Nicole Alloisio

Transcriptomics of Actinorhizal Symbioses Reveals Homologs of the Whole Common Symbiotic Signaling Cascade

Comparative transcriptomics of two actinorhizal symbiotic plants, Casuarina glauca and Alnus glutinosa, was used to gain insight into their symbiotic programs triggered following contact with the nitrogen-fixing actinobacterium Frankia. Approximately 14,000 unigenes were recovered in roots and 3-week-old nodules of each of the two species. A transcriptomic array was designed to monitor changes in expression levels between roots and nodules, enabling the identification of up- and down-regulated genes as well as root- and nodule-specific genes. The expression levels of several genes emblematic of symbiosis were confirmed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. As expected, several genes related to carbon and nitrogen exchange, defense against pathogens, or stress resistance were strongly regulated. Furthermore, homolog genes of the common and nodule-specific signaling pathways known in legumes were identified in the two actinorhizal symbiotic plants. The conservation of the host plant signaling pathway is all the more surprising in light of the lack of canonical nod genes in the genomes of its bacterial symbiont, Frankia. The evolutionary pattern emerging from these studies reinforces the hypothesis of a common genetic ancestor of the Fabid (Eurosid I) nodulating clade with a genetic predisposition for nodulation.

The Frankia alni symbiotic transcriptome.

The actinobacteria Frankia spp. are able to induce the formation of nodules on the roots of a large spectrum of actinorhizal plants, where they convert dinitrogen to ammonia in exchange for plant photosynthates. In the present study, transcriptional analyses were performed on nitrogen-replete free-living Frankia alni cells and on Alnus glutinosa nodule bacteria, using whole-genome microarrays. Distribution of nodule-induced genes on the genome was found to be mostly over regions with high synteny between three Frankia spp. genomes, while nodule-repressed genes, which were mostly hypothetical and not conserved, were spread around the genome. Genes known to be related to nitrogen fixation were highly induced, nif (nitrogenase), hup2 (hydrogenase uptake), suf (sulfur-iron cluster), and shc (hopanoids synthesis). The expression of genes involved in ammonium assimilation and transport was strongly modified, suggesting that bacteria ammonium assimilation was limited. Genes involved in particular in transcriptional regulation, signaling processes, protein drug export, protein secretion, lipopolysaccharide, and peptidoglycan biosynthesis that may play a role in symbiosis were also identified. We also showed that this Frankia symbiotic transcriptome was highly similar among phylogenetically distant plant families Betulaceae and Myricaceae. Finally, comparison with rhizobia transcriptome suggested that F. alni is metabolically more active in symbiosis than rhizobia.

Sp alpha V/41: a common spectrin polymorphism at the alpha IV-alpha V domain junction. Relevance to the expression level of hereditary elliptocytosis due to alpha-spectrin variants located in trans

Spectrin alpha-chain mutants associated with hereditary elliptocytosis are highly variable in their level of expression. It has been assumed that the degree of elliptocytosis can be increased when the spectrin alpha chain, encoded by the alpha gene in trans to the variant, is expressed at a low level. We now provide strong evidence for the existence of low-level expression of spectrin alpha chains. This condition is referred to as the alpha V/41 polymorphism. It has been observed in 15 different families or individuals of French, North African, and African ancestry in which seven distinct elliptocytogenic alpha-spectrin variants were co-inherited. Whenever the alpha V/41 polymorphism was present, the severity of the biochemical, morphological, and, sometimes, the clinical phenotype of elliptocytosis was increased. The alpha V/41 polymorphism was also frequently encountered among 36 unrelated control subjects in the heterozygous or homozygous states, and was entirely asymptomatic in both cases. The main biochemical feature was an increased susceptibility to proteolysis of the alpha IV-alpha V domain junction. Alteration of the facing beta IV domain of spectrin was demonstrated by in vitro spectrin dimer reconstitution experiments. It appears that the alpha V/41 polymorphism is often required for alpha-spectrin elliptocytogenic variants to become manifest in the heterozygous state. Thus, alpha-spectrin-related elliptocytosis may be viewed as a bifactorial condition.

