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Comparison on the carbohydrate metabolic enzyme activities and their gene expression patterns in canola differing seed oil content

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Abstract

Carbohydrates are an important regulator of canola seed oil content. However, understanding the physiological regulation by carbohydrates governing seed oil accumulation is fragmented. In the present study, activities of sucrose and starch catalytic enzymes, including neutral and alkaline invertase, sucrose synthase (SUS), and starch phosphorylase, and biosynthetic enzymes, including sucrose phosphate synthase and ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, were compared in developing silique and seed of high oil content and low oil content lines (HOCL and LOCL, respectively). The results showed that the HOCL had significantly higher total soluble sugar concentration in the developing silique wall and seed during the seed lipid accumulation stage. Strikingly, all the enzymes showed very strong activities at 20 days after anthesis in the silique wall of the HOCL, which was in agreement with the higher amounts of corresponding gene expression. The result indicated that the homeostasis of the high efficiency of cleavage and biosynthetic of carbohydrates in the HOCL was beneficial for the rapid volume expansion of silique and transportation of carbohydrates, i.e., sucrose and starch, to the seed for utilization. At seed deposition stage, all the enzymes exhibited significantly higher activities in the HOCL than in the LOCL, which was helpful for increased production of carbohydrates. The results of gene expression at seed oil deposition stages revealed that one of the SUS genes, SUS3, showed significantly higher transcript amount in the HOCL than in the LOCL at all stages while most of other genes showed no significant differences between two lines at developing stages. Therefore, SUS3 might be played vital roles in the sucrose cleavage.

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Abbreviations

AGPase:

ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase

DAA:

Days after anthesis

HOCL:

High oil content line

LOCL:

Low oil content line

SPS:

Sucrose phosphate synthase

SS:

Starch phosphorylase

SUS:

Sucrose synthase

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Acknowledgments

Great appreciations were expressed to the anonymous reviewers for their critical review. This work was supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 program) (2015CB150205); Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY12C13006); Program for Zhejiang Leading Team of S & T Innovation (2011R50026-04 and 2012C12902-1); the earmarked fund for China Agriculture Research System (CARS-13); the key and integrated technology for canola high yield improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Zhilan Li

  2. Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Institute of Crop and Nuclear Technology Utilization, Hangzhou, 310021, China

    Shuijin Hua, Dongqing Zhang, Huasheng Yu, Yaofeng Zhang & Baogang Lin

  3. Institute of Crop, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Lixi Jiang

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  1. Zhilan Li
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Correspondence to Shuijin Hua.

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Li, Z., Hua, S., Zhang, D. et al. Comparison on the carbohydrate metabolic enzyme activities and their gene expression patterns in canola differing seed oil content. Plant Growth Regul 78, 357–369 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-015-0098-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-015-0098-y

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