Effects of impaired steryl ester biosynthesis on tomato growth and developmental processes
Burciaga-Monge, Alma (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
López-Tubau, Joan Manel (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Laibach, Natalie (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Deng, Cuiyun (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Ferrer, Albert (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)
Altabella Artigas, Teresa (Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica)

Date:	2022
Abstract:	Steryl esters (SE) are stored in cytoplasmic lipid droplets and serve as a reservoir of sterols that helps to maintain free sterols (FS) homeostasis in cell membranes throughout plant growth and development, and provides the FS needed to meet the high demand of these key plasma membrane components during rapid plant organ growth and expansion. SE are also involved in the recycling of sterols and fatty acids released from membranes during plant tissues senescence. SE are synthesized by sterol acyltransferases, which catalyze the transfer of long-chain fatty acid groups to the hydroxyl group at C3 position of FS. Depending on the donor substrate, these enzymes are called acyl-CoA:sterol acyltransferases (ASAT), when the substrate is a long-chain acyl-CoA, and phospholipid:sterol acyltransferases (PSAT), which use a phospholipid as a donor substrate. We have recently identified and preliminary characterized the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom) SlASAT1 and SlPSAT1 enzymes. To gain further insight into the biological role of these enzymes and SE biosynthesis in tomato, we generated and characterized CRISPR/Cas9 single knock-out mutants lacking SlPSAT1 (slpsat1) and SlASAT1 (slasat1), as well as the double mutant slpsat1 x slasat1. Analysis of FS and SE profiles in seeds and leaves of the single and double mutants revealed a strong depletion of SE in slpsat1, that was even more pronounced in the slpsat1 x slasat1 mutant, while an increase of SE levels was observed in slasat1. Moreover, SlPSAT1 and SlASAT1 inactivation affected in different ways several important cellular and physiological processes, like leaf lipid bo1dies formation, seed germination speed, leaf senescence, and the plant size. Altogether, our results indicate that SlPSAT1 has a predominant role in tomato SE biosynthesis while SlASAT1 would mainly regulate the flux of the sterol pathway. It is also worth to mention that some of the metabolic and physiological responses in the tomato mutants lacking functional SlPSAT1 or SlASAT1 are different from those previously reported in Arabidopsis, being remarkable the synergistic effect of SlASAT1 inactivation in the absence of a functional SlPSAT1 on the early germination and premature senescence phenotypes.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación AGL2017-88842-R Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2021-126591OB-I00 Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CEX2019-000902-S Agencia Estatal de Investigación PRE2018-084652 European Commission 945043
Note:	Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	CRISPR-Cas9 ; Germination ; Lipid droplets ; Phytosterols ; Senescence ; Sterol acyltransferase ; Steryl ester ; Tomato
Published in:	Frontiers in plant science, Vol. 13 (September 2022) , art. 984100, ISSN 1664-462X

DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.984100
PMID: 36247562

19 p, 13.1 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CRAG (Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics)
Articles > Research articles
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