Like mung bean leaves (Fig. 3A), no differences in respiration were
seen between soybean cotyledons from plants grown at 14°C and those
grown at 28°C when measured at the same temperature (Table
I).
View this table:
[in this window]
[in a new window]
|
Table I.
Effect of growth temperature on oxygen-isotope
fractionation, respiration (Vt), and activity of the
alternative (valt) and Cyt pathways
(vcyt) of soybean cotyledons grown at 14°C or
28°C
Fractionation values for soybean cotyledons were 31.1 for
the alternative oxidase and 20.1 for Cyt oxidase. Values are
means ± SE of five replicates.
|
|
Effects of Temperature on Alternative Pathway Activity
CN-resistant respiratory activity was more sensitive to
temperature than the SHAM-resistant respiratory activity of the Cyt pathway (Fig. 4). In leaves of both high-
and low-temperature-grown mung bean, the apparent
Q10 for CN-resistant oxygen
uptake between 10°C and 30°C averaged about
3.0, whereas it was close to 2.0 for SHAM-resistant respiration (Fig.
4). Oxygen fractionation by the alternative oxidase in mung bean
hypocotyls and leaves and in soybean cotyledons maintained a constant
value of 30
to 31
over this temperature range (Fig. 4).

View larger version (16K):
[in this window]
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| Figure 4.
Effect of temperature on CN- and SHAM-resistant
respiration and oxygen isotope fractionation during CN-resistant
respiration in mung bean leaves. Q10 values for
CN-resistant ( ) and SHAM-resistant ( ) respiration obtained from
the resulting curves were 2.7 and 1.9, respectively. Oxygen-isotope
fractionation values measured in the presence of CN were pooled from
mung bean leaves of plants grown at 19°C and 28°C. Values are
means ± SE of four to nine replicates. fw, Fresh
weight.
|
|
In mung bean hypocotyls grown at 19°C, electron partitioning to the
alternative pathway remained low (15% of total respiration) and
constant between 9°C and 28°C (fractionation value of about 21.5
; Fig. 2B). The oxygen isotope fractionation in hypocotyls of
plants grown at 28°C was also low and constant between 28°C and
19°C, but decreased to the value of the Cyt pathway by 14°C (Fig.
2B). Respiration through the alternative pathway in hypocotyls of
plants grown at 19°C was always higher than that in plants grown at
28°C (Fig. 2C).
In contrast to hypocotyls, the partitioning of electrons to the
alternative oxidase in mung bean leaves was considerably higher (fractionation value of 24.0
; Fig. 3B) and represented about 40% of
total respiration when measured at the growth temperature for either
low- or high-temperature-grown plants (Fig. 3B). When leaves of mung
bean plants grown at 28°C were measured at 19°C, electron
partitioning to the alternative pathway decreased to 25%
(fractionation value of 22.6
, Fig. 3B), whereas plants grown at
19°C maintained 40% partitioning of electrons to the alternative pathway, from 19°C to 28°C (Fig. 3B). With plants grown at either temperature, when the measurement temperature was increased to 35°C,
electron partitioning to the alternative pathway was maintained at 40%
(Fig. 3B). Electron partitioning to the alternative pathway decreased
at measurement temperatures below 19°C in both groups of plants, but
its value was always higher in leaves grown at 19°C than in those
grown at 28°C (Fig. 3B). Therefore, respiration via the alternative
pathway in plants grown at 19°C compared with plants grown at 28°C
was higher at measurement temperatures of 19°C or below, but not at
temperatures equal to or above 28°C (Fig. 3C).
In soybean cotyledons neither the oxygen isotope fractionation nor the
alternative pathway respiration was significantly affected by growth
temperature when low- or high-temperature-grown plants were measured at
either 14°C or 28°C (Table I).
 |
DISCUSSION |
Mung bean plants maintained at a low, growth-limiting temperature
(19°C) showed an increase in alternative oxidase protein levels (Fig.
1), which is consistent with previous observations made with corn
seedlings (Stewart et al., 1990
) and cultured tobacco cells
(Vanlerberghe and McIntosh, 1992
). However, this was not the case for
soybean cotyledons, in which the already high protein levels seen in
plants grown at 28°C were unchanged in plants held at a
growth-limiting temperature of 14°C (Fig. 1).
CN-resistant respiration has been correlated with the amount of
alternative oxidase protein (Obenland et al., 1990
; Vanlerberghe and
McIntosh, 1992
, 1996
; Rhoads and McIntosh, 1993
; Fiorani et al., 1998
).
Although the observed increases in alternative oxidase protein levels
in mung bean hypocotyls and leaves are related to increases in the rate
of CN-resistant respiration, this relationship is not linear (Fig. 1).
