The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides access to information on a variety of topics related to the environment and strives to inform citizens of health risks. The EPA also has an extensive library network that consists of 26 libraries throughout the United States, which provide access to a plethora of information to EPA employees, scientists, and researchers. The EPA implemented a reorganization project to digitize their materials so they would be more accessible to a wider range of users, but this plan was drastically accelerated when the EPA was threatened with a budget cut. It chose to close and reduce the hours and services of some of their libraries. As a result, the agency was accused of denying users the “right to know” by making information unavailable, not providing an adequate strategic plan, and discarding vital materials. This case study explores the background of the digitization project, the practices implemented, and the critiques of the project.

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The Environmental Protection Agency

Reactive oxygen species

Universal sample preparation method for proteome analysis

Plants respond to herbivory through various morphological, biochemicals, and molecular mechanisms to counter/offset the effects of herbivore attack. The biochemical mechanisms of defense against the herbivores are wide-ranging, highly dynamic, and are mediated both by direct and indirect defenses. The defensive compounds are either produced constitutively or in response to plant damage, and affect feeding, growth, and survival of herbivores. In addition, plants also release volatile organic compounds that attract the natural enemies of the herbivores. These strategies either act independently or in conjunction with each other. However, our understanding of these defensive mechanisms is still limited. Induced resistance could be exploited as an important tool for the pest management to minimize the amounts of insecticides used for pest control. Host plant resistance to insects, particularly, induced resistance, can also be manipulated with the use of chemical elicitors of secondary metabolites, which confer resistance to insects. By understanding the mechanisms of induced resistance, we can predict the herbivores that are likely to be affected by induced responses. The elicitors of induced responses can be sprayed on crop plants to build up the natural defense system against damage caused by herbivores. The induced responses can also be engineered genetically, so that the defensive compounds are constitutively produced in plants against are challenged by the herbivory. Induced resistance can be exploited for developing crop cultivars, which readily produce the inducible response upon mild infestation, and can act as one of components of integrated pest management for sustainable crop production.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.4161/psb.21663

Mechanisms of plant defense against insect herbivores

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have multifaceted roles in the orchestration of plant gene expression and gene-product regulation. Cellular redox homeostasis is considered to be an “integrator” of information from metabolism and the environment controlling plant growth and acclimation responses, as well as cell suicide events. The different ROS forms influence gene expression in specific and sometimes antagonistic ways. Low molecular antioxidants (e.g., ascorbate, glutathione) serve not only to limit the lifetime of the ROS signals but also to participate in an extensive range of other redox signaling and regulatory functions. In contrast to the low molecular weight antioxidants, the “redox” states of components involved in photosynthesis such as plastoquinone show rapid and often transient shifts in response to changes in light and other environmental signals. Whereas both types of “redox regulation” are intimately linked through the thioredoxin, peroxiredoxin, and pyridine nucleotide pools, they ...

Redox Regulation in Photosynthetic Organisms: Signaling, Acclimation, and Practical Implications

Aims and methods
The molecular mechanisms and signal transduction pathways of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in plant biology are still unclear. Here, by using pharmacological and biochemical approaches, we report that H2S promotes germination and alleviates salinity damage involving nitric oxide (NO) pathway.

Hydrogen sulfide enhances alfalfa (Medicago sativa) tolerance against salinity during seed germination by nitric oxide pathway

Despite hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and nitric oxide (NO) are important endogenous signals or bioregulators involved in many vital aspects of plant growth and responses against abiotic stresses, little information was known about their interaction. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of H2S and NO on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) plants exposed to cadmium (Cd) stress. Pretreatment with an H2S donor sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) and well-known NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) decreased the Cd toxicity. This conclusion was supported by the decreases of lipid peroxidation as well as the amelioration of seedling growth inhibition and Cd accumulation, in comparison with the Cd-stressed alone plants. Total activities and corresponding transcripts of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase were modulated differentially, thus leading to the alleviation of oxidative damage. Effects of H2S above were reversed by 2-(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl-3-oxide potassium salt (cPTIO), the specific scavenger of NO. By using laser confocal scanning microscope combined with Greiss reagent method, further results showed that NO production increased significantly after the NaHS pretreatment regardless of whether Cd was applied or not, all of which were obviously inhibited by cPTIO. These decreases of NO production were consistent with the exaggerated syndromes associated with Cd toxicity. Together, above results suggested that NO was involved in the NaHS-induced alleviation of Cd toxicity in alfalfa seedlings, and also indicated that there exists a cross-talk between H2S and NO responsible for the increased abiotic stress tolerance.

