Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2016

Abstract

© 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved. Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are zinc metalloenzymes that interconvert CO2 and HCO3-. In plants, both α-and β-type CAs are present. We hypothesize that cytoplasmic bCAs are required to modulate inorganic carbon forms needed in leaf cells for carbonrequiring reactions such as photosynthesis and amino acid biosynthesis. In this report, we present evidence that βCA2 and βCA4 are the two most abundant cytoplasmic CAs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) leaves. Previously, βCA4 was reported to be localized to the plasma membrane, but here, we show that two forms of βCA4 are expressed in a tissue-specific manner and that the two proteins encoded by βCA4 localize to two different regions of the cell. Comparing transfer DNA knockout lines with wild-type plants, there was no reduction in the growth rates of the single mutants, βca2 and βca4. However, the growth rate of the double mutant, βca2βca4, was reduced significantly when grown at 200μL L-1 CO2. The reduction in growth of the double mutant was not linked to a reduction in photosynthetic rate. The amino acid content of leaves from the double mutant showed marked reduction in aspartate when compared with the wild type and the single mutants. This suggests the cytoplasmic CAs play an important but not previously appreciated role in amino acid biosynthesis.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Plant Physiology

First Page

280

Last Page

293

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