title: Regulation of Leaf Starch Degradation by Abscisic Acid Is Important for Osmotic Stress Tolerance in Plants.
abstract: Starch serves functions that range over a timescale of minutes to years, according to the cell type from which it is derived. In guard cells, starch is rapidly mobilized by the synergistic action of β-AMYLASE1 (BAM1) and α-AMYLASE3 (AMY3) to promote stomatal opening. In the leaves, starch typically accumulates gradually during the day and is degraded at night by BAM3 to support heterotrophic metabolism. During osmotic stress, starch is degraded in the light by stress-activated BAM1 to release sugar and sugar-derived osmolytes. Here, we report that AMY3 is also involved in stress-induced starch degradation. Recently isolated Arabidopsis thaliana amy3 bam1 double mutants are hypersensitive to osmotic stress, showing impaired root growth. amy3 bam1 plants close their stomata under osmotic stress at similar rates as the wild type but fail to mobilize starch in the leaves. (14)C labeling showed that amy3 bam1 plants have reduced carbon export to the root, affecting osmolyte accumulation and root growth during stress. Using genetic approaches, we further demonstrate that abscisic acid controls the activity of BAM1 and AMY3 in leaves under osmotic stress through the AREB/ABF-SnRK2 kinase-signaling pathway. We propose that differential regulation and isoform subfunctionalization define starch-adaptive plasticity, ensuring an optimal carbon supply for continued growth under an ever-changing environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thalmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pazmino
authors.affiliation: Institute for Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Seung
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nigro
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Tiago
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.affiliation: Institute for Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2572-2603
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kölling
authors.affiliation: Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Hartwig W
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4201-4502
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Pfeifhofer
authors.affiliation: Institute for Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Samuel C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Zeeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Zürich, 8008 Zürich, Switzerland dsantelia@botinst.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Santelia
mesh_terms: D000040:Abscisic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D009997:Osmotic Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D013213:Starch / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C492978:SnRK2 protein, Arabidopsis; D000040:Abscisic Acid; D013213:Starch; C519658:BAM1 protein, Arabidopsis; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases