Enhanced low oxygen survival in Arabidopsis through increased metabolic flux in the fermentative pathway

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • DePauw, M.
  • Good, A. G.
  • Dennis, E. S.
  • Dolferus, R.
  • Ismond, K. P.

• We manipulated the enzyme activity levels of the alcohol fermentation pathway, pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC), and alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) in Arabidopsis using sense and antisense overexpression of the corresponding genes (PDC1, PDC2, and ADH1). Transgenic plants were analyzed for levels of fermentation and evaluated for changes in hypoxic survival. Overexpression of either Arabidopsis PDC1 or PDC2 resulted in improved plant survival. In contrast, overexpression of Arabidopsis ADH1 had no effect on flooding survival. These results support the role of PDC as the control step in ethanol fermentation. Although ADH1 null mutants had decreased hypoxic survival, attempts to reduce the level of PDC activity enough to see an effect on plant survival met with limited success. The combination of flooding survival data and metabolite analysis allows identification of critical metabolic flux points. This information can be used to design transgenic strategies to improve hypoxic tolerance in plants.

• Date created

  2003

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Improving plant drought
  • Lactate-dehydrogenase
  • Cytoplasmic acidosis
  • Alcohol-dehydrogenase
  • Freezing tolerance
  • Anaerobic metabolism
  • Pyruvate decarboxylase
  • Submergence tolerance
  • Ethanolic fermentation
  • Maize root-tips

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3W37KV8Q

• License

  © 2003 American Society of Plant Biologists. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.