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BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES AND MACROMOLECULAR STRUCTURES

Arabidopsis Seedlings Deficient in a Plastidic Pyruvate Kinase Are Unable to Utilize Seed Storage Compounds for Germination and Establishment^1,[OA]

Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory (C.A.), Department of Plant Biology (C.A.), and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (C.B.), Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824

Catabolism of storage reserves and biosynthesis of metabolites necessary for growth are essential for seed germination and establishment. An Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant (pkp1) deficient in plastidic pyruvate kinase (PK_p) and unable to accumulate storage oil to the same extent as the wild type shows delayed germination and seedling establishment dependent on an exogenous sugar supply. It appears, however, as though these phenotypes are not entirely caused specifically by lack of seed oil and may be related to reduced PK_p activity in germinating seeds. Increasing the sucrose concentration in the medium further inhibits germination of pkp1, possibly due to the accumulation of soluble sugars in seeds. Germinating seeds of pkp1 are unable to metabolize storage oil and cannot utilize applied sucrose for hypocotyl elongation in the dark. Moreover, pkp1 contains less tocopherol and chlorophyll than the wild type. Taken together, the results are consistent with a model in which PK_p is required for the efficient conversion of sugar into precursors for different anabolic pathways.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Christoph Benning (benning{at}msu.edu).

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www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.107.108340

^* Corresponding author; e-mail benning{at}msu.edu.

Received August 29, 2007; accepted October 24, 2007; published October 26, 2007.

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