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The amino acid permease AAP8 is important for early seed development in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

The development of seeds depends on the import of carbohydrates and amino acids supplied by the maternal tissue via the phloem. Several amino acid transporters have been reported to be expressed during seed and silique development in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. Here we show that mutants lacking the high affinity amino acid permease 8 (At1g10010) display a severe seed phenotype. The overall number of seeds and the number of normally developed seed is reduced by ∼50% in siliques of the Ataap8 T-DNA insertion mutant. This result could be reproduced in plants where expression of AtAAP8 is targeted with an RNAi approach. The seed phenotype is correlated with a specifically altered amino acid composition of young siliques. Aspartic acid and glutamic acid are significantly reduced in young siliques of the mutants. In correlation with the fact that AAP8 is a high affinity transporter for acidic amino acids, translocation of 14C-labelled aspartate fed via the root system to seeds of the mutants is reduced. AAP8 plays a crucial role for the uptake of amino acids into the endosperm and supplying the developing embryo with amino acids during early embryogenesis.

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Abbreviations

AAP:

Amino acid permease

PTR:

Peptide transporter

OPT:

Oligopeptide transporter

RNAi:

RNA interference

RT-PCR:

Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction

CaMV:

Cauliflower mosaic virus

DW:

Dry weight

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SPP1108 grant to Roberto Schmidt and Wolfgang Koch). We thank Melanie Keinath and Bettina Stadelhofer for excellent technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Physiology, Zentrum für Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen (ZMBP), Auf der Morgenstelle 1, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Roberto Schmidt, Harald Stransky & Wolfgang Koch

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  1. Roberto Schmidt
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  2. Harald Stransky
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  3. Wolfgang Koch
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Correspondence to Wolfgang Koch.

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Schmidt, R., Stransky, H. & Koch, W. The amino acid permease AAP8 is important for early seed development in Arabidopsis thaliana . Planta 226, 805–813 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-007-0527-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-007-0527-x

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