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BIOENERGETICS AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Identification of the Photorespiratory 2-Phosphoglycolate Phosphatase, PGLP1, in Arabidopsis^1,[W],[OA]

Department of Plant Physiology, University of Rostock, D–18051 Rostock, Germany

	ABSTRACT

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 
The chloroplastidal enzyme 2-phosphoglycolate phosphatase (PGLP), PGLP1, catalyzes the first reaction of the photorespiratory C₂ cycle, a major pathway of plant primary metabolism. Thirteen potential PGLP genes are annotated in the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome; however, none of these genes has been functionally characterized, and the gene encoding the photorespiratory PGLP is not known. Here, we report on the identification of the PGLP1 gene in a higher plant and provide functional evidence for a second, nonphotorespiratory PGLP, PGLP2. Two candidate genes, At5g36700 (AtPGLP1) and At5g47760 (AtPGLP2), were selected by sequence similarity to known PGLPs from microorganisms. The two encoded proteins were overexpressed in Escherichia coli and both show PGLP activity. T-DNA knockout of one of these genes, At5g36700, results in very low leaf PGLP activity. The mutant is unviable in normal air but grows well in air enriched with 0.9% CO₂. In contrast, deletion of At5g47760 does not result in a visible phenotype, and leaf PGLP activity is unaltered. Sequencing of genomic DNA from another PGLP-deficient mutant revealed a combined missense and missplicing point mutation in At5g36700. These combined data establish At5g36700 as the gene encoding the photorespiratory PGLP, PGLP1.

PGLP is a light-inducible and light-regulated enzyme (e.g. Baldy et al., 1989) that was purified from higher plants (e.g. Richardson and Tolbert, 1961; Belanger and Ogren, 1987), green algae (Mamedov et al., 2001), and other sources. The enzyme is highly specific for 2PG (Husic and Tolbert, 1984) and requires Cl^– (Seal and Rose, 1987) and Mg²⁺ ions (Christeller and Tolbert, 1978a) for its full activity. Reported subunit molecular masses for the enzyme of higher plants vary between 21 and 32 kD, and both homodimeric and homotetrameric structures were suggested for the native enzyme (Christeller and Tolbert, 1978b; Hardy and Baldy, 1986; Hall et al., 1987; Belanger and Ogren, 1987).

In light of the position of the photorespiratory PGLP as the entry enzyme into one of the major pathways of primary plant metabolism, it is remarkable that neither the structure of the protein nor the encoding gene(s) is known. Earlier genetic data suggested that the photorespiratory PGLP is encoded by single genes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and barley (Hordeum vulgare). This was concluded from the preliminary characterization of a PGLP-deficient ethylmethane sulfonate mutant of Arabidopsis, CS119, which could not grow under ambient conditions but was viable under the nonphotorespiratory condition of 1% CO₂ (Somerville and Ogren, 1979). Similar growth properties were reported for a PGLP-deficient barley mutant (Hall et al., 1987); however, isoenzyme studies performed by the same authors indicated the presence of two isoforms of the enzyme in barley (Hall et al., 1987). The genetic defect is not known for either of these two mutants.

We therefore set out to identify this key enzyme of plant photosynthetic metabolism and its encoding gene(s) in Arabidopsis. The respective AraCyc database currently lists a total of 13 putative PGLP-encoding genes (http://www.arabidopsis.org/biocyc/index.jsp), but none of these genes has been functionally characterized. Several of the translated proteins show homology to prokaryotic PGLPs, and seven putative PGLPs are predicted to be chloroplast proteins (At1g56500, At3g10970, At3g48420, At4g25840, At4g39970, At5g36700, and At5g36790). By highest similarity to the PGLP amino acid sequence from the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Mamedov et al., 2001), which represents the only as-yet-identified PGLP from a photosynthetic eukaryote, we selected two candidate genes for overexpression and knockout studies. Both genes encode functional PGLPs; however, the knockout of only one gene, At5g36700 (AtPGLP1), resulted in leaf PGLP deficiency in combination with a conditional lethal high CO₂-requiring phenotype. The knockout of the second gene, At5g47760 (AtPGLP2), had no effect on leaf PGLP activity or plant growth and development in normal air. Sequencing of the At5g36700 gene from the CS119 Arabidopsis mutant revealed a point mutation in the immediate upstream context of the splice donor site of exon 8. This mutation, as its major effect, causes aberrant splicing of the Atpglp1 primary transcript. These findings thus ultimately identify the photorespiratory PGLP1 of plants and show that this enzyme is encoded by gene At5g36700 in Arabidopsis.

	RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 

Arabidopsis Genes At5g36700 and At5g47760 Encode PGLPs

Among the 13 putative PGLPs present in the Arabidopsis genome (http://www.arabidopsis.org/biocyc/index.jsp), At5g36700, At5g36790, and At5g47760 are most similar to the Chlamydomonas PGLP (Mamedov et al., 2001). Two of these proteins, At5g36700 and At5g36790, harbor predicted chloroplast-targeting sequences. Closer inspection of the corresponding region on chromosome 5, however, indicated double annotation in this region, including the corresponding two PGLP genes. Due to the lack of functional evidence for any of these 13 putative PGLPs, we selected At5g36700 and At5g47760 for further analysis and first examined the PGLP activity of the recombinant proteins in a bacterial system. To this end, the corresponding wild-type cDNAs were amplified from leaf mRNA by reverse transcriptase (RT)-mediated PCR and, after subcloning, ligated into the bacterial expression vector pBAD/His-A. Correctness of both fusion constructs was confirmed by DNA sequencing. While the region encoding the putative chloroplast targeting sequence was omitted in the case of At5g36700 (PGLP1), the fragment for At5g47760 (PGLP2) covered the entire coding region. Affinity purification of the expressed recombinant proteins resulted in one major band of the correct size for each PGLP and several minor bands in SDS-polyacrylamide electrophoresis (not shown). Both semipurified proteins showed PGLP activity, 420 µmol min^–1 mg^–1 for PGPL1 and 690 µmol min^–1 mg^–1 for PGPL2. Due to the different degrees of contamination by other proteins, these specific activities represent approximations.

Knockout of At5g36700 But Not of At5g47760 Results in Leaf PGLP Deficiency

Earlier data suggested that the photorespiratory PGLP is encoded by a single gene in Arabidopsis (Somerville and Ogren, 1979). To identify this gene, we next isolated knockout mutants from T-DNA insertion lines (SALK institute lines SALK 130835 and SALK 130837 for At5g36700; SALK 147334 and SAIL 797F08 for At5g47760; obtained via the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre). To verify the presence and position of the T-DNA insertions, we first sequenced PCR fragments obtained with primers specific for the T-DNA left border and right border, respectively, and for flanking genome sequences. This confirmed the presence of a T-DNA insertion in the eighth intron of At5g36700 (Atpglp1-1, SALK 130837) and in the 5'-untranslated region of At5g47760 (Atpglp2-1, SALK 147334) but no insertion in the other two lines. We then produced homozygous plants for both positive lines and verified the absence of the respective transcript by RT-PCR analysis (Fig. 1A ).

View larger version (106K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 1. Knockout of AtPGLP1 leads to a high CO2-requiring phenotype, whereas knockout plants for AtPGLP2 are not impaired in normal air. A, RT-PCR analysis of AtPGLP1 (left) and AtPGLP2 (right) confirms absence of the respective transcripts in homozygous knockout lines. RNA amounts were calibrated according to signals from a constitutively expressed gene. ko, Leaf cDNA of the respective knockout line; wt, Col-0 leaf cDNA; DNA, Col-0 genomic DNA; H2O, control. Size markers are shown (1-kb ladder; Fermentas). B, Wild-type and Atpglp1-1 knockout plants grown in normal air for 3 weeks. The right segment shows the enlarged knockout plant from the left picture. C, Wild-type and Atpglp1-1 plants grown in 0.3% CO2 for 6 weeks. D, Plant from C after 4 months. E, Wild-type and Atpglp2-1 knockout plants grown in normal air for 6 weeks. No difference in growth or phenotype can be observed under these conditions.

