A device for single leaf labelling with CO2 isotopes to study carbon allocation and partitioning in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plant Methods

Samuel C Zeeman¹  Patrick Flütsch¹  Antonia Müller¹  Katharina Kölling¹ 

[1] Department of Biology, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Universitätsstrasse 2, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

关键词: Sink-source relationships;    Isotope labelling;    Phloem transport;    Assimilate partitioning;    Carbohydrate metabolism;    Photosynthesis;    Arabidopsis;   

Others  :  805658
DOI  :  10.1186/1746-4811-9-45

 received in 2013-07-09, accepted in 2013-11-01,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Plant biomass consists primarily of carbohydrates derived from photosynthesis. Monitoring the assimilation of carbon via the Calvin-Benson cycle and its subsequent utilisation is fundamental to understanding plant growth. The use of stable and radioactive carbon isotopes, supplied to plants as CO₂, allows the measurement of fluxes through the intermediates of primary photosynthetic metabolism, long-distance transport of sugars in the vasculature, and the synthesis of structural and storage components.

Results

Here we describe the design of a system for supplying isotopically labelled CO₂ to single leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana. We demonstrate that the system works well using short pulses of ¹⁴CO₂ and that it can be used to produce robust qualitative and quantitative data about carbon export from source leaves to the sink tissues, such as the developing leaves and the roots. Time course experiments show the dynamics of carbon partitioning between storage as starch, local production of biomass, and export of carbon to sink tissues.

Conclusion

This isotope labelling method is relatively simple to establish and inexpensive to perform. Our use of ¹⁴CO₂ helps establish the temporal and spatial allocation of assimilated carbon during plant growth, delivering data complementary to those obtained in recent studies using ¹³CO₂ and MS-based metabolomics techniques. However, we emphasise that this labelling device could also be used effectively in combination with ¹³CO₂ and MS-based techniques.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Kölling et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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