Ana Iseppon

• Dr. (Ph.D.)
• Professor (Full) at Federal University of Pernambuco

Histone methyltransferases (SDGs) and demethylases (JMJs) are well-established regulators of transcriptional responses in plants under adverse conditions. This study characterized SDG and JMJ enzymes in the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) genome and analyzed their expression patterns under various stress conditions, including root dehydration and mechan...

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide, and despite advances in treatment, there remains a critical need for novel therapeutic approaches. Recently, anti-microbial peptides (AMPs) have gained attention for their potential use in cancer therapy due to their selective cytotoxicity towards cancer cells. Ob...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is an important legume cultivated mainly in regions with limited water availability across the African and American continents. Its productivity is significantly affected by environmental stresses. Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs), which belong to the PR-5 (pathogenesis-related 5) protein family, are known to be...

The genus Dickeya consists of Gram-negative bacteria capable of causing soft rot symptoms in plants, which involves tissue breakdown, particularly in storage organs such as tubers, rhizomes, and bulbs. These bacteria are ranked among the top ten most relevant phytopathogens and seriously threaten economically valuable crops and ornamental plants. T...

Lectins are known for their specific and reversible binding capacity to carbohydrates. These molecules have been particularly explored in plants due to their reported properties, highlighting antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, antiparasitic, insecticidal, and immunoregulatory actions. The increasing availability of lectin and lectin-like sequenc...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is an important legume cultivated mainly in regions with limited water availability across the African and American continents. Its productivity is significantly affected by environmental stresses. Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs), which belong to the PR-5 (Pathogenesis-Related 5) protein family, are known to be...

S. scabra is an important forage and extremophilic plant native to the Brazilian Caatinga semiarid region. It has only recently been subjected to omics-based investigations, and the generated datasets offer insights into biotechnologically significant candidates yet to be thoroughly examined. INSs (inositol and its derivatives) and RFO (raffinose o...

Antibiotic resistance is a paramount global health issue, with numerous bacterial strains continually fortifying their resistance against diverse antibiotics. This surge in resistance levels primarily stems from the overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human, animal, and environmental contexts. In this study, we advocate for exploring alternative m...

Humans change the environment according to their need, causing modifications and affecting the local biodiversity. This work applied a set of dominant markers to test if urban populations of Cyperus ligularis L. (Cyperaceae) present less genetic diversity compared to forest/non‐urban populations, and if these environmental differences (land use) in...

Helicases, motor proteins present in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, play a direct role in various steps of RNA metabolism. Specifically, SF2 RNA helicases, a subset of the DEAD-box family, are essential players in plant developmental processes and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. Despite this, information on this family in the physic nut...

The genus Vigna (Leguminosae) comprises about 150 species grouped into five subgenera. The present study aimed to improve the understanding of karyotype diversity and evolution in Vigna, using new and previously published data through different cytogenetic and DNA content approaches. In the Vigna subgenera, we observed a random distribution of rDNA...

Molecular and Physiological Insights into Plant Stress Tolerance and Applications in Agriculture Part 2 is an edited volume that presents research on plant stress responses at both molecular and physiological levels. This volume builds on the previous volume to provide additional knowledge in studies on the subject. Key Features - Explains aspects...

Inversions and translocations are the major chromosomal rearrangements involved in Vigna subgenera evolution, being Vigna vexillata the most divergent species. Centromeric repositioning seems to be frequent within the genus. Oligonucleotide-based fluorescence in situ hybridization (Oligo-FISH) provides a powerful chromosome identification system fo...

RT-qPCR dissects transcription-based processes but requires reference genes (RGs) for data normalization. This study prospected RGs for mouse macrophages (pMØ) and spleen infected with Listeria monocytogenes. The pMØ were infected in vitro with L. monocytogenes or vehicle for 4 h. Mice were injected with L. monocytogenes (or vehicle) and euthanized...

Citation: Crispim, J.G.; Souza, E.d.S.; Antunes, M.F.K.; Liu, H.; Pandolfi, V.; Morais, M.B.d.; Sun, L.; Ulisses, C.; Rabara, R.C.; Ferreira-Neto, J.R.C.; et al. Expression of Cowpea VuWRKY21 and VuWRKY87 Genes in Arabidopsis thaliana Confers Plant Tolerance to Salt Stress. DNA 2023, 3, Abstract: WRKY transcription factors play a pivotal role in re...

Bacteria of the Leuconostoc genus are Gram-positive bacteria that are commonly found in raw milk and persist in fermented dairy products and plant food. Studies have already explored the probiotic potential of L. mesenteroides, but not from a probiogenomic perspective, which aims to explore the molecular features responsible for their phenotypes. I...

