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Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing Escherichia coli pyrophosphatase display both altered carbon partitioning in their source leaves and reduced photosynthetic activity

  • Physiology and Biochemistry
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Abstract

The effects of the cytosolic expression of Escherichia coli pyrophosphatase (ppa) were investigated in the rosette leaves of transgenic Arabidopsis plants. During the daytime, glucose and fructose were found to accumulate at levels that were approximately two- to threefold higher in these plants than in the wild type. Interestingly, however, neither sucrose nor starch levels showed any distinctive build up in transgenic plants except under continuous white light growth conditions, during which they accumulated at high levels. Additionally, the leaves of transgenic Arabidopsis plants contain two- to threefold higher levels of inorganic phosphate (Pi) and two- to sixfold higher levels of uridine diphosphate-glucose than wild type plants during the diurnal cycle. In contrast, triose phosphate contents in the leaves of E. coli ppa transformants were either similar or slightly decreased when compared with wild type leaves. Furthermore, the photosynthetic activity of these transgenic plants was found to be reduced by 20–40% compared to normal levels. These results indicate that induction of ppa activity in the cytosol affects carbon partitioning between source and sink organs and also that the concomitant increase in Pi caused the accumulation of carbon metabolites and reduced photosynthetic activity.

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Abbreviations

PFP::

Pyrophosphate-dependent fructose-6-phosphate-1 phosphotransferase

Pi::

Inorganic phosphate

ppa::

Pyrophosphatase

PPi::

Inorganic pyrophosphate

UDP-Glc::

UDP-glucose

UGPase::

UDP glucose pyrophosphorylase

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Acknowledgement

This research was supported by a grant from the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation through the Plant Metabolism Research Centre, Kyung Hee University, Suwon, Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Metabolism Research Centre & Graduate School of Biotechnology, Kyung Hee University, Suwon, 449-701, Korea

    J.-W. Lee, D.-S. Lee, S. H. Bhoo, J.-S. Jeon, Y.-H. Lee & T.-R. Hahn

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  1. J.-W. Lee
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  2. D.-S. Lee
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  3. S. H. Bhoo
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  4. J.-S. Jeon
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  5. Y.-H. Lee
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  6. T.-R. Hahn
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Correspondence to Y.-H. Lee.

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Communicated by I.S. Chung

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Lee, JW., Lee, DS., Bhoo, S.H. et al. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing Escherichia coli pyrophosphatase display both altered carbon partitioning in their source leaves and reduced photosynthetic activity. Plant Cell Rep 24, 374–382 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-005-0951-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-005-0951-y

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