Differential Effects of Rare Specific Flavonoids on Compatible and Incompatible Strains in the Myrica gale-Frankia Actinorhizal Symbiosis

ABSTRACT Plant secondary metabolites, and specifically phenolics, play important roles when plants interact with their environment and can act as weapons or positive signals during biotic interactions. One such interaction, the establishment of mutualistic nitrogen-fixing symbioses, typically involves phenolic-based recognition mechanisms between host plants and bacterial symbionts during the early stages of interaction. While these mechanisms are well studied in the rhizobia-legume symbiosis, little is known about the role of plant phenolics in the symbiosis between actinorhizal plants and Frankia genus strains. In this study, the responsiveness of Frankia strains to plant phenolics was correlated with their symbiotic compatibility. We used Myrica gale, a host species with narrow symbiont specificity, and a set of compatible and noncompatible Frankia strains. M. gale fruit exudate phenolics were extracted, and 8 dominant molecules were purified and identified as flavonoids by high-resolution spectroscopic techniques. Total fruit exudates, along with two purified dihydrochalcone molecules, induced modifications of bacterial growth and nitrogen fixation according to the symbiotic specificity of strains, enhancing compatible strains and inhibiting incompatible ones. Candidate genes involved in these effects were identified by a global transcriptomic approach using ACN14a strain whole-genome microarrays. Fruit exudates induced differential expression of 22 genes involved mostly in oxidative stress response and drug resistance, along with the overexpression of a whiB transcriptional regulator. This work provides evidence for the involvement of plant secondary metabolites in determining symbiotic specificity and expands our understanding of the mechanisms, leading to the establishment of actinorhizal symbioses.

A locus for autosomal dominant colobomatous microphthalmia maps to chromosome 15q12-q15.

Congenital microphthalmia is a common developmental ocular disorder characterized by shortened axial length. Isolated microphthalmia is clinically and genetically heterogeneous and may be inherited in an autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or X-linked manner. Here, we studied a five-generation family of Sephardic Jewish origin that included 38 members, of whom 7 have either unilateral or bilateral microphthalmia of variable severity inherited as an autosomal dominant trait with incomplete penetrance. After exclusion of several candidate loci, we performed a genome-scan study and demonstrated linkage to chromosome 15q12-q15. Positive LOD scores were obtained with a maximum at the D15S1007 locus (maximum LOD score 3.77, at recombination fraction 0.00). Haplotype analyses supported the location of the disease-causing gene in a 13.8-cM interval between loci D15S1002 and D15S1040.

Homozygous 4.1(-) hereditary elliptocytosis associated with a point mutation in the downstream initiation codon of protein 4.1 gene.

We studied a 43 yr-old Spanish patient with homozygous 4.1(-) hereditary elliptocytosis. Any form of protein 4.1 was missing in the red cells. Spectrin and actin were slightly, yet significantly, diminished. Alterations appeared at the level of proteins 4.5 and 4.9. Glycophorin C was sharply reduced. The abnormal allele was associated with the -++-- haplotype (Pvu II, Bgl II, Bgl II, Pvu II, Pvu II). mRNA 4.1(-) had an apparently normal size but was diminished by about two-thirds. Because the abnormal phenotype pertained to the red cell, we sequenced the 4.1 cDNA regions that appear critical to this cell type. The ultimate change turned out to be a point mutation of the downstream translation initiation codon (AUG-->AGG). No disorders in other cell types could be related with certainty to the present 4.1(-) HE allele.