Enzyme measurements with protein extracts from mutant plants grown under 0.9% CO₂ revealed a 97% reduction of leaf PGLP activity in Atpglp1-1 plants (0.036 ± 0.006 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1) relative to wild-type plants (1.278 ± 0.211 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1), which is similar to reported data for the CS119 mutant (Somerville and Ogren, 1979). In contrast, leaf PGLP activity in Atpglp2-1 (1.254 ± 0.076 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1) was not affected by the knockout. These data correspond well with publicly available gene expression data (GENEVESTIGATOR, Zimmermann et al., 2004) that show more than 20-fold higher transcript levels for AtPGLP1 in leaves but much lower levels in nonphotosynthesizing organs in comparison with AtPGLP2 (Supplemental Fig. S1). Hence, these expression data further substantiate the role of AtPGLP1 as the photorespiratory PGLP in Arabidopsis. The protein harbors a predicted 62-amino acid chloroplast-targeting peptide (Emanuelsson et al., 2000), and the calculated molecular mass of the mature protein approximately corresponds with some (Belanger and Ogren, 1987), although not all, biochemical data (e.g. Hall et al., 1987).

The Mutation in CS119 Affects the Gene At5g36700, AtPGLP1

These data from T-DNA knockout mutants strongly indicated that At5g36700 is the affected gene in CS119. To further substantiate this finding and to exactly identify the genetic lesion in CS119, we isolated genomic DNA from seeds. This source of DNA was chosen because available seeds from two different sources did not germinate anymore. By PCR, three overlapping fragments were amplified that covered the entire At5g36700 gene. Sequencing revealed a G-to-A transition in the ultimate nucleotide of exon 8 (Fig. 2A ). No other mutation was identified over the entire At5g36700 gene. The observed point mutation leads to an amino acid exchange from Gly-260 (GGT) to Ser-260 (AGT). We therefore wanted to exclude the possibility that this missense mutation was already present in the genetic background of the Arabidopsis plants used for the production of CS119. To this end, genomic DNA was isolated from seeds of an independent line from the same screen, CS116 (later renamed to CS8012; Somerville and Ogren, 1982). The respective region of the At5g36700 gene was amplified and sequenced (not shown); however, the obtained sequence did not show the G-to-A transition observed in CS119. This confirms our sequence evidence that the chemically induced mutation in CS119 affects the At5g36700 gene, AtPGLP1.

View larger version (43K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Figure 2. AtPGLP1 harbors a combined missense and missplicing mutation in the PGLP-deficient mutant CS119 (Somerville and Ogren, 1979). A, Structure of AtPGLP1 and position of the detected mutation in CS119. The missense mutation in the last nucleotide of exon 8 results in an exchange of Gly-260 for Ser. The position of the T-DNA in the knockout line is indicated by a triangle. B, Aberrant splicing of the CS119 Atpglp1 pre-mRNA as shown by RT-PCR in four individual transgenic Atpglp1-1 T-DNA knockout plants expressing the defective Atpglp1 gene from CS119 under control of the 35S promoter. Lanes t1 to t4, cDNA from four individual transformants; wt, wild-type cDNA; H2O, control. The bottom scheme shows the coding sequences (boxes) of the CS119 Atpglp1 pre-mRNA and approximate binding sites of primers used for PCR. The left segment confirms cDNA quality and expression of the CS119 Atpglp1 transgene. The use of primers R797 and R798 resulted in the expected 550-bp PCR product for the wild-type control. A major band of similar size as well as a smear of larger and smaller PCR products were obtained for the transgenic lines. The square in lane t3 surrounds the gel portion from where cDNA for sequence analysis was eluted. For the PCR experiment shown in the right segment, primers R391 and R494 were used. A PCR product of the expected size (363 bp) was obtained for wild-type cDNA but not for most of the transgenic lines. Size markers are shown (100-bp ladder; Fermentas). R-codes refer to primers listed in Table I.

