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Title: Diversion of Carbon Flux from Sugars to Lipids Improves the Growth of an Arabidopsis Starchless Mutant

Abstract

Inactivation of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase1 (ADG1) causes a starchless phenotype in Arabidopsis. Mutants defective in ADG1 show severe growth retardation in day/night conditions but exhibit similar growth to the wild type under continuous light, implying an important role of starch in supporting respiration, metabolism and growth at night. In addition to carbohydrates, lipids and proteins can serve as alternative respiratory substrates for energy production in mature plants. To test the role of lipids in diurnal growth, we generated transgenic plants overexpressing phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase1 (PDAT1) in adg1. We found that PDAT1 overexpression caused an increase in both fatty acid synthesis and turnover and increased accumulation of triacylglycerol (TAG) at the expense of sugars, and improved the diurnal growth of adg1. We demonstrated that unlike sugars, which were metabolized within a few hours of darkness, TAG breakdown was slow, occurring throughout the entire dark period. The slow pace of TAG hydrolysis enabled a sustained supply of fatty acids for energy production, thereby alleviating energy deficiency at night and hence improving growth of the starchless mutants. We conclude that lipids can contribute to diurnal plant growth by providing a constant supply of fatty acids as an alternative energy source in mature starchless mutant plants.

Authors:
; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ; ORCiD logo
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), Urbana, IL (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division
OSTI Identifier:
1543017
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1546074; OSTI ID: 1556883
Report Number(s):
BNL-211945-2019-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 2223-7747; PLANCD; PII: plants8070229
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0018420 and DE-SC0012704; SC0018420; SC0012704
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Plants
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Plants Journal Volume: 8 Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2223-7747
Publisher:
MDPI AG
Country of Publication:
Netherlands
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; starch; sugars; lipids; triacylglycerol; phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase1; phospholipid; diacylglycerol acyltransferase1

Citation Formats

Fan, Jilian, Zhou, Chao, Yu, Linhui, Li, Ping, Shanklin, John, and Xu, Changcheng. Diversion of Carbon Flux from Sugars to Lipids Improves the Growth of an Arabidopsis Starchless Mutant. Netherlands: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.3390/plants8070229.
Fan, Jilian, Zhou, Chao, Yu, Linhui, Li, Ping, Shanklin, John, & Xu, Changcheng. Diversion of Carbon Flux from Sugars to Lipids Improves the Growth of an Arabidopsis Starchless Mutant. Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8070229
Fan, Jilian, Zhou, Chao, Yu, Linhui, Li, Ping, Shanklin, John, and Xu, Changcheng. Wed . "Diversion of Carbon Flux from Sugars to Lipids Improves the Growth of an Arabidopsis Starchless Mutant". Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8070229.
@article{osti_1543017,
title = {Diversion of Carbon Flux from Sugars to Lipids Improves the Growth of an Arabidopsis Starchless Mutant},
author = {Fan, Jilian and Zhou, Chao and Yu, Linhui and Li, Ping and Shanklin, John and Xu, Changcheng},
abstractNote = {Inactivation of ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase1 (ADG1) causes a starchless phenotype in Arabidopsis. Mutants defective in ADG1 show severe growth retardation in day/night conditions but exhibit similar growth to the wild type under continuous light, implying an important role of starch in supporting respiration, metabolism and growth at night. In addition to carbohydrates, lipids and proteins can serve as alternative respiratory substrates for energy production in mature plants. To test the role of lipids in diurnal growth, we generated transgenic plants overexpressing phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase1 (PDAT1) in adg1. We found that PDAT1 overexpression caused an increase in both fatty acid synthesis and turnover and increased accumulation of triacylglycerol (TAG) at the expense of sugars, and improved the diurnal growth of adg1. We demonstrated that unlike sugars, which were metabolized within a few hours of darkness, TAG breakdown was slow, occurring throughout the entire dark period. The slow pace of TAG hydrolysis enabled a sustained supply of fatty acids for energy production, thereby alleviating energy deficiency at night and hence improving growth of the starchless mutants. We conclude that lipids can contribute to diurnal plant growth by providing a constant supply of fatty acids as an alternative energy source in mature starchless mutant plants.},
doi = {10.3390/plants8070229},
journal = {Plants},
number = 7,
volume = 8,
place = {Netherlands},
year = {Wed Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Wed Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8070229

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Cited by: 10 works
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