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The Central Role of Phosphoenolpyruvate Metabolism in Developing Oilseeds

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Seed Development: OMICS Technologies toward Improvement of Seed Quality and Crop Yield

Abstract

Metabolite interconversion at the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP)-pyruvate-oxaloacetate node involves a complex set of cytosolic and plastidial reactions that interconnect the major pathways of carbohydrate metabolism, thereby making a crucial contribution to the distribution of carbon flux among catabolism, anabolism, and ATP and NAD(P)H supply to plant cells. Enzymes involved in plant PEP metabolism catalyze a diverse array of reactions, including a major metabolic branchpoint between primary and secondary (shikimate pathway) metabolism. Carbon partitioning at the PEP branchpoint is complicated by an intricate network of posttranslational enzyme controls, including allosteric effectors and protein kinase mediated phosphorylation. Experiments on transgenic or mutant plants possessing altered amounts of PEP metabolizing enzymes or transporters are enhancing our understanding of the functional organization and control of oilseed PEP metabolism. Such experiments illustrate the highly flexible nature of plant PEP metabolism and the crucial biosynthetic function played by glycolysis and respiration beyond their role in catabolic ATP generation. This chapter summarizes what is known about the key PEP metabolizing enzymes and corresponding metabolic fluxes during the reserve deposition stage of oilseed development. PK and PEPC are of particular interest since they play an essential role in controlling the provision of: (i) pyruvate for mitochondrial ATP production via oxidative phosphorylation; (ii) tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates needed for nitrogen assimilation and amino acid biosynthesis; and (iii) precursors and cofactors (e.g., pyruvate, acetyl-CoA, malate, ATP, and NAD(P)H) needed for plastidial fatty acid synthesis. Novel insights into the functions, and molecular and regulatory characteristics of oilseed PK and PEPC isozymes have arisen through their purification and detailed biochemical and molecular characterization, as well as advances in functional genomics, proteomics, and metabolic flux analysis. PK and PEPC are becoming important targets for metabolic engineering of the PEP branchpoint to modify levels of agronomically important end products, such as storage proteins and lipids in oilseeds.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Heterotrophic cell suspension cultures of embryos derived in vitro from pollen grains of B. napus closely resemble their developing zygotic (seed embryo) counterpart with respect to FA and storage lipid accumulation, and expression of PKc and PKp (Sangwan et al. 1992a; Weselake et al. 2009).

  2. 2.

    Ubiquitin is a highly conserved globular protein of eukaryotic cells that modifies target proteins via its covalent attachment through an isopeptide bond between the C-terminal Gly residue of ubiquitin and the ε-amino group of a Lys residue on a target protein. A multienzyme system consisting of activating (E1), conjugating (E2), and ligating (E3) enzymes attach ubiquitin to cellular proteins. Polyubiquitination is a well known PTM that tags many proteins for their proteolytic elimination by the 26S proteasome. However, protein monoubiquitination has been demonstrated to play a variety of crucial, nondestructive functions in yeast and mammalian cells. Monoubiquitination mediates protein-protein interactions (by recruiting ubiquitin-binding domain client proteins) and localization to help control processes, such as endocytosis, DNA repair, transcription and translation, and signal transduction (Uhrig et al. 2008b). Ubiquitin-related pathways are believed to be of widespread importance in the plant kingdom. Genome annotation indicates that the ubiquitin-related pathway alone comprises over 6 % of the Arabidopsis or rice proteomes with thousands of different proteins being probable targets.

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Acknowledgments

W.C.P. is greatly indebted to past and present members of his laboratory, who made interesting discoveries concerning the molecular and biochemical characteristics of key PEP metabolizing enzymes of developing and germinating oilseeds. W.C.P. is also very grateful to collaborators, who have contributed to this research, particularly Drs. David Dennis, David Turpin, Brian Miki, Florencio Podestá, Wayne Snedden, Chao-fu Lu, Yi-min She, Craig Leach, and Robert Mullen.

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  1. Department of Biology, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, ON, Canada

    William C. Plaxton & Brendan O’Leary

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  1. William C. Plaxton
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  2. Brendan O’Leary
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Correspondence to William C. Plaxton .

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  1. RLABB, Sanepa, Lalitpur, Nepal

    Ganesh K. Agrawal

  2. , Biology, University of Tsukuba, Tennoudai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305-8572, Japan

    Randeep Rakwal

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Plaxton, W.C., O’Leary, B. (2012). The Central Role of Phosphoenolpyruvate Metabolism in Developing Oilseeds. In: Agrawal, G., Rakwal, R. (eds) Seed Development: OMICS Technologies toward Improvement of Seed Quality and Crop Yield. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4749-4_15

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