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Arabidopsis thaliana expressing a thermostable chimeric Rubisco activase exhibits enhanced growth and higher rates of photosynthesis at moderately high temperatures

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Abstract

Temperature is one of the most important factors controlling growth, development, and reproduction in plants. The rate of photosynthesis declines at moderately high temperatures in plants and particularly in temperate species like Arabidopsis thaliana. This can be attributed to a reduced ability of Rubisco activase to achieve optimum activation of Rubisco, leading to reduced Rubisco activity. In order to overcome this problem, we transformed the Arabidopsis rca mutant with a more thermostable, chimeric activase where a Rubisco recognition domain in the more thermostable tobacco activase was replaced with that from Arabidopsis. Transgenic lines expressing this activase showed higher rates of photosynthesis than the wild type after a short exposure to higher temperatures and they also recovered better, when they were returned to the normal temperature. Moreover, under extended exposure to moderately elevated temperature, the transgenic lines had higher biomass and seed yield when compared with the wild type plants.

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Abbreviations

ATP:

Adenosine 5′-triphosphate

ATPase:

ATP hydrolysis

ECM:

Activated Rubisco, carbamylated with magnesium bound

ER:

Inactive Rubisco bound with inhibitor RuBP

rca :

Regulation carboxylation activity or the Rubisco activase gene

Rubisco:

Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

RuBP:

Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Dan Stessman for providing the binary vector PDS9 and Dr. Hans Bohnert for providing A. tumefaciens GV1101 competent cells. This work was supported in part by a grant (97ER20268) from the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Author notes

  1. Cishan Li

    Present address: Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore, MD, 21201, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photosynthesis Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 190 ERML, 1201 W Gregory, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Anshuman Kumar & Archie R. Portis Jr

  2. Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Cishan Li & Archie R. Portis Jr

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  1. Anshuman Kumar
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Correspondence to Anshuman Kumar.

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Kumar, A., Li, C. & Portis, A.R. Arabidopsis thaliana expressing a thermostable chimeric Rubisco activase exhibits enhanced growth and higher rates of photosynthesis at moderately high temperatures. Photosynth Res 100, 143–153 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-009-9438-y

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