Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C Kuhlemeier.
Our understanding of phyllotaxis is still largely based on surgical and pharmacological experiments carried out before 1970. Recent experiments implicate the plant hormone auxin in the regulation of phyllotaxis. A recent paper shows how the polar auxin transport mutant, pin1-1, which fails to make flowers, affects the expression of well known meristem genes. This work opens the door for the genetic analysis of phyllotaxis.
Adenosine 5'-phosphosulfate (APS) sulfotransferase and APS reductase have been described as key enzymes of assimilatory sulfate reduction of plants catalyzing the reduction of APS to bound and free sulfite, respectively. APS sulfotransferase was purified to homogeneity from Lemna minor and compared with APS reductase previously obtained by functional complementation of a mutant strain of Escherichia coli with an Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA library. APS sulfotransferase was a homodimer with a monomer M(r) of 43,000. Its amino acid sequence was 73% identical with APS reductase. APS sulfotransferase purified from Lemna as well as the recombinant enzyme were yellow proteins, indicating the presence of a cofactor. Like recombinant APS reductase, recombinant APS sulfotransferase used APS (K(m) = 6.5 microM) and not adenosine 3'-phosphate 5'-phosphosulfate as sulfonyl donor. The V(max) of recombinant Lemna APS sulfotransferase (40 micromol min(-1) mg protein(-1)) was about 10 times higher than the previously published V(max) of APS reductase. The product of APS sulfotransferase from APS and GSH was almost exclusively SO(3)(2-). Bound sulfite in the form of S-sulfoglutathione was only appreciably formed when oxidized glutathione was added to the incubation mixture. Because SO(3)(2-) was the first reaction product of APS sulfotransferase, this enzyme should be renamed APS reductase.
The aim of this work was to study the role of the cell wall protein expansin in elongation growth. Expansins increase cell wall extensibility in vitro and are thought to be involved in cell elongation. Here, we studied the regulation of two tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv Moneymaker) expansin genes, LeExp2 and LeExp18, in rapidly expanding tissues. LeExp2 was strongly expressed in the elongation zone of hypocotyls and in the faster growing stem part during gravitropic stimulation. LeExp18 expression did not correlate with elongation growth. Exogenous application of hormones showed a substantial auxin-stimulation of LeExp2 mRNA in etiolated hypocotyls and a weaker auxin-stimulation of LeExp18 mRNA in stem tissue. Analysis of transcript accumulation revealed higher levels of LeExp2 and LeExp18 in light-treated, slow-growing tissue than in dark-treated, rapidly elongating tissue. Expansin protein levels and cell wall extension activities were similar in light- and dark-grown hypocotyl extracts. The results show a strong correlation between expansin gene expression and growth rate, but this correlation is not absolute. We conclude that elongation growth is likely to be controlled by expansin acting in concert with other factors that may limit growth under some physiological conditions.
Leaves originate from the shoot apical meristem, a small mound of undifferentiated tissue at the tip of the stem. Leaf formation begins with the selection of a group of founder cells in the so-called peripheral zone at the flank of the meristem, followed by the initiation of local growth and finally morphogenesis of the resulting bulge into a differentiated leaf. Whereas the mechanisms controlling the switch between meristem propagation and leaf initiation are being identified by genetic and molecular analyses, the radial positioning of leaves, known as phyllotaxis, remains poorly understood. Hormones, especially auxin and gibberellin, are known to influence phyllotaxis, but their specific role in the determination of organ position is not clear. We show that inhibition of polar auxin transport blocks leaf formation at the vegetative tomato meristem, resulting in pinlike naked stems with an intact meristem at the tip. Microapplication of the natural auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) to the apex of such pins restores leaf formation. Similarly, exogenous IAA induces flower formation on Arabidopsis pin-formed1-1 inflorescence apices, which are blocked in flower formation because of a mutation in a putative auxin transport protein. Our results show that auxin is required for and sufficient to induce organogenesis both in the vegetative tomato meristem and in the Arabidopsis inflorescence meristem. In this study, organogenesis always strictly coincided with the site of IAA application in the radial dimension, whereas in the apical-basal dimension, organ formation always occurred at a fixed distance from the summit of the meristem. We propose that auxin determines the radial position and the size of lateral organs but not the apical-basal position or the identity of the induced structures.
