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Published on December 27, 2007; 10.1104/pp.107.113563

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Received November 21, 2007
Accepted December 20, 2007

Functional co-expression of the mitochondrial AOX and UCP underlies thermoregulation in the thermogenic florets of the skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus renifolius

Yoshihiko Onda , Yoshiaki Kato , Yukie Abe , Takanori Ito , Miyuki Morohashi , Yuka Ito , Megumi Ichikawa , Kazushige Matsukawa , Yusuke Kakizaki , Hiroyuki Koiwa , and Kikukatsu Ito *

United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Iwate University, Ueda, Morioka, Iwate 020-8550, Japan; Cryobiosystem Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, Ueda, Morioka, Iwate 020-8550, Japan; Research Institute of Bio-system Informatics, Tohoku Chemical Co., Ltd., Odori, Morioka, Iwate 020-0022, Japan

* Corresponding author; email: kikuito{at}iwate-u.ac.jp.

Two distinct mitochondrial energy dissipating systems, AOX (alternative oxidase) and UCP (uncoupling protein), have been implicated as crucial components of thermogenesis in plants and animals, respectively. To further clarify the physiological roles of AOX and UCP during homeothermic heat production in the thermogenic skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus renifolius, we identified the thermogenic cells and performed expression and functional analyses of these genes in this organism. Thermographic analysis combined with in situ hybridization revealed that the putative thermogenic cells surround the stamens in the florets of the skunk cabbage and co-express transcripts for SrAOX, encoding Symplocarpus AOX, and SrUCPb, encoding a novel UCP that lacks a fifth transmembrane segment. Mitochondria isolated from the thermogenic florets exhibited substantial linoleic acid (LA) -inducible uncoupling activities. Moreover, our results demonstrate that LA is capable of inhibiting the mitochondrial AOX pathway, whereas the proportion of pyruvate-stimulated AOX capacity was not significantly affected by LA. Intriguingly, the protein expression levels for SrAOX and SrUCPb were unaffected even when the ambient air temperatures increased from 10.3°C to 23.1°C or from 8.3°C to 24.9°C. Thus, our results suggest that functional co-expression of AOX and UCP underlies the molecular basis of heat production, and that post-translational modifications of these proteins play a crucial role in regulating homeothermic heat production under conditions of natural ambient temperature fluctuations in S. renifolius.




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