It is not necessarily to be expected that the exchange of Gly-260 to Ser will completely abolish PGLP activity. To examine the effects of this amino acid exchange on the activity of recombinant PGLP1, we introduced the same point mutation into the corresponding wild-type cDNA by site-specific mutagenesis. Again, the use of wild type instead of CS119 cDNA was necessary because the CS119 seeds did not germinate after storage for more than 20 years. The mutagenized PGLP1^260Ser was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and bacterial lysates analyzed for PGLP activity. PGLP1^260Ser showed approximately 40% (2.462 ± 0.187 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1) of wild-type PGLP1^260Gly activity (6.544 ± 0.27 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1) and an approximately 130-fold higher PGLP activity in comparison with an empty-vector control (0.019 ± 0.003 µmol min^–1 mg protein^–1). This shows that the Gly-260-to-Ser exchange does not lead to full inactivation of the mature enzyme and thus cannot be responsible for the very low residual PGLP activity in CS119.

On the pre-mRNA level, the mutation does not affect the canonical 5' splice donor site (GU) as it does, for example, in another photorespiratory mutant, shm1 (Voll et al., 2006). Instead, the mutation alters the first nucleotide upstream from GU at a highly conserved position of the 5' splice site consensus C(A)AG/GUAAGU (Brown, 1986; McCullough et al., 1993). The importance of the immediate upstream context of the splice donor site is apparent not only from the high degree of conservation of the respective nucleotides, but also from the analysis of other mutants (e.g. Sablowski and Meyerowitz, 1998). Moreover, a NetGene2 Server (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetGene2) analysis (Hebsgaard et al., 1996) failed to recognize the altered donor splice site in the CS119 AtPGLP1 gene, whereas all splice sites were correctly predicted in the wild-type gene.

Because missplicing of the Atpglp1 pre-mRNA could not be directly tested with CS119 plants, we chose an indirect approach and genetically transformed (Clough and Bent, 1998) homozygous Atpglp1-1 plants with a recombinant pCAMBIA1302 plant transformation vector containing a CS119 genomic fragment, covering the transcribed region of the Atpglp1 gene from the start to the stop codon under control of the 35S promoter. The transgenic lines did not show any indication of complementation and required elevated CO₂ for growth, which further supports our notion that a defective AtPGLP1 is responsible for the high CO₂-requiring phenotype of both the T-DNA knockout line and CS119.

Next, four individual transgenic plants were subjected to RT-PCR analysis with gene-specific primers. cDNA signals were obtained with a primer combination for exon 2 (R797) and exon 9 (R798) of AtPGLP1, which confirms expression of the transgene (Fig. 2B, left). Notably, more smears can be seen with the transgenic lines in comparison with wild type, suggesting irregular splicing. The use of a primer pair for exon 8 (R391) and exon 11 (R494) did not result in visible PCR products for most of the examined lines (Fig. 2B, right). To provide direct evidence for aberrant splicing of the transgene's primary transcript, we eluted the PCR-amplified cDNA from a relatively large portion of lane t3 (Fig. 2B, left, square). This procedure ensured recovery of some of the DNA smear that surrounds the major fraction of PCR products obtained with the transgenic lines. The eluted DNA was then cloned into vector pGEM-T and subjected to restriction analysis. Sequencing of three selected clones of different sizes (similar, larger, and smaller size in comparison with the corresponding wild-type sequence) revealed that they all represent improperly spliced transcript variants of the expressed transgene (Supplemental Fig. S2). In the smaller PCR product, the entire exon 8 sequence was missing, whereas intron 8 had not been spliced out in case of the larger PCR product. In the third case, representing a PCR product of similar size relative to wild type, the deletion of four 3'-terminal nucleotides from exon 8 would result in a frameshift. This specific splice artifact could be related to the very faint band observed for the same transgenic line with the second primer pair, R391 and R494 (Fig. 2B, right, lane t3). It shall be noted that sense primer R391 binds very close to the 3' end of exon 8 (Supplemental Fig. S2). Absence of additional nine to 10 nucleotides would abolish PCR amplification with this second primer pair. The comparison of the results obtained with the two different primer pairs therefore indicates that a slightly larger 3'-terminal fraction of exon 8, including at least part of the R391 binding site, is missing in a significant fraction of transcripts. Such a situation would be compatible with the presence (primers R797 and R798) and absence (primers R391 and R494), respectively, of a major fraction of RT-PCR products. While it is beyond the scope of this article to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the existing splice variants, all three sequenced transcripts showed aberrant splicing, which would result in truncated PGLP1 proteins. These indirect results obtained with transgenic lines cannot absolutely exclude the possible presence of a small fraction of correctly spliced AtPGLP1 mRNA and, hence, some residual PGLP1 in CS119. However, they fully explain the reported very low PGLP activity that leads to the conditional lethal phenotype of this mutant.