Ethanolic fermentation is an ancient metabolic pathway. In plants, it is a major route of ATP production under anaerobic conditions. In addition, recent developments suggest that the pathway has important functions in the presence of oxygen. Both of the enzymes required for the production of acetaldehyde and ethanol, pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase, are highly abundant in pollen, resulting in fermentation in fully oxygenated cells. Acetaldehyde toxicity is an inevitable side effect of aerobic fermentation. Could acetaldehyde be the elusive pollen factor that contributes to male sterility in cmsT maize? The versatility of this ancient pathway is also illustrated by the induction of aerobic fermentation by environmental stress and activation of a defense response by overexpression of pyruvate decarboxylase.
Eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF-4A is a member of the DEAD box family of RNA helicases and RNA-dependent ATPases. In tobacco, eIF-4A is encoded by a gene family with one isoform, eIF-4A8, being exclusively expressed in pollen. This pollen-specific isoform is a candidate for mediating translational control in the developing gametophyte. Here we show that eIF-4A is barely phosphorylated in mature pollen, but during pollen tube germination, two isoforms of eIF-4A become phosphorylated. Phosphoamino acid analysis indicated phosphorylation of threonine. In order to determine whether pollen-specific eIF-4A8 is among the phosphorylated isoforms, we raised transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing eIF-4A8 containing a histidine tag. Hereby, we could show that indeed eIF-4A8 is modified through phosphorylation. The biological relevance of the phosphorylation of eIF-4A is discussed.
Expansins are extracellular proteins that increase plant cell wall extensibility in vitro and are thought to be involved in cell expansion. We showed in a previous study that administration of an exogenous expansin protein can trigger the initiation of leaflike structures on the shoot apical meristem of tomato. Here, we studied the expression patterns of two tomato expansin genes, LeExp2 and LeExp18. LeExp2 is preferentially expressed in expanding tissues, whereas LeExp18 is expressed preferentially in tissues with meristematic activity. In situ hybridization experiments showed that LeExp18 expression is elevated in a group of cells, called I1, which is the site of incipient leaf primordium initiation. Thus, LeExp18 expression is a molecular marker for leaf initiation, predicting the site of primordium formation at a time before histological changes can be detected. We propose a model for the regulation of phyllotaxis that postulates a crucial role for expansin in leaf primordium initiation.
In vegetative organs of plants, the metabolic switch from respiration to fermentation is dictated by oxygen availability. The two genes dedicated to ethanolic fermentation, pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase, are induced by oxygen deprivation and the gene products are active under oxygen stress. In pollen, these two genes are expressed in a stage-specific manner and transcripts accumulate to high levels, irrespective of oxygen availability. We have examined the expression pattern of pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase at the protein level in developing pollen and show that the active proteins are localized to the gametophytic tissue and begin to accumulate at microspore mitosis. A flux through the ethanolic fermentation pathway could already be detected very early in pollen development, occurring in all stages from premeiotic buds to mature pollen. This flux was primarily controlled not by oxygen availability, but rather by sugar supply. At a high rate of sugar metabolism, respiration and fermentation took place concurrently in developing and germinating pollen. We propose that aerobic fermentation provides a shunt from pyruvate to acetyl-CoA to accommodate the increased demand for energy and biosynthetic intermediates during pollen development and germination. A possible undesirable side-effect is the potential accumulation of toxic acetaldehyde. Our results support a model for cms-T-type male sterility in maize, in which degeneration of the tapetum is caused by the toxic effects of acetaldehyde on mitochondria weakened by the presence of the URF13 protein.
Acetaldehyde is one of the intermediate products of ethanolic fermentation, which can be reduced to ethanol by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Alternatively, acetaldehyde can be oxidized to acetate by aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) and subsequently converted to acetyl-CoA by acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACS). To study the expression of ALDHs in plants we isolated and characterized a cDNA coding for a putative mitochondrial ALDH (TobAldh2A) in Nicotiana tabacum. TobALDH2A shows 54-60% identity at the amino acid level with other ALDHs and shows 76% identity with maize Rf2, a gene involved in restoration of male fertility in cms-T maize. TobAldh2A transcripts and protein were present at high levels in the male and female reproductive tissues. Expression in vegetative tissues was much lower and no induction by anaerobic incubation was observed. This suggests that TobALDH expression is not part of the anaerobic response, but may have another function. The use of specific inhibitors of ALDH and the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex indicates that ALDH activity is important for pollen tube growth, and thus may have a function in biosynthesis or energy production.