Gerbich reactivity in 4.1(—) hereditary elliptocytosis and protein 4.1 level in blood group Gerbich deficiency

The membrane polypeptide composition and the blood group Gerbich phenotype of red cells from 4.1(–) hereditary elliptocytic patients and from Gerbich‐negative donors, who display two unrelated genetic abnormalities, were compared. In homozygous 4.1(–) hereditary elliptocytosis where the primary defect was presumably the absence of the membrane skeletal protein 4.1, there was approximatively a 70% reduction in the minor sialoglycoproteins β and γ. This was associated with a severe reduction of blood group Gerbich reactivity as determined with both murine monoclonal and human anti‐Gerbich antibodies. In the heterozygous state in the presence of one haploid set of protein 4.1 gene there was only a modest decrease in glycoproteins β and γ and the Gerbich serological reactivity was within normal limits.

Alterations of Globin Chain Synthesis and of Red Cell Membrane Proteins in Congenital Dyserythropoietic Anemia I and II

Red cell membrane proteins were investigated in two unrelated children with congenital dyserythropoietic anemia (CDA) I and two siblings with CDA II. The CDA I patients displayed globin chain synthesis imbalance, with reduction of the non α/α ratio. One of the CDA II patients presented the reverse alteration. Whenever globin chain synthesis was unbalanced, the membrane p-nitrophenylphosphatase had an abnormally biphasic kinetics, consistent with substrate excess inhibition, as is observed in α- or β-thalassemic syndromes. One CDA I patient displayed a decrease of electrophoretic band 4.1 along with an ectopic phosphorylated protein at the level of band 4.2. In CDA II patients, band 3 was strikingly narrower than in controls. In CDA II and, to a lesser extent, in CDA I, the in vitro endogenous phosphorylation of band 2 + 2.1 was sharply reduced.

Band 3 Chur: a variant associated with band 3-deficient hereditary spherocytosis and substitution in a highly conserved position of transmembrane segment 11

Summary. We studied a large Swiss family with dominantly inherited hereditary spherocytosis and band 3 (anion exchanger 1, AE1) deficiency. Band 3 cDNA was analysed by single‐strand conformation polymorphism analysis and nucleotide sequencing. A new point mutation was found: G771D (GGC→GAC). This change was present in all eight investigated patients but absent in four healthy members of the family. It is located at a highly conserved position in the middle of transmembrane segment 11, introducing a negative charge in a stretch of 16 apolar or neutral residues. None of the six amino‐acid substitutions already known in this region as being associated with band 3 deficiency were recorded. To rule out any major transcriptional or post‐transcriptional defect, we evaluated the amount of band 3 mRNA by RNase mapping using a band 3‐protein 4.1 chimaeric probe. Similar mRNA amounts were present in patients and controls. Our results strengthen the view that some amino‐acids, that are well conserved throughout the AE family, may be crucial for the insertion and/or the stabilization of band 3 within the lipid bilayer. At the present time, most of the mutations altering such residues are located in the C‐terminal region of band 3.

Analysis of the red cell membrane in a family with hereditary elliptocytosis--total or partial of protein 4.1.

SummaryIn a 12-year-old boy carrying a clinically silent elliptocytosis, we observed a total lack of red cell membrane band 4.1. Band 4.1 was partially absent in the father who also displayed a clinically silent elliptocytosis and, remarkably, in the mother although she presented normal discocytes. Band (2 and 2.1) phosphorylation was sharply reduced in the three persons examined. In the propositus and his mother, but not in his father, a clearly phosphorylated band appeared at the level of band 4.2. We suggest that the father and the mother carry two distinct alleles affecting differently the interactions, within the spectrin-actin protein 4.1 complex. The fathers allele is elliptocytogenic in the heterozygous state and, among other molecular alterations, prevents the attachment of protein 4.1. The mothers allele is morphologically silent in the heterozygous state, yet it also affects the binding of protein 4.1, possibly because the latter is shortened. The propositus, being doubly heterozygous, has the same morphological phenotype as his father, but his protein 4.1 electrophoretic phenotype is the addition of both parental phenotypes. The distinct phosphorylation patterns in the region of bands 4.1 and 4.2 are also consistent with the two-allele hypothesis.