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Molecular Biology and Gene Regulation

Time Course of mRNA Induction Elicited by Salt Stress in the Common Ice Plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum) ¹

Department of Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85721, Botanisches Institut, Universität Würzburg, D8700 Würzburg, Federal Republic of Germany

In the facultative halophyte Mesembryanthemum crystallinum (common ice plant), irrigation with solutions containing NaCl induces an alternate mode of carbon dioxide fixation, Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). The salt stress protocol which we have established facilitates the study of CAM induction and the correlation of changes in metabolism and gene expression. We have studied the time course of mRNA induction for phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) (gene: ppc) and several other enzymes of carbon metabolism during stress. While CAM is not fully established for at least 10 days after the start of stress, mRNA amounts for PEPCase and for other CAM enzymes, such as Pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase, increase between day 2 and 3 after stress induction. Increases continue for at least 5 days. Concomitant with the increase of CAM transcripts, fluctuations in the mRNA amounts for genes rbcS and cab were observed. Transcript levels for these proteins decreased several-fold during a 3 to 4 day period.

¹ The work is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (CRGP 87-2-2748; CRSR 86-2-2748), by Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station (ARZT 174441) and, in part, by the National Science Foundation (PCM83-18166) to H. J. B. J. M. S. is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Schm 490/3). H. J. B. and J. M. S. wish to acknowledge travel support by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (RG84/230).

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