Starch as a major integrator in the regulation of plant growth.
Rising demand for food and bioenergy makes it imperative to breed for increased crop yield. Vegetative plant growth could be driven by resource acquisition or developmental programs. Metabolite profiling in 94 Arabidopsis accessions revealed that biomass correlates negatively with many metabolites, especially starch. Starch accumulates in the light and is degraded at night to provide a sustained supply of carbon for growth. Multivariate analysis revealed that starch is an integrator of the overall metabolic response. We hypothesized that this reflects variation in a regulatory network that balances growth with the carbon supply. Transcript profiling in 21 accessions revealed coordinated changes of transcripts of more than 70 carbon-regulated genes and identified 2 genes (myo-inositol-1-phosphate synthase, a Kelch-domain protein) whose transcripts correlate with biomass. The impact of allelic variation at these 2 loci was shown by association mapping, identifying them as candidate lead genes with the potential to increase biomass production.
Sulpice
Ronan
R
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Am Muehlenberg 1, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
Pyl
Eva-Theresa
ET
Ishihara
Hirofumi
H
Trenkamp
Sandra
S
Steinfath
Matthias
M
Witucka-Wall
Hanna
H
Gibon
Yves
Y
Usadel
Björn
B
Poree
Fabien
F
Piques
Maria Conceição
MC
Von Korff
Maria
M
Steinhauser
Marie Caroline
MC
Keurentjes
Joost J B
JJ
Guenther
Manuela
M
Hoehne
Melanie
M
Selbig
Joachim
J
Fernie
Alisdair R
AR
Altmann
Thomas
T
Stitt
Mark
M
D000483:Alleles; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000235:genetics*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D013213:Starch / Q000378:metabolism*
D013213:Starch