In mung bean leaves, alternative oxidase protein levels increased more
(5-fold) than CN-resistant respiration rates (2-fold) in low- versus
high-temperature-grown plants (Fig. 1). Furthermore, the respiration
through the alternative pathway in the absence of inhibitors at 25°C
in mung bean leaves grown at 28°C (8 µmol O2
g
1 fresh weight h
1;
Fig. 3C) was higher than the rate of CN-resistant respiration measured
at 25°C (6 µmol O2 g
1
fresh weight h
1; Fig. 1). Our results show that
although CN-resistant respiration rates are related to protein levels,
the response is not linear and CN-resistant respiration cannot be used
as a quantitative estimation of the capacity of the alternative
pathway.
The above observations suggest that regulatory mechanisms may act to
vary alternative oxidase activity depending on metabolic conditions.
However, the observation that respiration through the alternative
pathway varies in response to temperature does not indicate where the
regulation takes place; effects upstream of the ubiquinone pool are as
likely to be involved as effects on the alternative oxidase (Krab,
1995
). The presence of mechanisms that regulate respiration through the
alternative pathway are also illustrated by the response of mung bean
hypocotyls to growth temperature. The respiration rate of hypocotyls
from plants grown at 28°C in the presence of CN (4 µmol
O2 g
1 fresh weight
h
1 at 25°C; Fig. 1) was much higher than the
alternative pathway activity measured in the absence of CN in plants
grown at 19°C (up to 2.0 µmol O2
g
1 fresh weight h
1 at
30°C; Fig. 2C). However, alternative oxidase protein content was
increased 3-fold in plants grown at 19°C compared with plants grown
at 28°C, raising the rate in the presence of CN to 10 µmol O2 g
1 fresh weight
h
1 at 25°C (Fig. 1), well above the observed
activity in the absence of inhibitors (Fig. 2C). Increases in
alternative oxidase protein levels by growth at low temperatures (Fig.
1) could be one of the mechanisms required to maintain a higher
respiratory activity via the alternative pathway at low temperatures.
It has been suggested that the reported insensitivity of the
alternative pathway to changes in temperature leads to a greater contribution of the alternative pathway to total respiration as temperature is lowered (Purvis and Shewfelt, 1993
). However, in mung
bean leaves, the sensitivity of CN-resistant respiration to
temperatures between 10°C and 30°C was actually greater than that
of SHAM-resistant respiration (Fig. 4), in contrast to what has been
seen in isolated maize mesocotyl mitochondria (Stewart et al., 1990
),
in tissue cultures (Yoshida and Tagawa, 1979
), and during respiration
of some arctic plants (McNulty and Cummins, 1987
). Oxygen-isotope
fractionation by the alternative pathway (CN-resistant activity)
remained constant at approximately 30
and was not affected by either
growth or measurement temperature.
At any given measurement temperature, the total respiratory rate of
mung bean hypocotyls grown at 19°C was always higher than that
seen in hypocotyls from plants grown at 28°C (Fig. 2A). This has been
reported previously in other species (Billings, 1974
; Amthor, 1989
;
Collier and Cummins, 1990
). In contrast, neither mung bean leaves nor
soybean cotyledons increased their respiration rates when grown at the
low temperatures (Fig. 2C; Table I). Therefore, the acclimation of
respiratory rate to low temperatures cannot be generalized among
species (Atkin and Day, 1990
) or organs within the same species.
Despite the increase in alternative oxidase protein and total
respiration rate in mung bean tissues grown at 19°C, the partitioning of electrons to the alternative pathway did not increase as temperature was lowered. More generally, electron partitioning to the alternative pathway decreased as temperature was lowered below the growth temperature (except in hypocotyls of mung bean grown at 19°C and soybean cotyledons, in which partitioning remained constant). The
observed decrease in electron partitioning to the alternative pathway
is consistent with the greater temperature sensitivity seen for the
CN-resistant respiration compared with SHAM-resistant respiration (Fig.
4). These results are not consistent with an increased contribution by
the alternative pathway to total respiration as temperature is lowered
(Purvis and Shewfelt, 1993
). However, in addition to the short-term
response to changes in temperature, cold-acclimated mung bean plants
did maintain a higher percentage of alternative pathway activity at
temperatures below 19°C than the plants grown at 28°C .
The 3- to 5-fold increase in alternative oxidase protein in plants
grown at 19°C may enhance the activity enough to allow the plants to
maintain the level of partitioning of electrons to the alternative
pathway seen at low measurement temperatures. However, the mung bean
response cannot be generalized for all species or tissues. Soybean
cotyledons maintain a high level of electron partitioning to the
alternative pathway at both high and low growth temperatures (Table I),
which may be at least in part a reflection of the large amounts of
alternative oxidase protein seen in cotyledon mitochondria at both
temperatures.