Stylosanthes scabra is a scientifically orphaned legume found in the Brazilian Caatinga biome (a semi-arid environment). This work utilized omics approaches to investigate some ecophysiological aspects of stress tolerance/resistance in S. scabra, study its genomic landscape, and predict potential metabolic pathways. Considering its high-confidence...

Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) and Cowpea severe mosaic virus (CPSMV) threaten cowpea commercial production. This study aimed to analyze Conserved Transcriptional Signatures (CTS) in cowpea’s genotypes that are resistant to these viruses. CTS covered up- (UR) or down-regulated (DR) cowpea transcripts in response to CABMV and CPSMV mechanic...

Non-specific lipid transfer proteins (nsLTPs) stand out among plant-specific peptide superfamilies due to their multifaceted roles in plant molecular physiology and development, including their protective functions against pathogens. These antimicrobial agents have demonstrated remarkable efficacy against bacterial and fungal pathogens. The discove...

Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) cause several phytobacteriosis in many economically important crops around the globe, especially in the tropics. In Brazil, phylotypes I and II cause bacterial wilt (BW) and are indistinguishable by classical microbiological and phytopathological methods, while Moko disease is caused only by phylotype I...

Two putative novel Burkholderia cenocepacia lineages found in the semi-arid region of north-east Brazil causing onion sour skin were studied using genomic approaches to determine their taxonomic position. Four strains belonging to one novel lineage (CCRMBC16, CCRMBC33, CCRMBC74, and CCRMBC171) and one strain (CCRMBC51) belonging to another novel li...

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) angular leaf spot is caused by pigmented and non-pigmented strains of Xanthomonas citri pv. anacardii, which have been isolated from infected plants in Brazil. The disease symptoms may be observed in leaves, stems, and fruits. Given that infection in young fruits results in fruits unsuitable for commercialization,...

Udotea is an exclusively marine green macroalgal genus with wide distribution in both tropical and subtropical regions. Due to the difficulty in properly delimiting infrageneric taxa based on morpho-anatomical characteristics by the presence of cryptic species and phenotypic plasticity, the use of techniques of DNA barcode and phylogenetic analysis...

Stylosanthes scabra, popularly known as stylo, is native to the Brazilian Caatinga semiarid region and stands out as a drought-tolerant shrub forage crop. This work provides information about the plant response during the first 48 hours of water deficit, followed by a rehydration treatment. Besides root transcriptomics data, thirteen physiological...

Xanthomonas bacteria are known phytopathogens difficult to control in the field, which cause great losses in many economically important crops. Genomic islands are fragments acquired by horizontal transference that are important for evolution and adaptation to diverse ecological niches. Virulence and pathogenicity islands (PAIs) enhance molecular m...

Angular leaf spot of cashew tree in Brazil has been attributed to pigmented and nonpigmented strains of Xanthomonas citri pv. anacardii. Due to the possibility of dissemination of the disease by propagating material, it is necessary to understand the survival mechanisms of the causal agent. Thus, the present study aimed to characterize the behavior...

Biological invasion is one of the main causes of biodiversity losses throughout the world. Dry areas are particularly prone to such losses due to their highly adapted flora and pronounced difficulty recovering after deforestation. Calotropis procera (Apocynaceae) has been recognized as an invasive alien species (IAS) in South America, forming vast...

The genus Gayralia has a complex taxonomy, often with morphological and ontogenetic characteristics that overlap with those of other monostromatic green algae, mainly Monostroma. Molecular studies of monostromatic green algae are still rare, especially in Brazil, where G. brasiliensis was described originally. Considering the difficulties in delimi...

Zoonoses have recently become the center of attention of the general population and scientific community. Notably, more than 30 new human pathogens have been identified in the last 30 years, 75% of which can be classified as zoonosis. The complete eradication of such types of infections is far out of reach, considering the limited understanding of...

The transcriptomes of two distinct physiological moments of root dehydration condition were scrutinized in cowpea. The RD25 (first 25 min after root dehydration imposition) physiological data did not indicate significant alterations. For the other treatment, 150 min under root dehydration (RD150), all physiological data indicated that the studied c...

Introdução: Lectinas são moléculas bioativas presentes em diferentes organismos, que atuam em processos biológicos relevantes, incluindo atividade antimicrobiana, antifúngica, antioxidante, antitumoral, bem como na defesa vegetal. Estudos recentes relatam que a família de Kinases Receptoras de Lectinas do tipo L (LecRK) possui papel no desenvolvime...

