Arabidopsis thaliana Transcriptome or Gene expression
Carbon (C) assimilation in plants requires a signaling network to regulate its distribution, storage and use during growth and development. A central component of this network is trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P). This key signaling molecule is synthesized by Class I TREHALOSE PHOSPHATE SYNTHASE (TPS) enzymes, mainly TPS1, in Arabidopsis thaliana. In contrast, the roles of class II TPS genes, i.e., TPS5-TPS11, remain largely unknown. In this study, the analysis of transgenic A. thaliana lines overexpressing (OE) the AtTPS5 and AtTPS6 class II genes were found to produce morphological alterations compared to wild type (WT) plants, as well as distinct phenotypes across multiple developmental-related traits, including seed germination, root development, rosette vegetative growth, flowering time, inflorescence size, seed yield and sensitivity to exogenous abscisic acid, trehalose and sucrose. OE plants also displayed significant alterations in ATPase activity in roots and leaves, detected by densitometric quantification of phosphothreonine-immunodetected bands (~100 kDa) at 7 and 15 days after germination, a finding that proposed a link between these genes and the regulation of ATP synthesis.