Abstract
l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is an abundant metabolite in plant cells and tissues. Ascorbate functions as an antioxidant, as an enzyme cofactor, and plays essential roles in multiple physiological processes including photosynthesis, photoprotection, control of cell cycle and cell elongation, and modulation of flowering time, gene regulation, and senescence. The importance of this key molecule in regulating whole plant morphology, cell structure, and plant development has been clearly established via characterization of low vitamin C mutants of Arabidopsis, potato, tobacco, tomato, and rice. However, the consequences of elevating ascorbate content in plant growth and development are poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that Arabidopsis lines overexpressing a myo-inositol oxygenase or an l-gulono-1,4-lactone oxidase, containing elevated ascorbate, display enhanced growth and biomass accumulation of both aerial and root tissues. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating such a marked positive effect in plant growth in lines engineered to contain elevated vitamin C content. In addition, we present evidence showing that these lines are tolerant to a wide range of abiotic stresses including salt, cold, and heat. Total ascorbate content of the transgenic lines remained higher than those of controls under the abiotic stresses tested. Interestingly, exposure to pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and known inducer of oxidative stress in plants, leads to stunted growth of the aerial tissue, reduction in the number of root hairs, and inhibition of leaf expansion in wild type plants, while these symptoms are less severe in the overexpressers. Our results indicate the potential of this metabolic engineering strategy to develop crops with enhanced biomass, abiotic stress tolerance, and phytoremediation capabilities.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr. Brenda Winkel (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA) for her gift of wild type Arabidopsis seeds, G Wilson, J Yactayo-Chang, and J Martínez-Quintana, for their contribution to plant care, P Vasu for assistance with chlorophyll measurements, and SI Aboobucker for critical reading of the text. This study was supported at AL Laboratory with funds from the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the major research component of the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000, and a sub-award from the Arkansas INBRE program (National Center for Research Resources (5P20RR016460-11) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (8P20GM103429-11) from the National Institutes of Health). K Lisko thanks the Molecular Biosciences PhD program for a scholarship. Preliminary work at CN Laboratory was supported by the Interagency Metabolic Engineering Program (National Science Foundation—Metabolic Biochemistry and Integrative Plant Biology, fund IBN118612, and US Department of Agriculture, fund 2002-3S321-11600).
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Lisko, K.A., Torres, R., Harris, R.S. et al. Elevating vitamin C content via overexpression of myo-inositol oxygenase and l-gulono-1,4-lactone oxidase in Arabidopsis leads to enhanced biomass and tolerance to abiotic stresses. In Vitro Cell.Dev.Biol.-Plant 49, 643–655 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-013-9568-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11627-013-9568-y