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) contributes to the acquisition of oocyte competence by modulating signalling pathways in cumulus cells (CCs), albeit much less is known about transcription factors (TFs) that orchestrate the downstream transcriptional changes. This work allowed to prospect TFs involved in FSH-mediated signalling during oocyte in v...

Background The osmotin from the medicinal plant Calotropis procera (CpOsm) has characteristics similar to adiponectin, a human protein with immunoregulatory actions. Purpose This study aimed to investigate whether recombinant osmotin inclusion bodies from C. procera (IB/rCpOsm) produced in E. coli BL21(DE3) can prevent infection-induced inflammati...

Since the dawn of mankind, plants figure among the main sources of therapeutic compounds, in addition to serving as inspiration for the production of synthetic or biotechnological-based drugs, including antimicrobial compounds. In the last 70 years, there has been a growing application of biochemical and molecular biology methods for the isolation...

Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is one of the most tolerant legume crops to drought and salt stresses. WRKY transcription factor (TF) family members stand out among plant transcriptional regulators related to abiotic stress tolerance. However, little information is currently available on the expression of the cowpea WRKY gene family (VuWRKY)...

Amburana cearensis leaves have been used in folk medicine to treat respiratory diseases and inflammations. This study aimed to evaluate the biological potential of A. cearensis leaves by antioxidant and in vitro cytogenotoxic analyses of ethanolic crude extract (EE) and its fractions in healthy human cells. The EE was obtained by percolation, follo...

Among chronic skin autoinflammatory diseases, Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) stands out for its chronicity, highly variable condition, and profound impact on the patients’ quality of life. HS is characterized by suppurative skin lesions in diverse body areas, including deep-seated painful nodules, abscesses, draining sinus, and bridged scars, among...

Similar to other organisms, plants establish interactions with a variety of microorganisms in their natural environment. The plant microbiome occupies the host plant’s tissues, either internally or on its surfaces, showing interactions that can assist in its growth, development, and adaptation to face environmental stresses. The advance of metageno...

The species Sterculia striata A. St. Hil. Naudin has been used by the population in food and in the treatment of skin conditions, mainly for the treatment of boils. Recently, for this species has also been attributed an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial action. However, little is known about its cytogenotoxic potential. The present w...

Key message An Oligo-FISH barcode system was developed for two model legumes, allowing the identification of all cowpea and common bean chromosomes in a single FISH experiment, and revealing new chromosome rearrangements. The FISH barcode system emerges as an effective tool to understand the chromosome evolution of economically important legumes an...

Pluripotency-associated transcription factors (PATF) contribute to cell fate decisions in embryos, cellular reprogramming, and derivation of stem cells. PATF hold species-specific mRNA fluctuations during early development but the regulatory determinants remain largely unknown in sheep. The aim was to prospect correlations between PATF gene express...

Lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) are among the most promising plant-exclusive antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). They figure among the most challenging AMPs from the point of view of their structural diversity, functions and biotechnological applications. This review presents a current picture of the LTP research, addressing not only their structural, ev...

Cytogenomic resources have accelerated synteny and chromosome evolution studies in plant species, including legumes. Here, we established the first cytogenetic map of V. angularis (Va, subgenus Ceratotropis) and compared this new map with those of V. unguiculata (Vu, subgenus Vigna) and P. vulgaris (Pv) by BAC-FISH and oligopainting approaches. We...

The present work represents a pioneering effort, being the first to analyze genomic and transcriptomic data from Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) kinases. We evaluated the cowpea kinome considering its genome-wide distribution and structural characteristics (at the gene and protein levels), sequence evolution, conservation among Viridiplantae species, an...

Cenostigma pyramidale is a native legume of the Brazilian semiarid region which performs symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), being an excellent model for studying genes associated with tolerance against abiotic and biotic stresses. In RT-qPCR approach, the use of reference genes is mandatory to avoid incorrect interpretat...

Salinity stress has a significant impact on the gain of plant biomass. Our study provides the first root transcriptome of Cenostigma pyramidale, a tolerant woody legume from a tropical dry forest, under three different salt stress times (30 min, 2 h, and 11 days). The transcriptome was assembled using the RNA sequencing (RNA‐Seq) de novo pipeline f...

In the present study, we aimed to identify morphological and molecular changes of in vivo and in vitro-produced goat embryos submitted to cryopreservation. In vivo embryos were recovered by transcervical technique from superovulated goats, whereas in vitro produced embryos were produced from ovaries collected at a slaughterhouse. Embryos were froze...

Defensins are a prominent family of antimicrobial peptides. They play sophisticated roles in the defense against pathogens in all living organisms, but few works address their expression under different conditions and plant tissues. The present work prospected defensins of Manihot esculenta Crantz, popularly known as cassava. Five defensin candidat...

