Overexpression of an Agave Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase Improves Plant Growth and Stress Tolerance

It has been challenging to simultaneously improve photosynthesis and stress tolerance in plants. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a CO2-concentrating mechanism that facilitates plant adaptation to water-limited environments. We hypothesized that the ectopic expression of a CAM-specific phosphoe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cells (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-03, Vol.10 (3), p.582
Main Authors: Liu, Degao, Hu, Rongbin, Zhang, Jin, Guo, Hao-Bo, Cheng, Hua, Li, Linling, Borland, Anne M., Qin, Hong, Chen, Jin-Gui, Muchero, Wellington, Tuskan, Gerald A., Yang, Xiaohan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agave americana
Agricultural production
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide fixation
Corn
crassulacean acid metabolism
Drought
Drought resistance
drought tolerance
Ectopic expression
Enzymes
Gene expression
Genetic engineering
Genomes
Metabolism
Nicotiana sylvestris
PepC gene
Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase
Photosynthesis
Phylogenetics
Proline
Proteins
Salt
salt tolerance
Simulation
Sugarcane
Tobacco
Transgenic plants
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Summary:It has been challenging to simultaneously improve photosynthesis and stress tolerance in plants. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a CO2-concentrating mechanism that facilitates plant adaptation to water-limited environments. We hypothesized that the ectopic expression of a CAM-specific phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), an enzyme that catalyzes primary CO2 fixation in CAM plants, would enhance both photosynthesis and abiotic stress tolerance. To test this hypothesis, we engineered a CAM-specific PEPC gene (named AaPEPC1) from Agave americana into tobacco. In comparison with wild-type and empty vector controls, transgenic tobacco plants constitutively expressing AaPEPC1 showed a higher photosynthetic rate and biomass production under normal conditions, along with significant carbon metabolism changes in malate accumulation, the carbon isotope ratio δ13C, and the expression of multiple orthologs of CAM-related genes. Furthermore, AaPEPC1 overexpression enhanced proline biosynthesis, and improved salt and drought tolerance in the transgenic plants. Under salt and drought stress conditions, the dry weight of transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing AaPEPC1 was increased by up to 81.8% and 37.2%, respectively, in comparison with wild-type plants. Our findings open a new door to the simultaneous improvement of photosynthesis and stress tolerance in plants.
ISSN:2073-4409
2073-4409
DOI:10.3390/cells10030582