Genome-wide identification and expression analysis of the GSK gene family in Solanum tuberosum L. under abiotic stress and phytohormone treatments and functional characterization of StSK21 involvement in salt stress.

Plant Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 (GSK3)/SHAGGY-like kinase (GSK) proteins play important roles in modulating growth, development, and stress responses in several plant species. However, little is known about the members of the potato GSK (StGSK) family. Here, nine StGSK genes were identified and phylogenetically grouped into four clades. Gene duplication analysis revealed that segmental duplication contributed to the expansion of the StGSK family. Gene structure and motif pattern analyses indicated that similar exon/intron and motif organizations were found in StGSKs from the same clade. Conserved motif and kinase activity analyses indicated that the StGSKs encode active protein kinases, and they were shown to be distributed throughout whole cells. Cis-acting regulatory element analysis revealed the presence of many growth-, hormone-, and stress-responsive elements within the promoter regions of the StGSKs, which is consistent with their expression in different organs, and their altered expression in response to hormone and stress treatments. Association network analysis indicated that various proteins, including two confirmed BES1 family transcription factors, potentially interact with StGSKs. Overexpression of StSK21 provides enhanced sensitivity to salt stress in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Overall, these results reveal that StGSK proteins are active protein kinases with purported functions in regulating growth, development, and stress responses.

Diagnostic performance of OCT and OCTA in less than 60-year-old patients with early POAG: a cross-sectional study.

AIM: To observe and characterize imaging features of macular and optic disc areas in less than 60-year-old patients with early primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA), and to evaluate the diagnostic value of OCT and OCTA. METHODS: Totally 15 patients (23 eyes) with early POAG as observation group and 30 health people (30 eyes) as normal control group were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. OCTA-based superficial macula vessel density, superficial macula perfusion density, superficial optic disc vessel density, superficial optic disc perfusion density and spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT)-based macular area thickness, ganglion cell complex (GCC) thickness and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness were measured in the two groups. Independent t-test and receiver operating characteristic curve were used for analysis. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) were used to measure the diagnostic utility. RESULTS: Among all the parameters, the optimal diagnostic utility parameter was the superficial vessel density in the macular area (except the center of the macula), and the AUROC reached 0.98. The diagnostic utility of macular area perfusion density (except the center of the macula) was similar to that of superficial vessel density in the macular area, and the AUROC was above 0.97. Followed by the diagnostic utility of vessel density in the optic disc area, the best parameter was the inner ring of the vessel density, and its AUROC reached 0.97. The diagnostic utility of perfusion density in the optic disc area was slightly lower than that of vessel density in the optic disc area. The best parameter was the central optic disc perfusion density, and its AUROC was 0.95. The SD-OCT-based diagnostic utility parameters were generally lower than that mentioned above, the top three parameters were the inferior RNFL thickness (AUROC=0.919), the superior (AUROC=0.919) and the inferior GCC thickness (AUROC=0.9077). CONCLUSION: The OCT-based diagnostic utility parameters are generally lower than the OCTA-based diagnostic utility parameters. OCTA has an important clinical application value in diagnosis and evaluation for less than 60-year-old patients with early POAG.

BAK1 Mediates Light Intensity to Phosphorylate and Activate Catalases to Regulate Plant Growth and Development.

BAK1 (brassinosteroid-insensitive 1 (BRI1) associated receptor kinase 1) plays major roles in multiple signaling pathways as a coreceptor to regulate plant growth and development and stress response. However, the role of BAK1 in high light signaling is still poorly understood. Here we observed that overexpression of BAK1 in Arabidopsis interferes with the function of high light in promoting plant growth and development, which is independent of the brassinosteroid (BR) signaling pathway. Further investigation shows that high light enhances the phosphorylation of BAK1 and catalase activity, thereby reducing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) accumulation. Catalase3 (CAT3) is identified as a BAK1-interacting protein by affinity purification and LC-MS/MS analysis. Biochemical analysis confirms that BAK1 interacts with and phosphorylates all three catalases (CAT1, CAT2, and CAT3) of the Arabidopsis genome, and the trans-phosphorylation sites of three catalases with BAK1-CD are identified by LC-MS/MS in vitro. Genetic analyses reveal that the BAK1 overexpression plants knocked out all the three CAT genes completely abolishing the effect of BAK1 on suppression of high light-promoted growth. This study first unravels the role of BAK1 in mediating high light-triggered activation of CATs, thereby degrading H2O2 and regulating plant growth and development in Arabidopsis.