First published online January 21, 2005; 10.1104/pp.104.055566
Plant Physiology 137:611-622 (2005)
© 2005 American Society of Plant Biologists
BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES AND MACROMOLECULAR STRUCTURES
Enhanced Photosynthetic Performance and Growth as a Consequence of Decreasing Mitochondrial Malate Dehydrogenase Activity in Transgenic Tomato Plants1
Adriano Nunes-Nesi,
Fernando Carrari,
Anna Lytovchenko,
Anna M.O. Smith,
Marcelo Ehlers Loureiro,
R. George Ratcliffe,
Lee J. Sweetlove and
Alisdair R. Fernie*
Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie, 14476 Golm, Germany (A.N.-N., F.C., A.L., A.R.F.); Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RB, United Kingdom (A.M.O.S., R.G.R., L.J.S.); and Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, ViçosaMinas Gerais, Brazil (M.E.L.)
Transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants expressing a fragment of the mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase gene in the antisense orientation and exhibiting reduced activity of this isoform of malate dehydrogenase show enhanced photosynthetic activity and aerial growth under atmospheric conditions (360 ppm CO2). In comparison to wild-type plants, carbon dioxide assimilation rates and total plant dry matter were up to 11% and 19% enhanced in the transgenics, when assessed on a whole-plant basis. Accumulation of carbohydrates and redox-related compounds such as ascorbate was also markedly elevated in the transgenics. Also increased in the transgenic plants was the capacity to use L-galactono-lactone, the terminal precursor of ascorbate biosynthesis, as a respiratory substrate. Experiments in which ascorbate was fed to isolated leaf discs also resulted in increased rates of photosynthesis providing strong indication for an ascorbate-mediated link between the energy-generating processes of respiration and photosynthesis. This report thus shows that the repression of this mitochondrially localized enzyme improves both carbon assimilation and aerial growth in a crop species.
1 This work was supported by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (to F.C., A.N.-N., A.L., and A.R.F.), by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (A.N.-N.), by Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (A.N.-N.), and by the United Kingdom Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (A.M.O.S., R.G.R., and L.J.S.).
Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.104.055566.
* Corresponding author; e-mail fernie{at}mpimp-golm.mpg.de; fax 49(0)3315678408.
Received October 23, 2004;
returned for revision December 3, 2004;
accepted December 5, 2004.
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