The ability to respond quickly to salt stress can determine the tolerance level of a species. Here, we test how rapidly the roots of Calotropis procera react to high salinity conditions. In the first 24 h after saline exposure, the plants reduced stomatal conductance, increased CO2 assimilation, and water use efficiency. Thus, the root tissue showe...

The north-eastern region of Brazil is home to communities of diverse ethnic origins that still depend significantly on folk medicine, with emphasis on plant extracts. The present work aims at investigating medicinal plants used in the traditional medicine of north-eastern Brazil with an assessment of the antimicrobial profile of their extracts. The...

The green algal genus Bryopsis has simple morphology and high phenotypic plasticity, making it difficult to identify its species based on morphological characteristics alone. This study evaluated the diversity of Bryopsis in northeastern Brazil (the State of Pernambuco), based on morphological and molecular data using the markers tufA and rbcL. Mol...

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) play an essential role in plant defense against invading pathogens. Due to their biological properties, these molecules have been considered useful for drug development, as novel agents in disease therapeutics, applicable to both agriculture and medicine. New technologies of massive sequencing open opportunities to dis...

The objective of this work was to evaluate the inheritance of resistance to Cowpea aphid-borne mosaic virus (CABMV) in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The study was performed between parental genotypes IT85F-2687 (resistant) and 'BR-14 Mulato' (susceptible), generating F1, F2, and F7 populations and backcrosses with both parental genotypes. CABMV was i...

Morphological variations of individuals and populations of plants have hampered taxonomists from understanding whether such variations are intra- or interspecific. In this research, we study Cryptanthus burle-marxii and C. zonatus, the morphological variations of which overlap, making it difficult to identify them. Both taxa are restricted to the n...

This work presents a robust analysis of the inositols (INSs) and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs) pathways, using genomic and transcriptomic tools in cowpea under root dehydration. Nineteen (~70%) of the 26 scrutinized enzymes presented transcriptional up‐regulation in at least one treatment time. The transcriptional orchestration allowed c...

Comparative cytogenetic mapping is a powerful approach to gain insights into genome organization of orphan crops, lacking a whole sequenced genome. To investigate the cytogenomic evolution of important Vigna and Phaseolus beans, we built a BAC-FISH (fluorescent in situ hybridization of bacterial artificial chromosome) map of Vigna aconitifolia (Vac...

ABSTRACT: Even before the perception or interaction with pathogens, plants rely on constitutively guardian molecules, often specific to tissue or stage, with further expression after contact with the pathogen. These guardians include small molecules as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), generally cysteine-rich, functioning to prevent pathogen establish...

Background: The amount of published full-text articles has increased dramatically. Text mining tools configure an essential approach to building biological networks, updating databases and providing annotation for new pathways. PESCADOR is an online web server based on LAITOR and NLProt text mining tools, which retrieves protein-protein co-occurre...

Aims Brazil is nowadays one of the epicentres of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and new therapies are needed to face it. In the context of specific immune response against the virus, a correlation between Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I (MHC-I) and the severity of the disease in patients with COVI...

Housekeeping genes (HKG) are paramount for accurate gene expression analysis during preimplantation development. Markedly, quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in ovine embryos currently lacks HKGs. Therefore, we tested 11 HKGs for RT-qPCR normalization during ovine parthenogenetic preimplantation development. Seve...

The extent to which mammalian cells share similar transcriptomes remains unclear. Notwithstanding, such cross-species gene expression inquiries have been scarce for defined cell types and most lack the dissection of gene regulatory landscapes. Therefore, the work was aimed to determine C-MYC relative expression across mammalian fibroblasts (Ovis ar...

The small oleaginous tree of Jatropha curcas L. (physic nut) is an excellent biodiesel source whose crop could represent a good income source for farmers in tropical and semi-arid zones. However, in some areas in particular, salinity, such as many other abiotic stresses, can compromise productivity. We analyzed the root RNA-Seq transcriptome of two...

Encholirium is a genus of 31 xerophytic terrestrial or epilithic bromeliad species endemic to eastern Brazil. Together with Dyckia and Deuterocohnia, it forms the so-called xeric clade of the Pitcairnioideae subfamily of Bromeliaceae. Encholirium species are adapted to rocky landscapes, and many of them are found in the rocky grassland fields of th...

Endangered species in isolated habitats (e.g., inselbergs) may escape mate limitation during patch colonization through autonomous self-pollination. After colonization, the higher the number of plants breeding randomly within populations through cross-pollination, the lower is genetic erosion caused by genetic drift and inbreeding. Additionally, po...

