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Salinity Promotes Accumulation of
3-Dimethylsulfoniopropionate and Its Precursor
S-Methylmethionine in Chloroplasts1
Claudine Trossat,
Bala Rathinasabapathi,
Elizabeth A. Weretilnyk2,
Tun-Li Shen,
Zhi-Heng Huang,
Douglas A. Gage, and
Andrew D. Hanson*
Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida 32611 (C.T., B.R., E.A.W., A.D.H.); and Biochemistry Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing,
Michigan 48824 (T.-L.S., Z.-H.H., D.A.G.)
Wollastonia
biflora (L.) DC. plants accumulate the osmoprotectant
3-dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), particularly when salinized. DMSP
is known to be synthesized in the chloroplast from
S-methylmethionine (SMM) imported from the cytosol, but
the sizes of the chloroplastic and extrachloroplastic pools of these
compounds are unknown. We therefore determined DMSP and SMM in
mesophyll protoplasts and chloroplasts. Salinization with 30% (v/v)
artificial seawater increased protoplast DMSP levels from 4.6 to 6.0 µmol mg 1 chlorophyll (Chl), and chloroplast levels from
0.9 to 1.9 µmol mg1 Chl. The latter are minimum values
because intact chloroplasts leaked DMSP during isolation. Correcting
for this leakage, it was estimated that in vivo about one-half of the
DMSP is chloroplastic and that stromal DMSP concentrations in control
and salinized plants are about 60 and 130 mm, respectively.
Such concentrations would contribute significantly to chloroplast
osmoregulation and could protect photosynthetic processes from stress
injury. SMM levels were measured using a novel mass-spectrometric
method. About 40% of the SMM was located in the chloroplast in
unsalinized W. biflora plants, as was about 80% in
salinized plants; the chloroplastic pool in both cases was
approximately 0.1 µmol mg1 Chl. In contrast,  85% of
the SMM was extrachloroplastic in pea (Pisum sativum L.)
and spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), which lack DMSP.
DMSP synthesis may be associated with enhanced accumulation of SMM in
the chloroplast.
1
This work was supported in part by National
Science Foundation grant nos. IBN-9514336 (to A.D.H.) and IBN-9628750
(to D.A.G.) and by an endowment from the C.V. Griffin, Sr., Foundation.
Mass-spectral data were acquired at the Michigan State
University-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Mass Spectrometry
Facility, which is supported in part by grant RR 00484 from NIH,
National Center for Research Resources. This is University of Florida
Agricultural Experiment Station journal series no. R-06059.
2
Permanent address: Department of Biology,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L85 4K1.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail adha{at}gnv.ifas.ufl.edu; fax
1-352-392-6479.
Plant Physiol. (1998) 116: 165-171
Copyright Clearance Center: 0032-0889/98/116/0165/07
© 1998 American Society of Plant Physiologists
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