The use of promoter-reporter gene constructs in transgenic plants is a powerful tool in the analysis of gene expression which can, however, be limited in the resolution of small structures, such as the apical meristem. This paper reports on a fluorescent imaging technique for the analysis of GUS reporter gene expression to cellular resolution in the apical meristem of tomato. Using this technique in combination with an RT-PCR analysis of RBS gene-specific transcript levels, it is shown that: 5' upstream sequences of RBCS genes are sufficient to mimic the pattern of transcripts revealed by in situ hybridisation (no expression in the apical meristem, high expression in the initiated leaf primordia); the genes RBCS2, RBCS3A and RBCS3B are transcriptionally activated upon primordium initiation with transcripts for RBCS1 and RBCS3C accumulating later in leaf development; and that RBCS promoter activity cannot be induced in the apical meristem by light, an environmental signal which elevates RBCS transcript level in other aerial parts of the plant. These data provide a detailed picture of the complex transcriptional events occurring on leaf initiation and the establishment of the photosynthetic machinery; they describe two complementary techniques which allow the analysis of such complex events at the tissue and cellular level; and they characterize an in vivo assay system which can be used to analyse the factors involved in the initiation and maintenance of gene expression patterns in the apical meristem.
The Nicotiana tabacum Itp1 gene (Ntltp1) encodes a small basic protein that belongs to a class of putative lipid transfer proteins. These proteins transfer lipids between membranes in vitro, but their in vivo function remains hotly debated. This gene also serves as an important early marker for epidermis differentiation. We report here the analysis of the spatial and developmental activity of the Ntltp1 promoter, and we define a sequence element required for epidermis-specific expression. Transgenic plants were created containing 1346 bp of the Ntltp1 promoter fused upstream of the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. In the mature aerial tissues, GUS activity was detected predominantly in the epidermis, whereas in younger aerial tissues, such as the shoot apical meristem and floral meristem, GUS expression was not restricted to the tunica layer. Unexpectedly, GUS activity was also detected in young roots particularly in the root epidermis. Furthermore, the Ntltp1 promoter displayed a tissue and developmental specific pattern of activity during germination. These results suggest that the Ntltp1 gene is highly expressed in regions of the plant that are vulnerable to pathogen attack and are thus consistent with the proposed function of lipid transfer proteins in plant defense. Deletions of the promoter from its 5' end revealed that the 148 bp preceding the translational start site are sufficient for epidermis-specific expression. Sequence comparison identified an eight-nucleotide palindromic sequence CTAGCTAG in the leader of Ntltp1, which is conserved in a number of other Itp genes. By gel retardation analysis, the presence of specific DNA-protein complexes in this region was demonstrated. The characterization of these factors may lead to the identification of factors that control early events in epidermis differentiation.
Eukaryotic translation initiation factor eIF-4A is an ATP-dependent RNA helicase that is required for the binding of mRNA to ribosomes. Plant eIF-4A-like proteins are highly homologous to eIF-4As from yeast, mouse and Drosophila melanogaster. The pattern of intron-exon boundaries in eIF-4A-like genes are conserved within tobacco, but are not conserved with other organisms. Fixed spacings between the functionally important sequence motifs, GKT-PTRELA (72 bp), DEAD-SAT (81 bp) and SAT-HRIGR (426 bp), are conserved between plants, mouse, Drosophila and yeast.
The NeIF-4A10 gene belongs to a family of at least ten genes, all of which encode closely related isoforms of translation initiation factor 4A. The promoter region of NeIF-4A10 was sequenced, and four mRNA 5' ends were determined. Deletions containing 2750, 689 and 188 bp of untranscribed upstream DNA were fused to the GUS reporter gene and introduced into transgenic tobacco. The three constructs mediated GUS expression in all cells of the leaf, stem and shoot apical meristem. Control experiments using in situ hybridization and tissue printing indicated that the observed GUS expression matches the expression patterns of NeIF-4A mRNA and protein. This detailed analysis at the level of mRNA, protein and reporter gene expression shows that NeIF-4A10 is an ideal constitutively expressed control gene. We argue that inclusion of such a control gene in experiments dealing with specifically expressed genes is in many cases essential for the correct interpretation of observed expression patterns.
