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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Plant Gene Expression Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344183
Title: S-Adenosylmethionine synthetase 3 is important for pollen tube growth

Author
item CHEN, YUAN - University Of California
item ZOU, T - University Of California
item MCCORMICK, SHELIA - University Of California

Submitted to: Plant Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/2016
Publication Date: 8/3/2016
Citation: Chen, Y., Zou, T., McCormick, S. 2016. S-Adenosylmethionine synthetase 3 is important for pollen tube growth. Plant Physiology. 172(1):244-253. doi:10.1104//.16.00774.

Interpretive Summary: S-Adenosylmethionine synthetase (SAMS) is the only enzyme that synthesizes S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) from ATP and l-Met. SAM is used in a wide variety of biological reactions and is the major hub of Methionine metabolism. In this paper, they present evidence that MAT3, a SAMS expressed in pollen, plays an important role during pollen germination and pollen tube growth. Homozygous mat3/mat3 pollen overaccumulates Met. Metabolic profiling showed that several metabolic pathways are altered in mat3/mat3 pollen grains and pollen tubes. Epigenetic marks and tRNA methylation were altered in mat3/mat3 pollen These results support the idea that MAT3 is required for pollen germination and pollen tube growth by affecting metabolic pathways and for maintaining histone and tRNA methylation.

Technical Abstract: S-Adenosylmethionine is widely used in a variety of biological reactions and participates in the methionine (Met) metabolic pathway. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), one of the four S-adenosylmethionine synthetase genes, METHIONINE ADENOSYLTRANSFERASE3 (MAT3), is highly expressed in pollen. Here, we show that mat3 mutants have impaired pollen tube growth and reduced seed set. Metabolomics analyses confirmed that mat3 pollen and pollen tubes overaccumulate Met and that mat3 pollen has several metabolite profiles, such as those of polyamine biosynthesis, which are different from those of the wild type. Additionally, we show that disruption of Met metabolism in mat3 pollen affected transfer RNA and histone methylation levels. Thus, our results suggest a connection between metabolism and epigenetics.