Plastid redox state and sugars: Interactive regulators of nuclear-encoded photosynthetic gene expression

O Oswald, T Martin, P J Dominy, I A Graham

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Feedback regulation of photosynthesis by carbon metabolites has long been recognized, but the underlying cellular mechanisms that control this process remain unclear. By using an Arabidopsis cell culture, we show that a block in photosynthetic electron flux prevents the increase in transcript levels of chlorophyll a/b-binding protein and the small subunit of Rubisco that typically occurs when intracellular sugar levels are depleted. In contrast, the expression of the nitrate reductase gene, which is induced by sugars, is not affected. These findings were confirmed in planta by using Arabidopsis carrying the firefly luciferase reporter gene fused to the plastocyanin and chlorophyll a/b-binding protein 2 gene promoters. Transcription from both promoters increases on carbohydrate depletion. Blocking photosynthetic electron transport with 3-(3',4'-dichlorophenyl)-1,1'-dimethylurea prevents this increase in transcription. We conclude that plastid-derived redox signaling can override the sugar-regulated expression of nuclear-encoded photosynthetic genes. In the sugar-response mutant, sucrose uncoupled 6 (sun6), plastocyanin-firefly luciferase transcription actually increases in response to exogenous sucrose rather than decreasing as in the wild type. Interestingly, plastid-derived redox signals do not influence this defective pattern of sugar-regulated gene expression in the sun6 mutant. A model, which invokes a positive inducer originating from the photosynthetic electron transport chain, is proposed to explain the nature of the plastid-derived signal.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2047-2052
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume98
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Feb 2001

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2001 by the National Academy of Sciences

Keywords

  • ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA
  • ELECTRON-TRANSPORT
  • HIGHER-PLANTS
  • INSENSITIVE MUTANTS
  • LIGHT-INTENSITY
  • BINDING PROTEIN
  • BARLEY LEAVES
  • MESSENGER-RNA
  • ABSCISIC-ACID
  • CAB

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