Understanding metabolite transport and metabolism in C4 plants through RNA-seq. (June 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schlüter, Urte; Denton, Alisandra K; Bräutigam, Andrea
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in plant biology. Volume 31(2016)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 90
• Publication Date: 2016-06
• Subjects: Plant molecular biology -- Periodicals; 571.205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2016.03.007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-5266

Abstract

Highlights: The C4 photosynthesis is deconstructed into modules. The modules are localized into different compartments. Transport proteins are critical for the C4 cycle. The C4 trait can be traced at the transcriptional level. Abstract : RNA-seq, the measurement of steady-state RNA levels by next generation sequencing, has enabled quantitative transcriptome analyses of complex traits in many species without requiring the parallel sequencing of their genomes. The complex trait of C4 photosynthesis, which increases photosynthetic efficiency via a biochemical pump that concentrates CO2 around RubisCO, has evolved convergently multiple times. Due to these interesting properties, C4 photosynthesis has been analyzed in a series of comparative RNA-seq projects. These projects compared both species with and without the C4 trait and different tissues or organs within a C4 plant. The RNA-seq studies were evaluated by comparing to earlier single gene studies. The studies confirmed the marked changes expected for C4 signature genes, but also revealed numerous new players in C4 metabolism showing that the C4 cycle is more complex than previously thought, and suggesting modes of integration into the underlying C3 metabolism.