PpORS, an ancient type III polyketide synthase, is required for integrity of leaf cuticle and resistance to dehydration in the moss, Physcomitrella patens.

ABSTRACT

MAIN CONCLUSION: PpORS knockout mutants produced abnormal leaves with increased dye permeability and were more susceptible to dehydration, consistent with PpORS products being constituents of a cuticular structure in the moss. Type III polyketide synthases (PKSs) have co-evolved with terrestrial plants such that each taxon can generate a characteristic collection of polyketides, fine-tuned to its needs. 2'-Oxoalkylresorcinol synthase from Physcomitrella patens (PpORS) is basal to all plant type III PKSs in phylogenetic trees and may closely resemble their most recent common ancestor. To gain insight into the roles that ancestral plant type III PKSs might have played during early land plant evolution, we constructed and phenotypically characterized targeted knockouts of PpORS. Ors gametophores, unless submerged in water while they were developing, displayed various leaf malformations that included grossly misshapen leaves, missing or abnormal midribs, multicellular protuberances and localized necrosis. Ors leaves, particularly abnormal ones, showed increased permeability to the hydrophilic dye, toluidine blue. Ors gametophores lost water faster and were more susceptible to dehydration than those of the control strain. Our findings are consistent with ors leaves possessing a partially defective cuticle and implicate PpORS in synthesis of the intact cuticle. PpORS orthologs are present in a few moss species but have not been found in other plants. However, conceivably an ancestral ORS in early land plants may have contributed to their protection from dehydration.