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Title: The dual effect of tubulin manipulation on Populus wood formation and drought tolerance

Abstract

The main objectives were to generate transgenic Populus with altered alpha- (TUA) and beta-tubulin (TUB) expression and/or post-translational modifications (PTMs) in a plant-wide, guard cell-specific or xylem-specific manner, and then to characterize the effects of the modifications on tree growth and wood properties. In short, strong effects on cell wall composition were noted in leaves where transgene expression was strong (Harding et al. 2017; Hu et al. in review). Subtle, but noteworthy effects were observed in wood (developing xylem) where transgene expression was weak (Swamy et al. 2015). Any effect of PTM manipulation was functionally recessive and/or confounded by tubulin overexpression. It was anticipated that PTM manipulation would affect tubulin half-life, and this is the question that was being addressed, but overall tubulin protein levels correlated with transgene expression levels. We also demonstrated that a dynamic C-terminal PTM known as the tyrosination/detyrosination cycle, so common in animal systems, and purportedly operational in plants, does not occur in wood-forming tissues of Populus (Hu et al. 2016). Contrary to the commonly hypothesized role of microtubules in directing microfibril deposition, cellulose content and microfibril angle were not changed in tubulin-overexpressing plants, nor were hemicellulose and lignin contents, in either wood or leaves. Instead,more » this project demonstrated that the extractability of pectin and xylan polysaccharides was sensitive to tubulin perturbations, with consequences in stomatal stress response and lignocellulosic biomass utilization. The work also revealed a complex interplay by multi-compartmental (cell wall and cytoskeleton) signaling that impinged upon the control of phenylpropanoid metabolic flux to modulate stomatal response to environmental stimuli.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
  3. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1416896
Report Number(s):
DOE-UGA-0008470
DOE Contract Number:  
SC0008470
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Related Information: Swamy P, Hu H, Pattathil S, Maloney V, Xiao H, Xue L-J, Chung J-D, Johnson VE, Zhu Y-Y, Peter GF, Hahn M, Mansfield SD, Harding SA, Tsai C-J (2015) Tubulin perturbation leads to unexpected cell wall modifications and affects stomatal behaviour in Populus. Journal of Experimental Botany 66: 6507-6518.Tsai C-J, Xue L-J (2015) CRISPRing into the woods. GM Crops & Food 6: 206-215.Xue L-J, Alabady MS, Mohebbi M, Tsai C-J (2015) Exploiting genome variation to improve next-generation sequencing data analysis and genome editing efficiency in Populus tremula x alba 717-1B4. Tree Genetics and Genomics 11: 82.Hu H, Gu X, Xue L-J, Swamy P, Harding SA, Tsai C-J (2016) Tubulin C-terminal post-translational modifications do not occur in wood forming tissue of Populus. Frontiers in Plant Science 7: 1493.Harding SA, Hu H, Nyamdari B, Xue L-J, Naran R, Tsai C-J (2017) Tubulins, rhythms and cell walls in poplar leaves: it’s all in the timing. Tree Physiology (in press) doi:10.1093/treephys/tpx104Hu H, Xue L-J, Tsai C-J, Harding SA (in review) Modulation of stress sensing and stomatal response by cell wall pectins and phenylpropanoids in tubulin-overexpressing Populus leaves. Submitted.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Citation Formats

Tsai, Chung Jui, Harding, Scott, Hahn, Michael, Peter, Gary, and Mansfield, Shawn. The dual effect of tubulin manipulation on Populus wood formation and drought tolerance. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.2172/1416896.
Tsai, Chung Jui, Harding, Scott, Hahn, Michael, Peter, Gary, & Mansfield, Shawn. The dual effect of tubulin manipulation on Populus wood formation and drought tolerance. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1416896
Tsai, Chung Jui, Harding, Scott, Hahn, Michael, Peter, Gary, and Mansfield, Shawn. 2017. "The dual effect of tubulin manipulation on Populus wood formation and drought tolerance". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1416896. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1416896.
@article{osti_1416896,
title = {The dual effect of tubulin manipulation on Populus wood formation and drought tolerance},
author = {Tsai, Chung Jui and Harding, Scott and Hahn, Michael and Peter, Gary and Mansfield, Shawn},
abstractNote = {The main objectives were to generate transgenic Populus with altered alpha- (TUA) and beta-tubulin (TUB) expression and/or post-translational modifications (PTMs) in a plant-wide, guard cell-specific or xylem-specific manner, and then to characterize the effects of the modifications on tree growth and wood properties. In short, strong effects on cell wall composition were noted in leaves where transgene expression was strong (Harding et al. 2017; Hu et al. in review). Subtle, but noteworthy effects were observed in wood (developing xylem) where transgene expression was weak (Swamy et al. 2015). Any effect of PTM manipulation was functionally recessive and/or confounded by tubulin overexpression. It was anticipated that PTM manipulation would affect tubulin half-life, and this is the question that was being addressed, but overall tubulin protein levels correlated with transgene expression levels. We also demonstrated that a dynamic C-terminal PTM known as the tyrosination/detyrosination cycle, so common in animal systems, and purportedly operational in plants, does not occur in wood-forming tissues of Populus (Hu et al. 2016). Contrary to the commonly hypothesized role of microtubules in directing microfibril deposition, cellulose content and microfibril angle were not changed in tubulin-overexpressing plants, nor were hemicellulose and lignin contents, in either wood or leaves. Instead, this project demonstrated that the extractability of pectin and xylan polysaccharides was sensitive to tubulin perturbations, with consequences in stomatal stress response and lignocellulosic biomass utilization. The work also revealed a complex interplay by multi-compartmental (cell wall and cytoskeleton) signaling that impinged upon the control of phenylpropanoid metabolic flux to modulate stomatal response to environmental stimuli.},
doi = {10.2172/1416896},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1416896}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 29 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Fri Dec 29 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}