Project description:While the unique symbiotic relationship between anemonefish and sea anemones is iconic, it is still not fully understood how anemonefish withstand and thrive within this venomous host environment. In this study we used a proteotranscriptomics approach to elucidate the proteinaceous toxin repertoire from the most popular host sea anemone Entacmaea quadricolor. Although 1251 different toxin or toxin-like RNA transcripts were expressed in E.quadricolor tentacles and 2736 proteins were detected in milked venom, only 135 (approx. 10%) of proteins in venom were classified as putative toxins. This work raises the perils of defining a dominant venom type based on transcriptomics data alone in sea anemones, as we found that the dominant venom type differed between the transcriptome and proteome data. Moreover, anemonefishes interact with sea anemone proteins, so it is important when determining the dominant toxin type to examine the peptides and proteins that are present in host sea anemone venom and mucus which anemonefishes are known to interact.
Project description:Two new capnosane-based diterpenoids, flaccidenol A (1) and 7-epi-pavidolide D (2), two new cembranoids, flaccidodioxide (3) and flaccidodiol (4), and three known compounds 5 to 7 were characterized from the marine soft coral Klyxum flaccidum, collected off the coast of the island of Pratas. The structures of the new compounds were determined by extensive spectroscopic analyses, including 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and spectroscopic data comparison with related structures. The rare capnosane diterpenoids were isolated herein from the genus Klyxum for the first time. The cytotoxicity of compounds 1 to 7 against the proliferation of a limited panel of cancer cell lines was assayed. The isolated diterpenoids also exhibited anti-inflammatory activity through suppression of superoxide anion generation and elastase release in the N-formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine/cytochalasin B (fMLF/CB)-stimulated human neutrophils. Furthermore, 1 and 7 also exhibited cytotoxicity toward the tested cancer cells, and 7 could effectively inhibit elastase release. It is worth noting that the biological activities of 7 are reported for the first time in this paper.
Project description:The colonization of land by plants was a key event in the evolution of life. Here we report the draft genome sequence of the filamentous terrestrial alga Klebsormidium flaccidum (Division Charophyta, Order Klebsormidiales) to elucidate the early transition step from aquatic algae to land plants. Comparison of the genome sequence with that of other algae and land plants demonstrate that K. flaccidum acquired many genes specific to land plants. We demonstrate that K. flaccidum indeed produces several plant hormones and homologues of some of the signalling intermediates required for hormone actions in higher plants. The K. flaccidum genome also encodes a primitive system to protect against the harmful effects of high-intensity light. The presence of these plant-related systems in K. flaccidum suggests that, during evolution, this alga acquired the fundamental machinery required for adaptation to terrestrial environments.
Project description:Pennisetum flaccidum Grisebach is a typical high-quality forage and adrought-tolerant grass. In this study, we firstly reported the complete chloroplast (cp) genome of P. flaccidum, which was 138,336 bp in length, including a pair of inverted repeats (IR: 22,293 bp), a large single copy (LSC: 81,329 bp), and a small single copy (SSC: 12,421 bp) region. A total of 131 genes were annotated, containing seven rRNA genes, 38 tRNA genes, and 86 protein-coding genes. The GC content of the cp genome was 38.63%. The maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree indicated that P. flaccidum was closely related to P. cetaceum in Poaceae.