Plant Physiol. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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Published on February 27, 2008; 10.1104/pp.107.114462

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Received December 2, 2007
Accepted February 17, 2008

The Gene for the P-subunit of Glycine Decarboxylase from the C4 Species Flaveria trinervia: Analysis of Transcriptional Control in Transgenic Flaveria bidentis (C4) and Arabidopsis thaliana (C3)

Sascha Engelmann , Christian Wiludda , Janet Burscheidt , Udo Gowik , Ute Schlue , Maria Koczor , Monika Streubel , Roberto Cossu , Hermann Bauwe , and Peter Westhoff *

Institut fur Entwicklungs- und Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, Universitatsstr. 1, 40225 Dusseldorf, Germany; Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Corrensstrasse 3, 06466 Gatersleben, Germany; Abteilung Pflanzenphysiologie der Universitat Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Str. 3, 18051 Rostock, Germany

* Corresponding author; email: west{at}uni-duesseldorf.de.

Glycine decarboxylase (GDC) plays an important role in the photorespiratory metabolism of plants. GDC is composed of four subunits (P, H, L and T) with the P-subunit (GLDP) serving as the actual decarboxylating unit. In C3 plants, GDC can be found in all photosynthetic cells whereas in leaves of C3-C4 intermediate and C4 species its occurrence is restricted to bundle-sheath cells. The specific expression of GLDP in the bundle-sheath cells might have constituted a biochemical starting point for the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. To understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for restricting GLDP expression to bundle-sheath cells, we performed a functional analysis of the GLDPA promoter from the C4 species Flaveria trinervia. Expression of a promoter-reporter gene fusion in transgenic plants of the transformable C4 species Flaveria bidentis (C4) showed that 1571 bp of the GLDPA 5' flanking region contain all the necessary information for the specific expression in bundle-sheath cells and vascular bundles. Interestingly, we found that the GLDPA promoter of F. trinervia exhibits a C4-like spatial activity also in the C3 plant Arabidopsis thaliana, indicating that a mechanism for bundle-sheath-specific expression is also present in this C3 species. Using transgenic Arabidopsis, promoter deletion studies identified two regions in the GLDPA promoter, one conferring repression of gene expression in mesophyll cells and one functioning as a general transcriptional enhancer. Subsequent analyses in transgenic F. bidentis confirmed that these two segments fulfill the same function also in the C4 context.






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