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Title: DO AMINO ACIDS REGULATE TRANSCRIPTION OF LIPOGENIC GENES IN DEVELOPING SOYBEAN SEEDS?

Author
item HERNANDEZ, CINTA - NC STATE UNIV
item SARAVITZ, CAROLE - NC STATE UNIV
item ZHANG, PING - NC STATE UNIV
item ISRAEL, DAN - NC STATE UNIV
item DEWEY, RALPH - NC STATE UNIV
item Huber, Steven

Submitted to: International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2003
Publication Date: 5/15/2003
Citation: Hernandez, C., Saravitz, C., Zhang, P., Israel, D., Dewey, R., Huber, S.C. 2003. Do amino acids regulate transcription of lipogenic genes in developing soybean seeds? [abstract]. International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology. Paper No. 3620.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Seed quality composition in soybean, as lipid or protein content, has been related to the capacity of the mother plant to supply higher doses of carbohydrate or nitrogen (respectively) in high-protein cultivars than in low-protein lines. Germplasm lines derived from recurrent selection for increased percent protein have a negative genetic correlation between percent of seed protein and percent of seed oil. We demonstrated that the major nitrogen supply to the seed -asparagine/glutamine- varies little between different ecotypes at the maternal level (apoplast and seed coat). However, developing soybean cotyledons control the accumulation of higher amounts of glutamine and asparagine in high protein genotypes, pointing out towards a different activity or number at the amino acid permeases level. The fate of 14C-Suc has been followed inside cotyledons through experiments supplying high and low levels of glutamine; high glutamine treatments (60 mM) enhanced sucrose uptake only under light conditions increasing its incorporation in storage protein compounds and inhibiting sucrose fate to triacylglycerides. Continuous (48 h) dark inhibited sucrose incorporation in both protein and oil compounds. RNA blots demonstrated that glutamine and asparagine act as a signal able to suppress or enhance expression of ACCase, FAD2.1, oleosin or conglycinin respectively in developing soybean seeds as a function of light exposure. We speculate that glutamine act as a recognized common signal between the lipogenic and storage proteins pathways that can coordinate both metabolic choices for a certain amount of sucrose available to the plant, and modulates its effect through the photoperiod. Microarray analyses from developing soybean seeds of high and low protein genotypes in vitro-cultured with different supplies of amino acids are under way.