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PLANTS INTERACTING WITH OTHER ORGANISMS

Starch Serves as Carbohydrate Storage in Nematode-Induced Syncytia^1,[W],[OA]

Institute of Plant Protection, Department of Applied Plant Sciences and Plant Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, A–1190 Vienna, Austria (J.H., D.S., S.D.-H., H.B., F.M.W.G.); Department of Chemical Ecology and Ecosystem Research, University of Vienna, A–1090 Vienna, Austria (A.B.); and Department of Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02–776 Warsaw, Poland (M.S., W.G.)

The plant parasitic nematode Heterodera schachtii induces specific syncytial feeding sites in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana from where it withdraws all required nutrients. Therefore, syncytia have to be well supplied with assimilates and generate strong sinks in the host plant's transport system. Import mechanisms and consequent accumulation of sucrose in syncytia were described recently. In this work, we studied the starch metabolism of syncytia. Using high-performance liquid chromatography and microscopic analyses, we demonstrated that syncytia store carbohydrates by starch accumulation. Further, we monitored the expression of genes involved in the starch metabolic pathway by gene chip analysis and quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. Finally, we provide functional proof of the importance of starch synthesis for nematode development using T-DNA insertion lines. We conclude that syncytia accumulate starch as a carbohydrate buffer to compensate for changing solute uptake by the nematode and as long-term storage during juvenile development.

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: Florian M.W. Grundler (florian.grundler{at}boku.ac.at).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

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www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.107.107367

^* Corresponding author; e-mail florian.grundler{at}boku.ac.at.

Received August 16, 2007; accepted October 24, 2007; published November 2, 2007.

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