We describe the chromosome numbers and genome sizes of species of the cryptanthoid complex of Bromeliaceae in a phylogenetic framework and their relationship with habitat preferences. The 2C DNA contents varied 2.13-fold among species, ranging from 0.76 to 1.66 pg. A significant difference in DNA content was found among Cryptanthus, Hoplocryptanthu...

Plant evolution may be triggered by significant chromosome changes. In some plant groups, karyoevolution played an important role, influencing speciation processes. Hohenbergia comprises 48 species distributed through eastern Brazil. Previous cytological information includes few species and only chromosome counts, lacking information about genome s...

In the Atlantic Rainforest located north of the São Francisco River (northeast Brazil), the humid enclaves called brejos de altitude play a significant role in the diversity dynamics of local flora and fauna. The related species Dyckia pernambucana and D. limae (Bromeliaceae) are characterized by their narrow endemic occurrence in such brejos, and...

We describe the chromosome numbers and genome sizes of species of the cryptanthoid complex of Bromeliaceae in a phylogenetic framework and their relationship with habitat preferences. The 2C DNA contents varied 2.13-fold among species, ranging from 0.76 to 1.66 pg. A significant difference in DNA content was found among Cryptanthus, Hoplocryptanthu...

Plant evolution may be triggered by significant chromosome changes. In some plant groups, karyoevolution played an important role, influencing speciation processes. Hohenbergia comprises 48 species distributed through eastern Brazil. Previous cytological information includes few species and only chromosome counts, lacking information about genome s...

Osmoprotectants are categorized as osmolytes, also known as compatible solutes, considering that they are small organic molecules that share characteristics, like low molecular weight, neutral charge, and low toxicity, even at high concentrations in cells. They are identified in different chemical classes, including polyamines (e.g., putrescine, sp...

Main conclusion The recombinant EcgDf1 defensin has an antimicrobial effect against both plant and human pathogens. In silico analyses predict that EcgDf1 is prone to form dimers capable of interacting with the membranes of microorganisms. Abstract Plant defensins comprise a large family of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) with a wide range of biologi...

Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) remains as an accurate approach for gene expression analysis but requires labor-intensive validation of reference genes using species-specific primers. To ease such demand, the aim was to design and test a multi-species primer set to validate reference genes for inter-genus RT-qPCR gene expression an...

Calotropis procera is a perennial Asian shrub with significant adaptation to adverse climate conditions and poor soils. Given its increased salt and drought stress tolerance, C. procera stands out as a powerful candidate to provide alternative genetic resources for biotechnological approaches. The qPCR (real-time quantitative polymerase chain react...

Experimental designs for stress application and RNA-Seq libraries sequencing performed in the present work. Legend: RB: biological replicate. (TIF)

Expression stability rank and pairwise variation of candidate reference genes in 15 time combinations in leaf and root samples of Calotropis procera under different salinity conditions [Leaf100 (100 mM NaCl), Root50 (50 mM NaCl), Root200 (200 mM NaCl)] after geNorm, NormFinder and BestKeeper analysis. † SD above 1, genes excluded from the rank of B...

Amplification products of 10 candidate reference genes and three target genes in agarose gel (2%) from Calotropis procera by PCR. M: marker 100 bp; 1–2 ND1; 3–4 CNBL4; 5–6 NAC78; 7–8 MAPK2; 9–10 CYP23; 11–12 ACT104; 13–14 TBB4; 15–16 UBQ11; 17–18 ACT; 19–20 r40S; 21–22 PPR; 23–24 UBP25; 25–26 FBOX. Even numbers mean no template control. (TIF)

Melting temperature (°C) of 10 candidate reference genes and three target genes from Calotropis procera by qPCR. Each line represents the melting curve for each individual replicate. (TIF)

Experimental conditions/ samples collected for Calotropis procera RNA-Seq libraries and qPCR assays. (DOCX)

Thaumatin-like proteins (TLPs) are a highly complex protein family associated with host defense and developmental processes in plants, animals, and fungi. They are highly diverse in angiosperms, for which they are classified as the PR-5 (Pathogenesis-Related-5) protein family. In plants, TLPs have a variety of properties associated with their struc...

Interspecific hybridization is required for the development of Jatropha curcas L. improved cultivars, due to its narrow genetic basis. The present study aimed to analyze the parental genomic composition of F1 and BC1F1 generations derived from interspecific crosses (J. curcas/J. integerrima and J. curcas/J. multifida) by GISH (Genomic In Situ Hybri...

A protocol for qPCR from Calotropis procera adjusted from the GoTaq® qPCR Master Mix protocol (Promega)

A protocol for extracting RNA from Calotropis procera adjusted from the SV Total RNA Isolation System protocol