Phosphorylation of DPE2 at S786 partially regulates starch degradation.

In plants, transitory starch is synthetized during the day and degraded at night to provide the continuous carbon needed for growth and development. Starch metabolism is highly coordinated, as the starch degradation rate must be coupled to the amount of starch synthetized during the day. Maltose is one of the chloroplastic products obtained from starch degradation, and maltose is exported to the cytosol where disproportionating enzyme-2 (DPE2) is responsible for its metabolism. The amount of DPE2 remained unchanged throughout the day, but its activity notably increased at the end of the day (7 p.m.), suggesting that posttranslational modification drives the mechanism underlying the regulatory activity of this enzyme. Sucrose nonfermenting-related kinase-1 (SnRK1), a protein kinase that controls the activity of several metabolic enzymes, was able to interact and phosphorylate DPE2 at three different residues localized in the α-glucanotransferase domain. This phosphorylation acts as a positive regulator of DPE2, increasing its activity. Complementation of dpe2-deficient mutants with the wild-type (WT) and S786A forms of DPE2 showed that the nonphosphorylated form of DPE2 only partially restored starch degradation, suggesting that phosphorylation at S786 is involved in enzyme regulation.

Purification and characterization of a glucokinase from young tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L. Mill.) fruit.

In order to clearly establish the properties of the enzymes responsible for hexose phosphorylation we have undertaken the separation and characterization of these enzymes present in tomato fruit (Martinez-Barajas and Randall 1996). This report describes the partial purification and characterization of glucokinase (EC. 2.7.1.1) from young green tomato fruit. The procedure yielded a 360-fold enrichment of glucokinase. Tomato fruit glucokinase is a monomer with a molecular mass of 53 kDa. Glucokinase activity was optimal between pH 7.5 and 8.5, preferred ATP as the phosphate donor (K(m) = 0.223 mM) and exhibited low activity with GTP or UTP. The tomato fruit glucokinase showed highest affinity for glucose (K(m) = 65 microM). Activity observed with glucose was 4-fold greater than with mannose and 50-fold greater than with fructose. The tomato fruit glucokinase was sensitive to product inhibition by ADP (Ki = 36 microM). Little inhibition was observed with glucose 6-phosphate (up to 15 mM) at pH 8.0; however, at pH 7.0 glucokinase activity was inhibited 30-50% by physiological concentrations of glucose 6-phosphate.

Purification and characterization of recombinant tomato fruit (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) fructokinase expressed in Escherichia coli.

Fructokinase (FK; ATP:D-fructose 6-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.4) cloned from a tomato fruit cDNA library has been expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein was purified 159-fold to greater than 99% purity, based on SDS-PAGE analysis. The subunit molecular mass is estimated to be 35 kDa and the nondissociated molecular mass is 72.4 kDa, indicating that the functional form is a dimer. Two-dimensional IEF/SDS-PAGE analyses combined with immunodetection show that both native and recombinant proteins exhibit the same pattern of six closely grouped peptides with pI values ranging from 5.66 to 6.17. Biochemical characterization of the purified recombinant enzyme shows properties essentially identical to those of the native fructokinase purified from young tomato fruit: the pH optimum is 8.0, the K(m) for fructose is 0.22 mM, and severe substrate inhibition is observed when fructose concentration is greater than 0.5 mM (Ki = 3.0 mM). ATP is the preferred phosphate donor (K(m) = 0.13 mM and Vmax/K(m) = 212), followed by GTP (K(m) = 0.45 mM and Vmax/K(m) = 76) and UTP (K(m) = 1.68 mM and Vmax/K(m) = 20), but Vmax values are slightly greater with GTP and UTP. Product inhibition analyses show that the inhibition by ADP with respect to ATP is dependent on fructose concentration [Ki (ADP) = 0.41 mM with 0.5 mM fructose and decreased to 0.12 mM with 3 mM fructose]. Inhibition by fructose 6-P shows weak noncompetitive inhibition with respect to fructose; however, the recombinant protein is slightly more sensitive to fructose 6-P than the native FK.

Rubisco activase, a possible new member of the molecular chaperone family.

The present research addresses the question of whether Rubisco activase (R-A), the enzyme reported to activate Rubisco, is actually a molecular chaperone rather than a conventional enzyme. Several biochemical properties known to be characteristics of molecular chaperones were tested for R-A with positive results. The experiments were performed either in vitro with purified spinach Rubisco and Rubisco activase or in vivo in maize seedling leaves. Our results confirmed that activation of Rubisco by R-A is an ATP hydrolysis-dependent process and further demonstrated that (a) R-A binds preferably to non-native Rubisco protein, than to the native form, and dissociates from this complex after addition of ATP, (b) R-A increases during heat shock treatment in maize seedling leaves, and (c) a large recovery of Rubisco activity is achieved from heat-inactivated Rubisco by addition of R-A and an energy source. We conclude that R-A characteristics strongly suggest that this protein belongs to the molecular chaperone group. The possible role of R-A on maintaining Rubisco activity in vivo is discussed.

Regulation of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase expression in second leaves of maize seedlings from low and high yield populations.

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (EC 4.1.1.39) (Rubisco) activity, Rubisco-protein, and Rubisco large and small subunit gene (rbcL and rbcS) transcripts were measured at seven stages of development in the second leaf of maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings belonging to low and high yield populations. During the three early stages of development, when the leaf has not yet expanded, it was determined that increments in Rubisco-activity were caused by increases in Rubisco-protein and its mRNAs. Afterward, the rbcS level decreased sharply down to nondetectable levels at the seventh stage, when the leaf was at the beginning of senescence. As a contrast, rbcL transcript decreased slowly and Rubisco-protein accumulated up to the fifth stage, when the leaf reached its maximum expansion. A slight decrease in Rubisco-protein was then observed. These results suggest that at early stages of development Rubisco-activity and Rubisco-protein are regulated mainly at the transcriptional level. At the later phase the regulation seems to be at other biochemical levels. Neither Rubisco activity nor Rubisco-protein showed correlation with yield for both maize populations at this stage of development. Slightly higher levels of both transcripts were observed in the high yield population.