A pollen-specific sequence, NeIF-4A8, has been isolated from a cDNA library from mature pollen of Nicotiana tabacum cv. Samsun. NeIF-4A8 is a full-length cDNA whose deduced amino acid sequence exhibits high homology to the eucaryotic translation initiation factor eIF-4A from mouse, Drosophila and tobacco. eIF-4A is an RNA helicase which belongs to the supergene family of DEAD-box proteins. Northern blot analysis with a gene-specific probe showed strict anther-specific expression of NeIF-4A8 starting at microspore mitosis. With antibodies raised against tobacco eIF-4A the presence of abundant eIF-4A-related proteins in developing anthers and pollen grains was demonstrated. The genomic analysis shows that the coding region is split by three introns whereas a large, fourth intron is situated in the 5'-untranslated region. A promoter construct with 2137 bp of upstream sequence fused to the GUS reporter gene was used to confirm that the expression is confined to the haploid cells within the anther. NeIF-4A8 is a prime candidate formediating translational control in the developing male gametophyte.
We characterized the genes coding for the two dedicated enzymes of ethanolic fermentation, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), and show that they are functional in pollen. Two PDC-encoding genes were isolated, which displayed reciprocal regulation: PDC1 was anaerobically induced in leaves, whereas PDC2 mRNA was absent in leaves, but constitutively present in pollen. A flux through the ethanolic fermentation pathway could be measured in pollen under all tested environmental and developmental conditions. Surprisingly, the major factor influencing the rate of ethanol production was not oxygen availability, but the composition of the incubation medium. Under optimal conditions for pollen tube growth, approximately two-thirds of the carbon consumed was fermented, and ethanol accumulated into the surrounding medium to a concentration exceeding 100 mM.
During oxygen limitation in higher plants, energy metabolism switches from respiration to fermentation. As part of this anaerobic response the expression of genes encoding pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) is strongly induced. In addition there is ample evidence for post-translational regulation. In order to understand this multi-level regulation of the anaerobic response, we provided tobacco with the constitutive capacity of ethanolic fermentation by expressing a PDC gene derived from the obligate anaerobe Zymomonas mobilis. The protein accumulated to high levels and was active in an in vitro assay. During the first 2-4 h of anoxia, acetaldehyde accumulated to 10- to 35-fold and ethanol to 8- to 20-fold higher levels than in wild-type. Under normoxic conditions no accumulation of acetaldehyde and ethanol could be measured. Instead, the two products may be immediately re-metabolized in tobacco leaf tissue. We show that aerobic fermentation takes place when the respiratory system is inhibited. Although these conditions enhance ethanolic fermentation under normoxia, they fail to increase ADH transcript levels. These results indicate that anaerobic transcription is triggered not by the metabolic consequences of oxygen limitation, but directly through an oxygen-sensing system.
Characterization of cDNAs encoding eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A (eIF-4A) indicates the expression of a minimum of ten related genes in tobacco leaf cells. The ten groups fall into two gene families, NeIF-4A2 and NeIF-4A3. The majority of the cDNAs exhibit significant sequence similarity to the NeIF-4A2 family at both the DNA and deduced amino acid levels. Northern analysis using specific probes indicates variable expression of four family members in various tobacco organs. Western analysis, using an anti-tobacco eIF-4A polyclonal antibody, reveals a complex pattern of immunologically related polypeptides of approximately 46 kDa. Subcellular fractionation suggests that at least one eIF-4A-related polypeptide is located in the chloroplast where it is ribosome-associated.
Experiments in Antirrinum majus, Arabidopsis thaliana and Petunia hybrida have demonstrated that putative transcription factors of the so-called MADS-box family play an important role in determining floral organ identity. Such regulatory genes are transiently expressed in small numbers of cells in the floral apex. Here we describe the isolation of a cDNA from Nicotiana tabacum coding for a MADS-box protein which is expressed in both the floral and vegetative organs of the plant.