Diurnal expression of five protein phosphatase type 2C genes in the common ice plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Ko Sato A C , Hiroaki Ohsato A , Shunsuke Izumi A , Saori Miyazaki A B D , Hans J. Bohnert B , Hiromitsu Moriyama A and Toshiyuki Fukuhara A EA Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 3-5-8 Saiwaicho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan.
B Department of Plant Biology, Department of Crop Sciences, and Institute for Genome Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
C Present address: The Kitasato Institute Research Center for Biologicals, 6-111 Arai, Kitamoto-shi, Saitama 364-0026, Japan.
D Present address: National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan.
E Corresponding author. Email: fuku@cc.tuat.ac.jp
Functional Plant Biology 34(7) 581-588 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP06342
Submitted: 28 December 2006 Accepted: 16 April 2007 Published: 4 July 2007
Abstract
The common ice plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L., is a eu-halophytic model species with an environmental stress-initiated switch from C3 photosynthesis to crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity in 6-week-old plants exposed to salt stress for 5 days was ~15-fold higher than before stress, indicating the salinity-dependent induction of the C3 to CAM transition. Five plant protein phosphatase type 2C (PP2C) genes were cloned, representative of five of the 10 plant PP2C sub-families. We measured mRNA levels of these PP2Cs and of myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase (Inps1) in 6-week-old plants before (C3) and after (CAM) salt stress. Remarkably, four PP2C genes and Inps1 were expressed with a diurnal fluctuation in plants in C3 mode. After salt-induced CAM induction, the six genes were expressed with more prominent fluctuations than before stress, suggesting that these PP2C genes may be involved in the diurnal regulation of protein phosphorylation in CAM. Under continuous light treatment the expression of two PP2C genes continued to fluctuate, indicating that their expression is controlled by circadian rhythm.
Additional keywords: circadian rhythm, crassulacean acid metabolism, diurnal rhythm, protein phosphatase type 2C, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 12025206 to TF) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology of Japan.
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