title: Transcriptome and metabolome analysis of plant sulfate starvation and resupply provides novel information on transcriptional regulation of metabolism associated with sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus nutritional responses in Arabidopsis.
abstract: Sulfur is an essential macronutrient for plant growth and development. Reaching a thorough understanding of the molecular basis for changes in plant metabolism depending on the sulfur-nutritional status at the systems level will advance our basic knowledge and help target future crop improvement. Although the transcriptional responses induced by sulfate starvation have been studied in the past, knowledge of the regulation of sulfur metabolism is still fragmentary. This work focuses on the discovery of candidates for regulatory genes such as transcription factors (TFs) using 'omics technologies. For this purpose a short term sulfate-starvation/re-supply approach was used. ATH1 microarray studies and metabolite determinations yielded 21 TFs which responded more than 2-fold at the transcriptional level to sulfate starvation. Categorization by response behaviors under sulfate-starvation/re-supply and other nutrient starvations such as nitrate and phosphate allowed determination of whether the TF genes are specific for or common between distinct mineral nutrient depletions. Extending this co-behavior analysis to the whole transcriptome data set enabled prediction of putative downstream genes. Additionally, combinations of transcriptome and metabolome data allowed identification of relationships between TFs and downstream responses, namely, expression changes in biosynthetic genes and subsequent metabolic responses. Effect chains on glucosinolate and polyamine biosynthesis are discussed in detail. The knowledge gained from this study provides a blueprint for an integrated analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics and application for the identification of uncharacterized genes.
authors: Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Wroclaw Medical University Wroclaw, Poland ; Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
authors: Monika
authors: M
authors: Bielecka
authors: Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
authors: Mutsumi
authors: M
authors: Watanabe
authors: Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany ; Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Salamanca, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Salamanca, Spain.
authors: Rosa
authors: R
authors: Morcuende
authors: Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany ; Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Ardmore, OK, USA.
authors: Wolf-Rüdiger
authors: WR
authors: Scheible
authors: Rothamsted Research, Plant Biology and Crop Science Department Harpenden, UK.
authors: Malcolm J
authors: MJ
authors: Hawkesford
authors: Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
authors: Holger
authors: H
authors: Hesse
authors: Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Potsdam-Golm, Germany.
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Hoefgen
keywords: metabolomics; microarray; nitrate; phosphate; sulfate starvation; sulfur; transcription factor; transcriptomics