Roles of hydrogen sulfide and nitric oxide in the alleviation of cadmium-induced oxidative damage in alfalfa seedling roots

Using pharmacological and biochemical approaches, the role of cadmium (Cd)-induced carbon monoxide (CO) release and the relationship between CO and oxidative stress conferred by Cd exposure in the root tissues of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) plants were investigated. Cd treatments showed a dose-dependent enhancement in lipid peroxidation. Both 100 and 200 microm CdCl(2 )treatments caused the increase of CO release, which is consistent with the changes in the activity of the CO synthetic enzyme heme oxygenase (HO) and its HO-1 transcript. A 100 microm CdCl(2) exposure enhanced the formation of nonprotein thiols (NPT), and reduced glutathione (GSH) to oxidized glutathione (GSSG), which was potentiated by the pretreatment of CO scavenger hemoglobin (Hb). Plants pretreated for 6 h with 50% CO-saturated aqueous solution, which induced the rapid endogenous CO release followed by a gradual decrease when subsequently exposed to 100 microm CdCl(2) for 72 h, effectively decreased oxidative damage. Meanwhile, CO pretreatment modulated several enzymes responsible for GSH metabolism, thus resulting in the partial restoration of GSH : GSSG ratio, which was significantly blocked by Hb. These results are suggestive of a role for CO release as a signal element for the alleviation of Cd-induced oxidative damage by modulating glutathione metabolism.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4627248.pdf

Carbon monoxide alleviates cadmium-induced oxidative damage by modulating glutathione metabolism in the roots of Medicago sativa

Indole acetic acid (IAA) is an important regulator of adventitious rooting via the activation of complex signaling cascades. In animals, carbon monoxide (CO), mainly generated by heme oxygenases (HOs), is a significant modulator of inflammatory reactions, affecting cell proliferation and the production of growth factors. In this report, we show that treatment with the auxin transport inhibitor naphthylphthalamic acid prevented auxin-mediated induction of adventitious rooting and also decreased the activity of HO and its by-product CO content. The application of IAA, HO-1 activator/CO donor hematin, or CO aqueous solution was able to alleviate the IAA depletion-induced inhibition of adventitious root formation. Meanwhile, IAA or hematin treatment rapidly activated HO activity or HO-1 protein expression, and CO content was also enhanced. The application of the HO-1-specific inhibitor zinc protoporphyrin IX (ZnPPIX) could inhibit the above IAA and hematin responses. CO aqueous solution treatment was able to ameliorate the ZnPPIX-induced inhibition of adventitious rooting. Molecular evidence further showed that ZnPPIX mimicked the effects of naphthylphthalamic acid on the inhibition of adventitious rooting, the down-regulation of one DnaJ-like gene (CSDNAJ-1), and two calcium-dependent protein kinase genes (CSCDPK1 and CSCDPK5). Application of CO aqueous solution not only dose-dependently blocked IAA depletion-induced inhibition of adventitious rooting but also enhanced endogenous CO content and up-regulated CSDNAJ-1 and CSCDPK1/5 transcripts. Together, we provided pharmacological, physiological, and molecular evidence that auxin rapidly activates HO activity and that the product of HO action, CO, then triggers the signal transduction events that lead to the auxin responses of adventitious root formation in cucumber (Cucumis sativus).

Wenbiao Shen

Papers

Hydrogen sulfide enhances alfalfa (Medicago sativa) tolerance against salinity during seed germination by nitric oxide pathway

Roles of hydrogen sulfide and nitric oxide in the alleviation of cadmium-induced oxidative damage in alfalfa seedling roots

Carbon monoxide alleviates cadmium-induced oxidative damage by modulating glutathione metabolism in the roots of Medicago sativa

The Heme Oxygenase/Carbon Monoxide System Is Involved in the Auxin-Induced Cucumber Adventitious Rooting Process

The Heme Oxygenase/Carbon Monoxide System Is Involved in the Auxin-Induced Cucumber Adventitious