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Plant ‘first responder’ cells warn neighbors about bacterial pathogens

Purdue University researchers found that a subset of epidermal cells in plant leaves serves as early responders to chemical cues from bacterial pathogens and communicate this information to neighbors through a local traveling wave of calcium ions. The properties of this local wave differ from those generated when epidermal cells are wounded, suggesting that distinct mechanisms are used by plants to communicate specific types of pathogen attack, the team reported Dec. 2 in Science Signaling.

The new work from Purdue’s Emergent Mechanisms in Biology of Robustness Integration and Organization (EMBRIO) Institute highlights the importance of calcium ion signatures or patterns in the cytoplasm of cells. Plants and animals use calcium ions to transmit biologically critical sensory information within single cells, across tissues and even between organs.

“When a bacterium infects plant material, or when a fungus tries to invade plant tissue, cells and tissues recognize the presence of an attacker,” said Christopher Staiger, a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology and Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences. “They recognize both chemical and mechanical cues. This study is largely about how the chemical cues are sensed.”

A New Cell Atlas Helps Researchers Navigate the Developing Brain

The phrase “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is perfectly emphasized in large, collaborative researcher projects.

Recently, several research teams published a package of studies outlining the most comprehensive map of the mammalian brain during development.

Here, two researchers talk about the challenges and benefits of such teamwork.

Researchers collaborating on a BRAIN Initiative project unveiled the most comprehensive map of developing mammalian brains to date, offering new insights into neurodevelopment.

Light-activated protein triggers cancer cell death by raising alkalinity

One of the hallmarks of cancer cells is their ability to evade apoptosis, or programmed cell death, through changes in protein expression. Inducing apoptosis in cancer cells has become a major focus of novel cancer therapies, as these approaches may be less toxic to healthy tissue than conventional chemotherapy or radiation. Many chemical agents are currently being tested for their ability to trigger apoptosis, and researchers are increasingly exploring light-activated molecules that can be precisely targeted to tumor sites using lasers, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.

Cancer cells have mitochondria that supply energy for rapid growth and division, but an overly alkaline environment is thought to disrupt mitochondrial function, leading to apoptosis.

A microbial protein called Archaerhodopsin-3 (AR3) may hold the key to alkalinity-induced apoptosis. When exposed to green light, AR3 pumps hydrogen ions out of the cell, increasing alkalinity, disrupting cellular functions, and eventually inducing apoptosis.

Single Nucleotide SMN1 Variants in a Cohort of Individuals With Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Background and ObjectivesSpinal muscular atrophy 5q (SMA) is a motor neuron disorder caused by recessive pathogenic variants in the SMN1 gene, which encodes the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. While the majority of patients with SMA exhibit…

Sugars, ‘gum,’ stardust found in NASA’s asteroid Bennu samples

The asteroid Bennu continues to provide new clues to scientists’ biggest questions about the formation of the early solar system and the origins of life. As part of the ongoing study of pristine samples delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft, three new papers published Tuesday by the journals Nature Geosciences and Nature Astronomy present remarkable discoveries: sugars essential for biology, a gum-like substance not seen before in astromaterials, and an unexpectedly high abundance of dust produced by supernova explosions.

Scientists led by Yoshihiro Furukawa of Tohoku University in Japan found sugars essential for biology on Earth in the Bennu samples, detailing their findings in the journal Nature Geoscience. The five-carbon sugar ribose and, for the first time in an extraterrestrial sample, six-carbon glucose were found. Although these sugars are not evidence of life, their detection, along with previous detections of amino acids, nucleobases, and carboxylic acids in Bennu samples, show building blocks of biological molecules were widespread throughout the solar system.

For life on Earth, the sugars deoxyribose and ribose are key building blocks of DNA and RNA, respectively. DNA is the primary carrier of genetic information in cells. RNA performs numerous functions, and life as we know it could not exist without it. Ribose in RNA is used in the molecule’s sugar-phosphate “backbone” that connects a string of information-carrying nucleobases.

Sunlight, water and air power a cleaner method for making hydrogen peroxide

Cornell scientists have discovered a potentially transformative approach to manufacturing one of the world’s most widely used chemicals—hydrogen peroxide—using nothing more than sunlight, water and air. The research is published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Currently, hydrogen peroxide is made through the anthraquinone process, which relies on fossil fuels, produces chemical waste and requires transport of concentrated peroxide—all of which have safety and environmental concerns,” said Alireza Abbaspourrad, associate professor of Food Chemistry and Ingredient Technology in the Department of Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and corresponding author of the research.

Hydrogen peroxide is ubiquitous in both industrial and consumer settings: It bleaches paper, treats wastewater, disinfects wounds and household surfaces, and plays a key role in electronics manufacturing. Global production runs into the millions of tons each year. Yet today’s process depends almost entirely on a complex method involving hazardous intermediates and large-scale central chemical plants.

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