The expression of invertases was analyzed in vegetative organs of well-watered and water-stressed maize (Zea mays) plants. Early changes in sucrose metabolism and in acid soluble invertase expression were observed in vegetative sink and source organs under mild water stress. The organ-specific induction of acid invertase activity was correlated with an increase in the Ivr2 gene transcripts and in the vacuolar invertase proteins. In addition diurnal changes in activity and Ivr2 transcripts for vacuolar invertase were noted in shoots. Hexoses (glucose and fructose) accumulated in all organs examined from water-stressed plants. In situ localization studies showed that glucose accumulation, vacuolar invertase activity, invertase protein, and the Ivr2 transcripts colocalized specifically in bundle sheath and vascular tissue cells of mature stressed leaf; in primary roots the stress-induced increase of Ivr2 transcripts was detected only in root tips. Based on these results different regulatory roles are proposed in sink and source organs for the stress induced Ivr2 vacuolar invertase.
SummaryIn this work, we provide evidence for the existence of a nuclear factor involved in the splicing of a speci®c mitochondrial intron in higher plants. In the Nicotiana sylvestris nuclear NMS1 mutant, defective in both vegetative and reproductive development, the ®rst intron of the nad4 transcript encoding the complex I NAD4 subunit is not removed, whatever the tissue analysed. Transcript patterns of other standard mitochondrial genes are not affected in NMS1. However, numerous polypeptides are missing in two-dimensional in organello mitochondrial protein synthesis patterns and several nuclear and mitochondrial complex I subunits are present in trace amounts. This indicates that translational or posttranslational steps in the synthesis of other mitochondrial proteins are affected. All of these defects cosegregated with the abnormal phenotype in the offspring of a NMS1 3 wild-type cross, showing that they are controlled by the same nuclear gene (MS1) or tightly linked loci. Such a complex situation has been described in chloroplasts and mitochondria of fungi, but never in higher plant mitochondria.
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