title: The effect of carnitine on Arabidopsis development and recovery in salt stress conditions.
abstract: Carnitine exists in all living organisms where it plays diverse roles. In animals and yeast, it is implicated in lipid metabolism and is also associated with oxidative stress tolerance. In bacteria, it is a major player in osmotic stress tolerance. We investigate the carnitine function in plants and our present work shows that carnitine enhances the development and recovery of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings subjected to salt stress. Biological data show that exogenous carnitine supplies improve the germination and survival rates of seedlings grown on salt-enriched medium, in a manner comparable to proline. Both compounds are shown to improve seedling survival under oxidative constraint meaning that they may act on salt stress through antioxidant properties. A transcriptome analysis of seedlings treated with exogenous carnitine reveals that it modulates the expression of genes involved in water stress and abscisic acid responses. Analyses of the abscisic acid mutants, aba1-1 and abi1-1, indicate that carnitine and proline may act through a modulation of the ABA pathway.
authors.affiliation: Université de Technologie de Compiègne, UMR CNRS 6022 Génie Enzymatique et Cellulaire, BP 20529, 60205, Compiègne Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Aurélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Charrier
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rippa
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Phuong-Jean
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Renou
authors.forename: Yolande
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Perrin
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D002331:Carnitine / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000502:physiology; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism; D011392:Proline / Q000378:metabolism; D054712:Salinity; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000502:physiology*; D036226:Seedlings / Q000254:growth & development; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride; D000040:Abscisic Acid; D011392:Proline; D002331:Carnitine