Similar articles

Abstract: Transgenic rice plants with an antisense gene inserted via Agrobacterium tumefaciens were used to explore the impact of the reduction of rubisco activase (RCA) on rubisco and photosynthesis. In this study, transformants containing 15% to 35% wild type rubisco activase were selected, which could survive in ambient CO₂ concentration but grew slowly compared with wild type controls. Gas exchange measurements indicated that the rate of photosynthesis decreased significantly, while stomatal conductance and transpiration rate did not change; and that the intercellular CO₂ concentration even increased. rubisco determination showed that these plants had approximately twice as much rubisco as the wild types, although they showed 70% lower rate of photosynthesis, which was likely an acclimation response to the reduction in Rubsico activase and/or the reduction in carbamylation.

[1] Bradford, M.M., 1976. A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgramquantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye dinding. Anal. Biochem., 72:248-254.

[2] Eckardt, N.A., Snyder, G.W., Portis, A.R., Ogren, W.L., 1997. Growth and photosynthesis under high and low irradiance or Arabidopsis thaliana antisense mutants with reduced ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase content. Plant Physiol., 113:575-586.

[3] Evans, J.R., von Caemmerer, S., Setchell, B.A., Hudson, G.S., 1994. The relationship between CO₂ transfer conductance and leaf anatomy in transgenic tobacco with a reduced content of Rubisco. Aust. J. Plant Physiol., 21:475-495.

[4] Hammond, E.T., Andrews, T.J., Mott, K.A., 1998. Regulation of Rubisco activation in antisense plants of tobacco containing reduced levels of Rubisco activase. Plant J., 4:101-110.

[5] Harley, P.C., Loreto, F., Marco, G.D., Sharkey, T.D., 1992. Theoretical considerations when estimating the mesophyll conductance to CO₂ flux by analysis of the response of photosynthesis to CO₂. Plant Physiol., 98:1429-1436.

[6] Jiang, D.A, Weng, X.Y., Lu, Q., 2001. Quantitation of Rubisco activase by single radial immunodiffusion. J. Zhejiang Univ. (Agric. & Life Sci.), 27:255-258 (in Chinese).

[7] Jing, S.H., Weng, X.Y., Wang, N.Y., Li, X.Q., Mao, W.H., Jiang, D.A., 2004. Construction of expression vector with antisense Rubisco activase gene and its genetic transformation in rice. Hereditas, 26(6):in press (in Chinese).

[8] Lal, A.M., Ku, S.B., Edwards, G.E., 1996. Analysis of inhibition of photosynthesis due to water stress in the C₃ species Hordeum vulgare and Vicia faba: electron transport, CO₂ fixation and carboxylation capacity. Photosynth Res., 49:57-69.

[9] Mate, C.J., Hudson, G.S., von Caemmerer, S., Evans, J.R., Andrews, T.J., 1993. Reduction of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activase levels in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) by antisense RNA reduces ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase carbamylation and impairs photosynthesis. Plant Physiol., 102:1119-1128.

[10] Mate, C.J., Hudson, G.S., von Caemmerer, S., Evans, J.R., Andrews, T.J., 1996. The relationship between CO₂-assimilation rate, Rubisco carbamylation and Rubisco activase content in activase-deficient transgenic tobacco suggests a sample model of activase action. Planta, 198:604-613.

[11] Quick, W.P., Chaves, M.M., Wendler, R., David, M., Rodrigues, M.L., Passaharinho, J.A., Pereira, J.S., 1992. The effect of water stress on photosynthetic carbon metabolism in four species grown under field conditions. Plant Cell Enviro., 15:25-35.

[12] Spreitzer, R.J., Salvucci, M.E., 2002. Rubisco: structure, regulatory interactions, and possibilities for a better enzyme. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol., 53:449-485.

[13] Wang, N.Y., Jiang, D.A., Hong, J., Zhang, F., Weng, X.Y., 2003. Diurnal changes of Rubisco and RCA activities and their cellular localization in rice. Acta Botanica Sinica, 45(9):1076-1083.

[14] Zhang, N., Kallis, R.P., Ewy, R.G., Portis, A.R., 2002. Light modulation of Rubisco in Arabidopsis requires a capacity for redox regulation of the larger Rubisco activase isoform. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99:3330-3334.