Expression of a bacterial serine acetyltransferase in transgenic potato plants leads to increased levels of cysteine and glutathione

Harms, Karsten; von Ballmoos, Peter; Brunold, Christian; Hofgen, Rainer; Hesse, Holger (2000). Expression of a bacterial serine acetyltransferase in transgenic potato plants leads to increased levels of cysteine and glutathione. The Plant Journal, 22(4), pp. 335-343. Wiley 10.1046/j.1365-313x.2000.00743.x

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The coding sequence of the wild-type, cys-sensitive, cysE gene from Escherichia coli, which encodes an enzyme of the cysteine biosynthetic pathway, namely serine acetyltransferase (SAT, EC 2.3.1.30), was introduced into the genome of potato plants under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter. In order to target the protein into the chloroplast, cysE was translationally fused to the 5′-signal sequence of rbcS from Arabidopsis thaliana. Transgenic plants showed a high accumulation of the cysE mRNA. The chloroplastic localisation of the E. coli SAT protein was demonstrated by determination of enzymatic activities in enriched organelle fractions. Crude leaf extracts of these plants exhibited up to 20-fold higher SAT activity than those prepared from wild-type plants. The transgenic potato plants expressing the E. coli gene showed not only increased levels of enzyme activity but also exhibited elevated levels of cysteine and glutathione in leaves. Both were up to twofold higher than in control plants. However, the thiol content in tubers of transgenic lines was unaffected. The alterations observed in leaf tissue had no effect on the expression of O-acetylserine(thiol)-lyase, the enzyme which converts O-acetylserine, the product of SAT, to cysteine. Only a minor effect on its enzymatic activity was observed. In conclusion, the results presented here demonstrate the importance of SAT in plant cysteine biosynthesis and show that production of cysteine and related sulfur-containing compounds can be enhanced by metabolic engineering.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Stress Physiology [discontinued]
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS)

UniBE Contributor:

von Ballmoos, Peter, Brunold, Christian

Subjects:

500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany)

ISSN:

0960-7412

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas

Date Deposited:

11 Mar 2016 10:58

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:53

Publisher DOI:

10.1046/j.1365-313x.2000.00743.x

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.78913

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/78913

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