title: Altered levels of proline dehydrogenase cause hypersensitivity to proline and its analogs in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Pro dehydrogenase (PDH) catalyzes the first and rate-limiting step in the Pro catabolic pathway. In Arabidopsis, this enzyme is encoded by At-PDH. To investigate the role of Pro catabolism in plants, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis plants with altered levels of PDH by sense (PDH-S plants) and antisense (PDH-AS plants) strategies. Free Pro levels were reduced by up to 50% in PDH-S plants under stress and recovery conditions and enhanced by a maximum of 25% in PDH-AS plants, despite large modifications of the At-PDH transcript and At-PDH protein levels. A similar trend in free Pro levels was observed in the PDH-S and PDH-AS seeds without visible effects on germination or growth. Under stress conditions, PDH transgenic plants showed no signs of change in osmotolerance. However, addition of exogenous Pro increased survival rates of salt-stressed PDH-S plants by 30%. Isotope-labeling studies showed that the conversion of [14C]Pro to Glu was reduced in PDH-AS plants and increased in PDH-S plants, especially under stress conditions. Furthermore, PDH-AS plants were hypersensitive to exogenous Pro, whereas PDH-S plants were sensitive to Pro analogs. These findings demonstrate that altered At-PDH levels lead to weakly modified free Pro accumulation with a limited impact on plant development and growth, suggesting a tight control of Pro homeostasis and/or gene redundancy.
authors.affiliation: Vakgroep Moleculaire Genetica, Departement Plantengenetica, Vlaams Interuniversitair Instituut voor Biotechnologie, Universiteit Gent, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Srikrishnan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mani
authors.forename: Brigitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van De Cotte
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Montagu
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Verbruggen
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011392:Proline / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D011394:Proline Oxidase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D014867:Water / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D011392:Proline; D011394:Proline Oxidase