Authors: Hua Weng Isabel Molina Jay Shockey John Browse
Publish Date: 2010/02/21
Volume: 231, Issue: 5, Pages: 1089-1100
Abstract
As the outermost layer on aerial tissues of the primary plant body the cuticle plays important roles in plant development and physiology The major components of the cuticle are cutin and cuticular wax both of which are composed primarily of fatty acid derivatives synthesized in the epidermal cells Longchain acylCoA synthetases LACS catalyze the formation of longchain acylCoAs and the Arabidopsis genome contains a family of nine genes shown to encode LACS enzymes LACS2 is required for cutin biosynthesis as revealed by previous investigations on lacs2 mutants Here we characterize lacs1 mutants of Arabidopsis that reveals a role for LACS1 in biosynthesis of cuticular wax components lacs1 lacs2 doublemutant plants displayed pleiotropic phenotypes including organ fusion abnormal flower development and reduced seed set phenotypes not found in either of the parental mutants The leaf cuticular permeability of lacs1 lacs2 was higher than that of either lacs1 or lacs2 single mutants as determined by measurements of chlorophyll leaching from leaves immersed in 80 ethanol staining with toluidine blue dye and direct measurements of water loss Furthermore lacs1 lacs2 mutant plants are highly susceptible to drought stress Our results indicate that a deficiency in cuticular wax synthesis and a deficiency in cutin synthesis together have compounding effects on the functional integrity of the cuticular barrier compromising the ability of the cuticle to restrict water movement protect against drought stress and prevent organ fusionWe are extremely grateful for generous support and constructive comments from John Ohlrogge and Mike Pollard Department of Plant Biology Michigan State University This work was supported by US National Science Foundation grant nos MCB0420199 to JB and MCB0615563 to JO by US Department of Agriculture grant no 20053531815419 to MP and by the Agricultural Research Center at Washington State University
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