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Mitochondrial transport in proline catabolism in plants: the existence of two separate translocators in mitochondria isolated from durum wheat seedlings

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Abstract

Abiotic stresses, such as high salinity or drought, can cause proline accumulation in plants. Such an accumulation involves proline transport into mitochondria where proline catabolism occurs. By using durum wheat seedlings as a plant model system, we investigated how proline enters isolated coupled mitochondria. The occurrence of two separate translocators for proline, namely a carrier solely for proline and a proline/glutamate antiporter, is shown in a functional study in which we found the following: (1) Mitochondria undergo passive swelling in isotonic proline solutions in a stereospecific manner. (2) Externally added l-proline (Pro) generates a mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ) with a rate depending on the transport of Pro across the mitochondrial inner membrane. (3) The dependence of the rate of generation of ΔΨ on increasing Pro concentrations exhibits hyperbolic kinetics. Proline transport is inhibited in a competitive manner by the non-penetrant thiol reagent mersalyl, but it is insensitive to the penetrant thiol reagent N-ethylmaleimide (NEM). (4) No accumulation of proline occurs inside the mitochondria as a result of the addition of proline externally, whereas the content of glutamate increases both in mitochondria and in the extramitochondrial phase. (5) Glutamate efflux from mitochondria occurs at a rate which depends on the mitochondrial transport, and it is inhibited in a non-competitive manner by NEM. The dependence of the rate of glutamate efflux on increasing proline concentration shows saturation kinetics. The physiological role of carrier-mediated transport in the regulation of proline catabolism, as well as the possible occurrence of a proline/glutamate shuttle in durum wheat seedlings mitochondria, are discussed.

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Abbreviations

AA:

antimycin

AZC:

azetidine-2-carboxylate

d-Pro:

d-proline

DWM:

durum wheat seedling mitochondria

GDS:

glutamate detecting system

Glu:

l-glutamate

MERS:

mersalyl

NEM:

N-ethylmaleimide

NADH-DH:

NADH dehydrogenase

Pro:

l-proline

P5C:

pyrroline-5-carboxylate

P5CDH:

Δ1 pyrroline-5-carboxylate dehydrogenase

P5CR:

Δ1 pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase

P5CS:

Δ1 pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase

ProDH:

proline dehydrogenase

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. G. Paventi for his continuous generous cooperation and Prof. D. Pastore for stimulating discussions at the early stage of this work. Critical reading by Prof. Shawn Doonan is gratefully acknowledged. This work was supported by the MIUR project, PRIN 2004—“Cross talk between organelles in response to oxidative stress and programmed cell death in plants”.

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Author notes

  1. Roberto Pizzuto & Maria Luigia Pallotta

    Present address: Dipartimento di Scienze per la Salute, Università del Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 86100, Campobasso, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Animali, Vegetali e dell’Ambiente, Università del Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 86100, Campobasso, Italy

    Catello Di Martino & Salvatore Passarella

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze per la Salute, Università del Molise, Via Francesco De Sanctis, 86100, Campobasso, Italy

    Salvatore Passarella

  3. Plant Physiology Lab, Dipartimento di Scienze del Mare, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60121, Ancona, Italy

    Aurelio De Santis

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  1. Catello Di Martino
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  2. Roberto Pizzuto
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  5. Salvatore Passarella
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Correspondence to Salvatore Passarella.

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Catello Di Martino, Roberto Pizzuto these authors contributed equally to the paper

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Di Martino, C., Pizzuto, R., Pallotta, M.L. et al. Mitochondrial transport in proline catabolism in plants: the existence of two separate translocators in mitochondria isolated from durum wheat seedlings. Planta 223, 1123–1133 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-005-0166-z

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