Sulfite Oxidase Activity Is Essential for Normal Sulfur, Nitrogen and Carbon Metabolism in Tomato Leaves

Plants

Galina Brychkova¹  Dmitry Yarmolinsky¹  Albert Batushansky¹  Vladislav Grishkevich¹  Inna Khozin-Goldberg¹  Aaron Fait¹  Rachel Amir³  Robert Fluhr²  Moshe Sagi¹ 

[1] French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus 84990, Israel; E-Mails:;Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, P.O.B. 26 Rehovot 76100, Israel; E-Mail:;Migal-Galilee Technology Center, Southern Industrial Zone, POB831 Kiryat-Shmona 11016, Israel; E-Mail:

关键词: sulfite oxidase;    dark-induced senescence;    sulfur;    nitrogen;    carbon metabolism;    lipid degradation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/plants4030573

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Plant sulfite oxidase [SO; E.C.1.8.3.1] has been shown to be a key player in protecting plants against exogenous toxic sulfite. Recently we showed that SO activity is essential to cope with rising dark-induced endogenous sulfite levels in tomato plants (Lycopersicon esculentum/Solanum lycopersicum Mill. cv. Rheinlands Ruhm). Here we uncover the ramifications of SO impairment on carbon, nitrogen and sulfur (S) metabolites. Current analysis of the wild-type and SO-impaired plants revealed that under controlled conditions, the imbalanced sulfite level resulting from SO impairment conferred a metabolic shift towards elevated reduced S-compounds, namely sulfide, S-amino acids (S-AA), Co-A and acetyl-CoA, followed by non-S-AA, nitrogen and carbon metabolite enhancement, including polar lipids. Exposing plants to dark-induced carbon starvation resulted in a higher degradation of S-compounds, total AA, carbohydrates, polar lipids and total RNA in the mutant plants. Significantly, a failure to balance the carbon backbones was evident in the mutants, indicated by an increase in tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) cycle intermediates, whereas a decrease was shown in stressed wild-type plants. These results indicate that the role of SO is not limited to a rescue reaction under elevated sulfite, but SO is a key player in maintaining optimal carbon, nitrogen and sulfur metabolism in tomato plants.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.