The increase in alternative oxidase protein seen in mung beans grown at
19°C, combined with the higher apparent Q10 of
the alternative pathway, might be expected to result in greater
electron partitioning to the alternative pathway at high measurement
temperatures unless the activity of alternative oxidase is attenuated
accordingly. Electron partitioning to the alternative pathway reaches a
maximum value (15% for hypocotyls and 40% in leaves) at near growth
temperature and is maintained at this level above the growth
temperature (Figs. 2B and 3B). It is possible that as temperature
increases, the activation state of the alternative oxidase protein is
down-regulated; this is especially true of plants grown at 19°C, in
which alternative oxidase protein levels are increased (Fig. 1). This
observation suggests the operation of regulatory mechanisms in vivo,
possibly at the level of redox-active or
-keto-acid-reactive Cys
(Umbach and Siedow, 1993
; Ribas-Carbo et al., 1997
; Rhoads et al.,
1998
), although other as yet unidentified mechanisms, including
regulation of upstream dehydrogenase activity (Krab, 1995
), may also
play a role.
The increase in total respiration and the maintenance of
oxygen-fractionation values in cold-grown mung bean hypocotyls led to a
2-fold increase in the activity of the alternative pathway at all
temperatures compared with plants grown at 28°C (Fig. 2C). In leaves
of mung bean plants grown at 19°C, the activity of the alternative
pathway at low temperatures (9°C-19°C) was higher than in leaves
of plants grown at 28°C, but equal to them at temperatures above
25°C (Fig. 3C). This observation is consistent with the idea that
increases in alternative oxidase protein may be an acclimation response
for maintaining alternative oxidase activity at low temperatures, at
least in mung bean.
The increased partitioning of electrons to an enhanced activity of the
alternative pathway at low temperatures in mung bean plants grown at
19°C compared with plants grown at 28°C may still serve to
stabilize the reduction state of the ubiquinone pool to avoid the
production of reactive oxygen species, as has been suggested previously
(Purvis and Shewfelt, 1993
; Prasad et al., 1994
; Wagner, 1995
;
Vanlerberghe and McIntosh, 1996
; Popov et al., 1997
). It has also been
suggested that the alternative pathway could play a local
thermoregulatory role in chilling-sensitive plants exposed to low
temperatures, because heat-emission rates increased significantly in
leaves of several plants, including legumes, exposed to chilling
temperatures (Ordentlich et al., 1991
; Moynihan et al., 1995
).
Because the alternative pathway is nonphosphorylating, the energy that
is otherwise used to phosphorylate ADP is released in the form of heat.
Breidenbach et al. (1997)
used thermodynamic models to point out that
any temperature increase in tissues where respiration shifts entirely
to the alternative pathway would be too small to serve such a
thermoregulatory role, and that the rapid rate of heat dissipation
would not allow significant local heating of mitochondrial membranes.
Our results with mung bean, a chilling-sensitive plant (Poehlman,
1974
), show that respiration does not switch entirely to the
alternative pathway and that the amount of heat generated from the
alternative oxidase will actually decrease as the temperature
decreases. These results support the conclusions of Breidenbach et al.
(1997)
and argue against a local thermoregulatory role for the
alternative oxidase in mung bean. The increases in the rate of heat
emission observed by Moynihan et al. (1995)
in several plants exposed
to low temperatures must be derived from other metabolic sources.
In summary, the relative contribution of the alternative pathway to
total respiratory activity generally decreased as the temperature was
lowered in the chilling-sensitive tissues of mung bean but not in
soybean cotyledons. However, the observed up-regulation of alternative
oxidase protein in cold-acclimated plants of mung bean does correlate
with the ability to maintain a higher alternative pathway activity at
low temperatures, perhaps compensating for the apparent high
sensitivity of CN-resistant respiration to changes in temperature.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
1
This work was supported by U.S. Department of
Agriculture National Research Initiative grant no. CGP 94-37306-0352 to
J.N.S. and by National Science Foundation Division of Environmental
Biology grant no. 9112571 to the Duke University Phytotron. This is
Carnegie Institution of Washington publication no. 1405.
2
Present address: Carnegie Institution of
Washington, Department of Plant Biology, 260 Panama Street, Stanford,
CA 94305.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail mmeler{at}acpub.duke.edu; fax
1-919-613-8177.
Received December 16, 1998;
accepted March 24, 1999.
 |
ABBREVIATIONS |
Abbreviation:
SHAM, salicylhydroxamic acid.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
We thank Rob Guy for his help with the development of the
temperature control system, for measuring the argon to nitrogen gain
factor correction, and for his assistance with improving the sampling
protocol in the gas phase system. We also thank Joe Berry for valuable
comments during the course of these experiments, Tom Elthon for his
gift of the monoclonal alternative oxidase antibody, and Ann Umbach and
Roser Matamala for their critical reading of the manuscript.
 |
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