CONCLUSION

In this report, we show that the entry enzyme into the photorespiratory cycle, PGLP1, is encoded by gene At5g36700 (AtPGLP1) in Arabidopsis. We have also identified the genetic defect in CS119, a PGLP-deficient Arabidopsis mutant described in an earlier landmark paper (Somerville and Ogren, 1979). As we show, this ethylmethane sulfonate mutant carries a combined missense and missplicing point mutation in the AtPGLP1 gene. The missense mutation does not inactivate PGLP1. Instead, the high CO₂-requiring phenotype of CS119 is due to aberrant splicing of the Atpglp1 pre-mRNA. The position of the point mutation highlights the invariability of the immediate upstream nucleotide of 5'-splice sites. Most recently, protein At5g36700 has been detected in the chloroplast proteome (Peltier et al., 2006), which fully supports our conclusion.

Among the other more than 10 potential PGLP genes of Arabidopsis, At5g47760 (AtPGLP2) represents the far most closely related gene to At5g36700. It encodes a putatively cytosolic enzyme, AtPGLP2, which shows PGLP activity. Knockout of this gene, however, neither affects leaf PGLP activity nor results in any apparent phenotype. Leakage of 2PG from the chloroplasts is not very likely. We therefore conclude that PGLP2 does not contribute to photorespiratory metabolism. The function of this PGLP is probably related to the metabolism of minor amounts of 2PG, as they can originate from other processes than photorespiration in the cytosol of most, if not all, plant cells.

	MATERIALS AND METHODS

TOP ABSTRACT RESULTS AND DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS LITERATURE CITED

 

Seed Material

Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), ecotype Columbia (Col-0), was used for this study as wild type. SALK lines SALK 130835, SALK 130837, SALK 147334 (Alonso et al., 2003), and SAIL 797 F08 (Sessions et al., 2002) were obtained from the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre (http://nasc.nott.ac.uk). Seeds for CS119 were obtained from Chris Somerville (Stanford, CA) and from the RIKEN Bioresource Centre. Seeds for CS116 (CS8012) were kindly provided by Dr. Jitao Zou (Saskatoon, Canada).

Plant Growth

Seeds were incubated at 4°C for at least 2 d to break dormancy prior to germination. Seedlings and adult plants were grown on soil (Type VM; Einheitserdewerk) and vermiculite (5:1 mixture) and watered with 1x modified Hoagland solution. Unless otherwise stated, plants were grown under a 12-/12-h-light/-dark cycle (22°C/18°C) at 150 to 200 µE m^–2 s^–1 in Percival growth chambers. Homozygous Atpglp1-1 mutants were grown at 0.3% or 0.9% (v/v) CO₂, respectively, in a Sanyo growth cabinet equipped with a WMA-4 CO₂ control unit (PP Systems) and adjusted to the same conditions with respect to the other growth parameters.

