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Structure, expression profile and subcellular localisation of four different sucrose synthase genes from barley

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Abstract

Genes encoding two new isoforms of sucrose synthase from barley, HvSs3 and HvSs4, have been characterised and their expression patterns compared with those previously described for HvSs1 and HvSs2, in different organs and during seed maturation and germination. Their response to several abiotic stimuli has also been investigated in leaves: HvSs1 is up-regulated by anoxia and HvSs3 by water deprivation while no response is observed to 150 mM NaCl treatment; HvSs1 and HvSs3 are also induced by cold temperatures. Using translational fusions and transient expression analyses, the four isozymes have been localised not only to the cytoplasm but also along several cytoplasmic tracks and at the inner side of the cell membrane; besides, HvSS1 is also associated with mitochondria, a localisation that has been predicted in silico with the TargetP and Predotar programmes. These data suggest distinct although partially overlapping roles, for the four barley sucrose synthase isoforms, in the channelling of carbon towards different metabolic pathways within the cell.

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Abbreviations

dap:

Days after pollination

ER:

Endoplasmic reticulum

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

G:

Golgi apparatus

hai:

Hours after imbibition

mCherryFP:

mCherry fluorescent protein

MT:

Mitochondria

mTP:

Mitochondrial targeting peptide

PM:

Plasma membrane

PT:

Plastids

SUS:

Sucrose synthase

UbiE2:

UbiquitinE2

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by grants to PC from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (BFU2006-07258) and from the Spanish Ministerio de Innovación y Ciencia (BFU2009-11809); C.B.-S. holds a postdoctoral Juan de la Cierva-UPM contract; S.H.-A. is supported by a FPU doctoral fellowship from MEC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas (UPM-INIA), Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos, Campus de Montegancedo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, 28223, Spain

    Cristina Barrero-Sicilia, Sara Hernando-Amado, Pablo González-Melendi & Pilar Carbonero

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  1. Cristina Barrero-Sicilia
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  2. Sara Hernando-Amado
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  3. Pablo González-Melendi
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  4. Pilar Carbonero
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Correspondence to Cristina Barrero-Sicilia.

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Supplementary Fig. S1

α-Actin2 and UbiE2 expression in abiotically stressed leaves: hypoxia, salt, drought and cold temperatures as specified in the text. The 18S gene was used to normalize the RT-qPCR data (TIFF 107 kb)

Supplementary Fig. S2

Subcellular localisation of HvSS2 fused to GFP (a), HvSS3 fused to mCherryFP (b) and overlay projection of the two previous ones (c) (TIFF 2418 kb)

Supplementary Fig. S3

Fluorescence pattern of five organelle markers (mCherryFP) in bombarded epidermal onion cells, specific for: the endoplasmic reticulum (a), plasma membrane (b), Golgi apparatus (c), plastids (d) and mitochondria (e) (TIFF 7975 kb)

Supplementary Table S1. Oligonucleotides used for HvSs (DOC 30 kb)

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Barrero-Sicilia, C., Hernando-Amado, S., González-Melendi, P. et al. Structure, expression profile and subcellular localisation of four different sucrose synthase genes from barley. Planta 234, 391–403 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1408-x

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