Why Arabidopsis Why: Plant Hormone Combatting Cancer

-
A philosophical journey
Not only plant biologists but also people from other field know about Daniel Chamovits. In my opinion, he made a tremendous effort to present plant science cool and easy for everyone through his book What A Plant Knows and two-part lecture series (Understanding Plants - Part I and Part II) on Coursera. 

He often tried to find the phenomena exclusive for plants and eventually realize plants and other system converge nicely. This statement reflects through his lab's work as they use both plant (Arabidopsis) and animal (Drosophila) model systems in their experiments. To me, it seems super cool! One of the current projects of his lab is to find phytochemical which has the role in combatting cancer and decipher their mode of actions.  
An ancient medicine with unknown function
From the study of ancient times, it was known that cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage and so on) containing diet is healthy. In recent time, epidemiological studies suggest that high cruciferous vegetables containing diet reduce the risk of colorectal, breast, kidney, and upper digestive tract cancers. 

A study on non-tumorigenic and tumorigenic breast epithelial cells (MCF10A and MCF10CA1a, respectively) showed that I3C induced apoptosis in the breast cancer cells but not in the non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cells. The treatment of various cancer cells with I3C induces G1 cell cycle arrest or stimulates apoptosis or induces autophagy.   

The anticarcinogenic properties associated with crucifers are primarily attributed to the presence of glucosinolates. Breakdown of indole-3-ylmethylglucosinolate (I3M-GS), one of the most widely distributed glucosinolates, leads to the formation of indole-3-acetonitrile (I3N) and indole-3-carbinol (I3C). Interestingly, I3C has structural similarity with the master plant hormone auxin.



Why I3C (Indole-3-Carbinol) is considered a hormone? 
The application of I3C leads to a loss of auxin Indole-3-Acetic acid (IAA) activity in the root meristem. I3C affects plant growth and development by directly modulating auxin signaling. I3C antagonized a number of auxin-induced growth phenotypes, including inhibition of root elongation, the formation of root hairs, and secondary root branching. I3C inhibits the auxin-dependent dimerization of the receptor with its substrates by competing with auxin for the same binding site in TIR1. 
Arabidopsis research to decipher the I3C action 
Using Arabidopsis as a model system, Daniel Chamovitz and his team showed that exogenously applied I3C rapidly and reversibly inhibited root elongation. The application of I3C led to a cessation of cell division in the root meristem. Following the I3C treatment, no CycB1-containing cells were detected, indicating a cessation of cell division. This conclusion is supported by transcript-profiling results showing the downregulation of cell cycle genes six hours following exposure to I3C. This result is also supported by Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis of nuclei isolated from root tips. 


 I3C research in plants to combat cancer
Plants do not develop metastatic cancer as mammals do, but plants can develop tumors. Plants and animals share numerous pathways and signaling cascades, and approximately 70% of the genes implicated in cancer have homologs in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. As a result, the study of I3C in plants can have direct implications for further understanding the role of I3C and perhaps controlling cancer in humans.


 To read the latest article from Daniel Chamovitz's lab, follow the link below. 
Indole-3-carbinol: a plant hormone combatting cancer  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

Plant Biology Highlights: Nature Articles 2018

-
Image
We are almost at the end of another year. Undoubtedly, we came across amazing research and review articles in this year. As plant biologists, we are more focused on plant-specific journals. Along with those plant-specific journals, plant-related stories are making their place into other journals too. Like previous years, this year also, I'm covering plant biology stories published in Cell, Science, and Nature all the year round. In this post, you'll find published papers from Nature.   MicroRNAs from the parasitic plant  Cuscuta campestris  target host messenger RNAs   Dodders ( Cuscuta  spp.) are obligate parasitic plants that obtain water and nutrients from the stems of host plants via specialized feeding structures called haustoria. Dodder haustoria facilitate bidirectional movement of viruses, proteins and mRNAs between host and parasite, but the functional effects of these movements are not known. Here, they showed that  Cuscuta campestris  haustoria ac
Read more

Ethylene: Accidental Hormone or Pheromone

-
Image
It is always fascinating how a small hydrocarbon or 2 carbon containing alkene has huge impact on plants. Yes, you gussed it right. It's Ethylene. First gaseous compound discovered as hormone. It has specific roles in fruit ripening, cell elongation, senescence, seed germination, leaf abscission, defense response and so on.   According to the definition of hormone, it should have two characteristics. Biosynthesized in a small amount by multi cellular organism and work on a distant place from the synthesis site. This classical definition for hormone was provided by Ernest Starling at 1905. Ethylene fulfills both requirement as a hormone. In addition, it can diffues and affect surrounding plants. We may consider it as pheromone in that case.   The initial discovery of ethylene is nothing but accidental observation like penicillin. In 1858, George Fahnestock observed that leaking illuminating gas are causing damage to the plants at greenhouse. During that time illuminati
Read more

Mutant Series: OPEN ALL NIGHT LONG (OPAL)

-
Image
OPEN ALL NIGHT LONG. It sounds like a coffee shop or bar or club or karaoke, something like that. Interesting enough, it's a name of one Arabidopsis thaliana mutant.  Plants have an economic life as like as most other biological systems. It makes its own food using water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide. The process knows as photosynthesis. At the day time, it opens its gate/stomata. In the daytime, light is available and perfect time for cooking/photosynthesis for them. In the night, they just close the door/stomata to prevent water loss through transpiration. So, for plants, the following things happen generally in the case of stomata opening and closure.  Nighttime stomatal control is important from both evolutionary and ecological perspective.  But, the mechanism is not clear whether this dark response is simply a passive consequence of the absence of light stimulus, or an active process recruiting other mechanisms of stomatal closure or involving independent signal
Read more

Black Panther: Plant Biologist's Review

-
Image
This weekend I went to the theater with friends to watch "Black Panther". Most of the times, I fall in sleep in the halfway of the movie. Fortunately, I didn't at this time. Apart from that, this movie implanted few questions in the viewer's mind. One issue is definitely about the "heart-shaped herb".  Mythology and Technology of Wakanda The story of the movie went way back to the history of Wakanda and the futuristic technological advancement of the tribe. There is a subtle link between their past and future. Their groundbreaking future technologies are based on Vibranium. In the past, the place was crashed by a huge meteorite containing Vibranium. It caused massive radiation, stayed in their environment till today and undoubtedly changed the ecology of Wakanda. It shaped the plant life in that region. The radiation-caused mutation gave rise to a diverse plant kingdom, which is rare in the other part of the world. The heart-shaped herb was o
Read more

Plant Biology Highlights: Nature Articles 2019

-
Image
I am doing this plant biology CNS (Cell - Nature - Science) paper highlights since 2016. Every winter break, it is a fun job for me to do. I enjoy as much as writing a New Year card to my favorite person. It is also a reminder for myself that lots of great science are going on and I have to do better next year and keep trying to make a difference. Here, I have previewed plant biology stories published this year in Nature.  Mobile PEAR transcription factors integrate positional cues to prime cambial growth   Apical growth in plants initiates upon seed germination, whereas radial growth is primed only during early ontogenesis in procambium cells and activated later by the vascular cambium. Although it is not known how radial growth is organized and regulated in plants, this system resembles the developmental competence observed in some animal systems, in which pre-existing patterns of developmental potential are established early on. Here they show that in Arabidopsi
Read more