First published online July 2, 2004; 10.1104/pp.104.042184
Plant Physiology 135:1367-1377 (2004)
© 2004 American Society of Plant Biologists
CELL BIOLOGY AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION
Signal Peptide-Dependent Targeting of a Rice -Amylase and Cargo Proteins to Plastids and Extracellular Compartments of Plant Cells1
Min-Huei Chen2,3,
Li-Fen Huang2,4,
Hsou-min Li,
Yung-Reui Chen and
Su-May Yu*
Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, 11529 Taiwan, Republic of China (M.-H.C., L.-F.H., H.-m.L., S.-M.Y.); and Department of Botany, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10764 Taiwan, Republic of China (M.-H.C., Y.-R.C.)
-Amylases are important enzymes for starch degradation in plants. However, it has been a long-running debate as to whether -amylases are localized in plastids where starch is stored. To study the subcellular localization of -amylases in plant cells, a rice (Oryza sativa) -amylase, Amy3, with or without its own signal peptide (SP) was expressed in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and analyzed. Loss-of-function analyses revealed that SP was required for targeting of Amy3 to chloroplasts and/or amyloplasts and cell walls and/or extracellular compartments of leaves and suspension cells. SP was also required for in vitro transcribed and/or translated Amy3 to be cotranslationally imported and processed in canine microsomes. Amy3, present in chloroplasts of transgenic tobacco leaves, was processed to a product with Mr similar to Amy3 minus its SP. Amino acid sequence analysis revealed that the SP of chloroplast localized Amy3 was cleaved at a site only one amino acid preceding the predicted cleavage site. Function of the Amy3 SP was further studied by gain-of-function analyses. -Glucuronidase (GUS) and green fluorescence protein fused with or without the Amy3 SP was expressed in transgenic tobacco or rice. The Amy3 SP directed translocation of GUS and green fluorescence protein to chloroplasts and/or amyloplasts and cell walls in tobacco leaves and rice suspension cells. The SP of another rice -amylase, Amy8, similarly directed the dual localizations of GUS in transgenic tobacco leaves. This study is the first evidence of SP-dependent dual translocations of proteins to plastids and extracellular compartments, which provides new insights into the role of SP in protein targeting and the pathways of SP-dependent protein translocation in plants.
1 This work was supported by Academia Sinica of the Republic of China.
2 These authors contributed equally to the paper.
3 Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Life Science Building, SUNY at Stony Brook, Life Science Building, Stony Brook, NY 11794.
4 Present address: Program in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology, Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.104.042184.
* Corresponding author; e-mail sumay{at}imb.sinica.edu.tw; fax 886227882695 or 886227826085.
Received March 6, 2004;
returned for revision April 5, 2004;
accepted April 6, 2004.
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