated UVB-induced Ca2+ influx and the subsequent production of reactive oxygen species in skin cells. Notably, this function was unique to TRPC7 and was not observed for other TRP channels. In TRPC7 knockout mice, we did not observe the significant UVB-associated pathology seen in wild-type mice, including epidermal thickening, abnormal keratinocyte differentiation, and DNA damage response activation. TRPC7 knockout mice also had significantly fewer UVB-induced cancerous tumors than did wild-type mice, and UVB-induced p53 gene family mutations were prevented in TRPC7 knockout mice. These results indicate that TRPC7 activity is pivotal in the initiation of UVB-induced skin aging and tumorigenesis and that the reduction in TRPC7 activity suppresses the UVB-induced aging process and tumor development. Our findings support that TRPC7 is a potential tumor initiator gene and that it causes cell aging and genomic instability, followed by a change in the activity of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes to promote tumorigenesis.

Improving wood properties for wood utilization through multi-omics integration in lignin biosynthesis.

A multi-omics quantitative integrative analysis of lignin biosynthesis can advance the strategic engineering of wood for timber, pulp, and biofuels. Lignin is polymerized from three monomers (monolignols) produced by a grid-like pathway. The pathway in wood formation of Populus trichocarpa has at least 21 genes, encoding enzymes that mediate 37 reactions on 24 metabolites, leading to lignin and affecting wood properties. We perturb these 21 pathway genes and integrate transcriptomic, proteomic, fluxomic and phenomic data from 221 lines selected from ~2000 transgenics (6-month-old). The integrative analysis estimates how changing expression of pathway gene or gene combination affects protein abundance, metabolic-flux, metabolite concentrations, and 25 wood traits, including lignin, tree-growth, density, strength, and saccharification. The analysis then predicts improvements in any of these 25 traits individually or in combinations, through engineering expression of specific monolignol genes. The analysis may lead to greater understanding of other pathways for improved growth and adaptation.