Project description:Chinese orchid is a symbol of elegance and purity in China. Among the Chinese orchids, the leaf color variation of Cymbidium sinense (C. sinense) is the most abundant. The variation of leaf color makes the C. sinense more diversified and more valuable, however, its formation mechanism still needs more extensive exploration. Using TMT and LC-MS/MS analysis, the proteome and phos-phoproteome of C. sinense leaf variegation mutant were studied.
Project description:Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze (L. sinense) has been widely used for the treatment of anaemia, bleeding, cancer, and other disorders in Chinese folk medicine. The aim of this study is to predict the therapeutic effects of L. sinense and investigate the potential mechanisms using integrated network pharmacology methods and in vitro cellular experiments. A total of 15 active ingredients of L. sinense and their corresponding 389 targets were obtained. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the biological effects of L. sinense were primarily associated with Pathways in cancer. DisGeNET enrichment analysis highlighted the potential role of L. sinense in the treatment of breast cancer. Cellular experiments demonstrated that the L. sinense ethanol extract (LSE) exhibited a significant growth inhibitory effect on multiple breast cancer cell lines in both 2D and 3D cultures. This study predicts the biological activities of L. sinense and demonstrates the inhibitory effect of LSE on breast cancer cells, highlighting the potential application of L. sinense in cancer treatment.
Project description:Limonium Sinense (Girard) Kuntze is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, showing blood replenishment, anti-tumour, anti-hepatitis, and immunomodulation activities amongst others. However, the mechanism of its pharmacological activities remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of bioactive ingredients from Limonium Sinense using integrated analysis. Water extracts from Limonium Sinense (LSW) showed a strong growth inhibitory effect on multiple cells in both 2D and 3D cultures. Global transcriptomic profiling and further connectivity map (CMap) analysis identified several similarly acting therapeutic candidates, including Tubulin inhibitors and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) modulators. The effect of LSW on cell cycle was verified with flow cytometry showing a G2/M phase arrest. Integrated analysis suggested a role for gallic acid in mediating HIF activation. Taken together, this study provides novel insights into the bioactive ingredients in Limonium Sinense, highlighting the rich natural resource and therapeutic values of herbal plants.
Project description:Ovule development is a key process for plant reproduction that ensures correct seed production. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control ovule formation will also provide new approaches to increase crop yield for breeding. Several molecular factors and plant hormones, including gibberellins, are involved in ovule initiation and development. Gibberellins control ovule development by the destabilization of DELLA proteins, whereas DELLA activity has been proved to act as a positive factor for ovule primordia emergence. But the molecular mechanism by which DELLA act remained unknown. Here we have proved that DELLA proteins control ovule initiation by the formation of a protein complex with the CUC2 transcription factor. The DELLA protein GAI requires CUC2 to promote ovule primordia formation, thus GAI would function by its direct protein-protein interaction with CUC2 in cells of the placenta that determine the boundary regions between ovules during pistil development. Analysis of GAI-CUC2 interaction and colocalization in placenta support this hypothesis. Moreover, molecular analysis of the loci at which GAI protein may act as transcriptional co-regulators in a CUC2-dependent manner identified a subset of target genes that would be regulated by the GAI-CUC2 complex and contribute to regulate ovule primordia emergence.
Project description:To explore the mechanisms governing the leaf color variations in Chinese orchids, we analyzed gene expression differences between a wild-type and an albino-type cultivar of Cymbidium longibracteatum