Constructs for Overexpression

cDNA was obtained from 2.5 µg leaf RNA (RevertAid cDNA Synthesis kit; MBI Fermentas) and PCR amplified (Master Mix; Qiagen) with primers R821 (sense) and R814 (antisense) for At5g36700 (PGLP1) and with primers R804 (sense) and R812 (antisense), respectively, for At5g47760 (PGLP2). All primers are listed in Table I . The resulting fragments, encoding the mature PGLP1 (excluding 62 N-terminal amino acids) or the whole PGLP2, were purified (Nucleospin RNA plant kit; Macherey-Nagel) and subcloned into pGEM-T (Promega). The fragments were then excised with XhoI and EcoRI (PGLP1) or BamHI (PGLP2) and ligated into the XhoI and EcoRI restriction sites or into the BglII restriction site of the expression vector pBAD/His-A (Invitrogen).

Site-Directed Mutagenesis

The Gly-260-to-Ser-260 exchange was introduced into AtPGLP1 cDNA by amplification with primer R821 and the mutagenizing primer R830. The resulting PCR fragment, after subcloning into pGEM-T, was excised via XhoI und BamHI restriction sites and used to replace the corresponding wild-type fragment in the AtPGLP1:pGEM-T construct carrying an internal BamHI site. The entire coding region was then excised with XhoI and EcoRI and ligated into the corresponding restriction sites of vector pBAD/His-A as above. The protein-encoding regions of all three overexpression constructs were sequenced.

Overexpression Experiments

Overexpression in recombinant Escherichia coli cells, strain LMG194, was induced with 0.02% (w/v) L-Ara. After overnight incubation at room temperature, cells were pelleted by centrifugation, resuspended in 30 mM sodium cacodylate, pH 7.6, and sonicated on ice. The supernatant obtained after centrifugation for 15 min at 20,000g (4°C) was applied to an affinity column (Ni-NTA ProBond Slurry Matrix; Invitrogen). The column was washed with 30 mM sodium cacodylate, pH 7.6, 50 mM imidazole, and His-tagged proteins were stepwise eluted with 3x 1 mL of 250 mM imidazole in the same buffer. Proteins were analyzed in standard 12% (w/v) SDS polyacrylamide gels (Laemmli, 1970).

Isolation of Arabidopsis PGLP Mutants

Genomic DNA of T-DNA lines SALK 130837 (Atpglp1-1) and SALK 147334 (Atpglp2-1) was subjected to standard PCR (Master Mix; Qiagen) with primers specific for the left border (R175) and a gene-specific primer (R392 for Atpglp1-1 or R515 for Atpglp2-1). The obtained fragments were directly sequenced to verify the insertion sites. Homozygous plants were identified by PCR with genomic DNA using two gene-specific primer pairs (R391 and R392 for Atpglp1-1, R515 and R519 for Atpglp2-1) encompassing the respective T-DNA insertion. The knockout of AtPGLP1 and AtPGLP2, respectively, in homozygous plants of both mutant lines was verified by RT-PCR using 2.5 µg of leaf RNA for cDNA synthesis as described above. Primers R797 (sense) and R798 (antisense) resulted in an approximately 550-bp PCR fragment for AtPGLP1 transcripts, and primers R519 (sense) and R515 (antisense) gave an approximately 350-bp PCR fragment for AtPGLP2. Prior to PCR analysis, cDNA amounts were calibrated according to 435-bp signals obtained with primers R176 and R177 from the constitutively expressed At2g09990 gene encoding the 40S ribosomal protein S16.

