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Endophytes, as microorganisms widely present in plants, have an important role in plant growth and development. Abiotic stresses are very essential influence on plant growth and development. Endophytes in host plants are diverse, however, beneficial endophytes are used to make plants resistant to abiotic stresses. This review focuses on studying the regulatory roles of different endophytes under abiotic stresses, and explained the special pathway and related mechanism of endophytes under heavy metal stress, such as cadmium, manganese and zinc stress. How do the dominant endophytes respond to salt and heat stress and affect plant physiological characteristics? In addition, we also summarized the potential and application of endophytes in reducing the toxicity of plant pathogens, promoting crop growth, biomedicine and ecological restoration, and other aspects, to provide reference for further in-depth research on the mechanism of action of plant endophytes under abiotic stresses and effective utilization of endophytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The functional diversity of plant valine-qlutamine (VQ) proteins is closely associated with their partners WRKY transcription factors, and also with a complex network of signaling pathways that mediated by hormone molecules. We reported genome-wide expression profiles of differentially expressed rice VQ genes under nitric oxide (NO) treatment based on a microarray analysis. Cluster analysis of expression patterns revealed that some VQ genes and WRKY genes shared similar expression trends. Prediction of cis-elements showed that W-box or W-box-like sequences were overrepresented within the promoters of most of NO-responsive VQ genes. In particular, the similarly expressed OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 showed great induction upon NO triggering. Transient expression assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis demonstrated that OsWRKY24 was specifically bound to the promoter regions of OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 itself, which contain multiple copies of W-box or W-box-like cis-elements. Yeast-two-hybrid assay indicated that OsWRKY24 can interact physically with OsVQ7 through the C-terminal of WRKY domain. The results suggested that OsVQ7 and OsWRKY24 may form an auto- and cross-regulation circuit that is required for tight regulation and fine-tuning of physiological processes they are involved in. These findings provided a solid foundation for exploring the specific functions of the VQ protein family in NO signaling pathway. Keywords: Rice, Valine-qlutamine protein, Expression profile, WRKY transcription factor, Nitric oxide, Regulatory circuit

A 10‐week feeding trial aimed to investigate the effects of dietary vitamin C (l‐ascorbic acid) on growth, antioxidant activity, and immunity in ricefield eel, Monopterus albus. Six diets were formulated with different levels of vitamin C supplementation (0.1, 17.5, 34.8, 68.6, 139.7, and 278.5 mg/kg). The results indicated that the weight gain (WG) of the M. albus fed the diets with vitamin C was remarkably higher than that of the M. albus fed the control diet (p <.05), and the quadratic analysis showed an optimal vitamin C level of 80.66 mg/kg. Compared with the control group, serum lysozyme activities, the complement pathway, red blood cell counts, white blood cell counts, immunoglobulin M, and phagocytosis percentage were significantly increased (p <.05) in the treatment groups, and superoxide dismutase activity, serum glucose, and malondialdehyde content were significantly decreased (p <.05) in the treatment groups. The challenge trial with Aeromonas hydrophila showed that the M. albus fed the diets with vitamin C had remarkably reduced cumulative mortality compared with those fed the control diet (p <.05), and mortality in the 68.60 mg/kg diet group was the lowest. Based on WG, the optimal vitamin C supplementation level for M. albus was estimated to be 80.66 mg/kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a malignant epithelial tumor. Among the S100 protein family members, the imbalance of S100 calcium-binding protein A2 (S100A2) was related to the pathogenesis of several types of cancer, and S100A2 has been reported to be upregulated in the plasma of NPC patients; however, its specific role in NPC pathogenesis remains unclear. Thus, this study aims to determine the potential role of S100A2 in NPC to provide novel insights into NPC management. C666-1 and NPC/HK-1 cells were transfected with S100A2 silencing/overexpression (si/oe) constructs. For in vivo investigations, NPC/HK-1 cells were transfected with si/oe-S100A2 to induce tumor formation in nude mice. Cellular viability and apoptosis were assessed using the CCK8 assay, colony-forming assay, and flow cytometry. Glucose uptake and lactate production levels were quantified using biochemical assays. S100A2 expression was measured via RT-qPCR, Western blot, immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence were performed to determine the levels of S100A2, PI3K, AKT, p-PI3K, p-AKT, GLUT1, HK-2, LDHA, and ki-67 proteins. S100A2 expression levels were significantly higher in NPC cancer tissues than in adjacent tissues. Similarly, C666-1 and NPC/HK-1 cells exhibited increased S100A2 expression, and silencing S100A2 significantly inhibited NPC cell viability, proliferation, glucose uptake, and lactate production, and induced apoptosis and decreased the protein levels of GLUT1, LDHA, and HK2 in NPC cells. Conversely, S100A2 overexpression enhanced these characteristics in NPC cells but could be mitigated by the PI3K/AKT inhibitor (LY294002). Silencing S100A2 suppressed the tumor formation of NPC/HK-1 cells, while S100A2 overexpression promoted tumor formation and could be hindered by a GLUT1 inhibitor (WZB117). S100A2 is upregulated in cancer tissues of NPC patients and was found to promote proliferation, glycolysis, and tumor formation in NPC cells through its interaction with GLUT1., (©The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY International License.)