Profile of cotton flavonoids: Their composition and important roles in development and adaptation to adverse environments.

Cotton is a commercial crop that is cultivated in more than 50 countries. The production of cotton has severely diminished in recent years owing to adverse environments. Thus, it is a high priority of the cotton industry to produce resistant cultivars to prevent diminished cotton yields and quality. Flavonoids comprise one of the most important groups of phenolic metabolites in plants. However, the advantage and biological roles of flavonoids in cotton have yet not been studied in depth. In this study, we performed a widely targeted metabolic study and identified 190 flavonoids in cotton leaves that span seven different classes with flavones and flavonols as the dominant groups. Furthermore, flavanone-3-hydroxylase was cloned and silenced to knock down flavonoid production. The results show that the inhibition of flavonoid biosynthesis affects the growth and development of cotton and causes semi-dwarfing in cotton seedlings. We also revealed that the flavonoids contribute to cotton defense against ultraviolet radiation and Verticillium dahliae. Moreover, we discuss the promising role of flavonoids in cotton development and defense against biotic and abiotic stresses. This study provides valuable information to study the variety and biological functions of flavonoids in cotton and will help to profile the advantages of flavonoids in cotton breeding.

Silencing of FAM111B inhibited proliferation, migration and invasion of hepatoma cells through activating p53 pathway.

BACKGROUND: The function of Family with sequence similarity 111 member B (FAM111B) has been reported in multiple malignancies, but its involvement in occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still unclear. PURPOSE: To investigate the role of FAM111B in HCC and explore the potential molecular mechanism. METHODS: We examined the mRNA level of FAM111B via qPCR and protein level via immunohistochemistry in human HCC tissues. siRNA was used to construct a FAM111B-knockdown model in HCC cell lines. CCK-8, colony formation, transwell, and wound healing assays were performed to investigate the effect of FAM111B on proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cell. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, western blotting, and flow cytometry were carried out to find the related molecular mechanism. RESULTS: Human HCC tumor tissues exhibited higher expression of FAM111B, and high FAM111B expression was associated with poor prognosis. Vitro assays demonstrated that knockdown of FAM111B greatly repressed proliferation, migration and invasion of HCC cells. Furthermore, silencing of FAM111B significantly resulted in cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 and downregulation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins MMP7 and MMP9 via activation of p53 pathway. CONCLUSION: FAM111B played an essential role in promoting HCC development by regulation of p53 pathway.