Sequencing of Genomic DNA

Genomic DNA was isolated from CS116 and CS119 seeds according to Baumbusch et al. (2001). In short, 30 seeds were ground in liquid nitrogen and extracted in 700 µL of extraction buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 10 mM sodium EDTA, 100 mM NaCl, 1% (w/v) SDS, and 10 mM -mercaptoethanol) followed by incubation of the homogenate for 15 min at 65°C. After addition of 220 µL of potassium acetate (3 M potassium and 5 M acetate), short incubation on ice, and centrifugation, DNA was precipitated by the addition of 0.7 volumes of isopropanol. The pellet obtained after centrifugation was dissolved in 100 µL of Tris-EDTA (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 10 mM sodium EDTA) and treated with ribonuclease A. Seed DNA was reprecipitated with ethanol, dissolved in 25 µL of Tris-EDTA, and used for PCR amplification of the whole At5g36700 gene. Three overlapping fragments were produced (Master Mix, Qiagen; or proof-reading Pwo polymerase, Peqlab) for CS119 using primer combinations R757/R796, R493/R494, and R391/R756 (for primer sequences, compare Table I). Primers R797 and R798 were used to amplify a corresponding genomic fragment from CS116 genomic DNA. The PCR products were cloned into plasmids pGEM-T or pUC19 and sequenced in both directions.

Transgenic Atpglp1-1 Plants for Complementation and Splicing Experiments

A 2,500-bp DNA fragment was PCR amplified (primers R813 and R814) from CS119 seed DNA and subcloned into pGEM-T. The region between (and including) start and stop codon of the Atpglp1 gene was excised with NcoI and SpeI and ligated into the corresponding sites between the 35S promoter and the nopaline synthase terminator of the plant transformation vector pCAMBIA1302 (Cambia), which was modified by excision of the originally present reporter gene. Homozygous Atpglp1-1 plants were grown in 0.9% (v/v) CO₂ and transformed by the floral dip method using Agrobacterium tumefaciens GV3101 (Clough and Bent, 1998). Transgenic lines were selected from T1 seeds by their resistance against hygromycin on plates with solidified Murashige and Skoog medium. The presence of the Atpglp1 gene from CS119 was verified by restriction patterns and PCR analyses and homozygosity with respect to the T-DNA was confirmed as described above. PCR products obtained with cDNA using primers R797 and R798 (Fig. 2B, lane 3, square) were cloned into vector pGEM-T, and three clones of different sizes were sequenced from both sides.

Assay of PGLP Activity

For PGLP activity measurements in plants, rosette leaves from three individual plants per knockout line and wild type, respectively, all grown at 0.9% (v/v) CO₂ and sampled in the middle of the light period, were pooled and extracted in about 3 mL ice-cold 10 mM HEPES-NaOH, pH 7.0, per gram fresh weight. After centrifugation for 15 min at 4°C and 20,000g, protein concentration was determined (Bradford, 1976). Three independent extracts using a total of nine individual plants per line were analyzed. Bacterial lysates and fractions from nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid agarose affinity chromatography were used directly for PGLP activity assays as described by Somerville and Ogren (1979). Reactions were initiated at 25°C with 2 mM 2PG and, after 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 min, aliquots were terminated by the addition of acid molybdate reagent, and the released phosphate was determined photometrically (Ames, 1966).

Supplemental Data

The following materials are available in the online version of this article.

Supplemental Figure S1. Expression of AtPGLP1 and AtPGLP2 in individual organs (Genevestigator data; Zimmermann et al., 2004).

Supplemental Figure S2. Sequences of abnormally spliced transcripts in transgenic Atpglp1-1 plants.

	ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 
We thank Dr. Üner Kolukisaoglu and other members of our laboratory for discussions and valuable advice, and we appreciate helpful comments on the manuscript by Drs. Martin Hagemann and Qu Nan. Seeds for CS116 and CS119 were kindly provided by Drs. Jitao Zou (Saskatoon, Canada) and Chris Somerville (Stanford, CA), respectively. This work would not have been possible without the mutant lines provided by the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre and by the RIKEN Bioresource Centre.

Received March 8, 2007; accepted April 30, 2007; published May 3, 2007.

	FOOTNOTES

 
¹ This work was supported by the University of Rostock.

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: Hermann Bauwe (hermann.bauwe{at}uni-rostock.de).

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

^[OA] Open Access articles can be viewed online without a subscription.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.107.099192

^* Corresponding author; e-mail hermann.bauwe{at}uni-rostock.de; fax 49–381–498–6112.

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