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Altered expression of barley proline transporter causes different growth responses in Arabidopsis

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Abstract

A compatible solute, proline is accumulated in various kinds of plants and microorganisms under environmental stresses. The function of proline is thought to be an osmotic regulator under water stress, and its transport into cells is mediated by a proline transporter. Here, we report the effects of expressing the barley proline transporter (HvProT) under the control of either the CaMV35S promoter (35Sp) or a root cap promoter (RCp), on Arabidopsis growth. In Arabidopsis, transformed HvProT functions in the plasma membrane, like other amino acid transporters. Reduction in biomass production was observed in aerial parts of 35Sp-HvProT plants, and it was accompanied with decreased proline accumulation in leaves. Impaired growth of 35Sp-HvProT plants was restored by exogenously adding l-proline. These results suggested that growth reduction was caused by a deficiency of endogenous proline. In 35Sp-HvProT plants, the amount of proline dehydrogenase (PDH) transcript was increased compared to wild type (WT) plants, with a consequent enhancement of the activity of PDH. On the other hand, the transgenic RCp-HvProT plants accumulated 2- to 3-fold more proline in the root tip region compared to WT, and root elongation was enhanced at the same time. Thus, different physiological responses were caused by the altered location in accumulation of proline using two different promoters for heterologous expression of HvProT. These results indicate the importance of proline distribution at the tissue level during vegetative development.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. André T. Jagendorf (Cornel University) for his valuable discussion and helpful comments, and to Dr. Yasuo Niwa for the gift of the sGFP vector. This research was supported by a Research Fellowship of Japan Society of the Promotion of Science for young scientist to AU.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Akihiro Ueda, Weiming Shi, Hiroshi Miyake & Tetsuko Takabe

  2. State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Soil Science, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Weiming Shi

  3. Research Institute for Bioresources and Biotechnology, Ishikawa Prefectural University, 1-308 Suematsu, Nonoichi, Ishikawa, 921-8836, Japan

    Takiko Shimada

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3122 TAMU, College Station, 77843-3122, TX, USA

    Akihiro Ueda

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  1. Akihiro Ueda
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  2. Weiming Shi
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  4. Hiroshi Miyake
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Correspondence to Akihiro Ueda.

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Ueda, A., Shi, W., Shimada, T. et al. Altered expression of barley proline transporter causes different growth responses in Arabidopsis . Planta 227, 277–286 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-007-0615-y

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