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Glutamate (Glu) dehydrogenase (GDH) catalyses the reversible amination of 2-oxoglutarate for the synthesis of Glu using ammonium as a substrate. This enzyme preferentially occurs in the mitochondria of companion cells of a number of plant species grown on nitrate as the sole nitrogen source. For a better understanding of the controversial role of GDH either in ammonium assimilation or in the supply of 2-oxoglutarate (F. Dubois, T. Tercé-Laforgue, M.B. Gonzalez-Moro, M.B. Estavillo, R. Sangwan, A. Gallais, B. Hirel [2003] Plant Physiol Biochem 41: 565-576), we studied the localization of GDH in untransformed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants grown either on low nitrate or on ammonium and in ferredoxin-dependent Glu synthase antisense plants. Production of GDH and its activity were strongly induced when plants were grown on ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. The induction mainly occurred in highly vascularized organs such as stems and midribs and was likely to be due to accumulation of phloem-translocated ammonium in the sap. GDH induction occurred when ammonia was applied externally to untransformed control plants or resulted from photorespiratory activity in transgenic plants down-regulated for ferredoxin-dependent Glu synthase. GDH was increased in the mitochondria and appeared in the cytosol of companion cells. Taken together, our results suggest that the enzyme plays a dual role in companion cells, either in the mitochondria when mineral nitrogen availability is low or in the cytosol when ammonium concentration increases above a certain threshold.Ammonium is the ultimate form of inorganic nitrogen available to the plant. It can originate from a wide variety of metabolic processes such as nitrate reduction, photorespiration, phenylpropanoid metabolism, utilization of nitrogen transport compounds, amino acid catabolism, symbiotic nitrogen fixation (Hirel and Lea, 2001), and insect digestion in carnivorous plants (Schulze et al., 1997). It is then incorporated into an organic molecule, 2-oxoglutarate, by the combined action of the enzymes Gln synthetase (GS) and Glu synthase (Gln-2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase; GOGAT) to allow the synthesis of Gln and Glu. Both amino acids are further used as amino group donors for the synthesis of virtually all the nitrogencontaining molecules including the other amino acids needed for protein synthesis and nucleotides used as basic molecules for RNA and DNA synthesis (Hirel and Lea, 2001). The GS/GOGAT cycle is the major mechanism of ammonium assimilation in higher plants regardless of the various sources of ammonium listed above. However, it has often been argued that other enzymes have the capacity to assimilate ammonium, leading to the hypothesis that alternative pathways might operate under particular physiological conditions when the GS/GOGAT pathway may not be able to fulfill its function (Harrison et al., 2003).One of these alternative pathways is the reaction catalyzed by the mitochondrial NAD(H)-dependent Glu dehydrogenase (GDH; EC 1.4.1.2), which possesses the ...

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To inhibit expression specifically in the phloem, a 274-bp fragment of a cDNA ( Gln1-5 ) encoding cytosolic glutamine synthetase (GS1) from tobacco was placed in the antisense orientation downstream of the cytosolic Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase promoter of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia. After Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, two transgenic N. tabacum lines exhibiting reduced levels of GS1 mRNA and GS activity in midribs, stems, and roots were obtained. Immunogold labeling experiments allowed us to verify that the GS protein content was markedly decreased in the phloem companion cells of transformed plants. Moreover, a general decrease in proline content in the transgenic plants in comparison with wild-type tobacco was observed when plants were forced to assimilate large amounts of ammonium. In contrast, no major changes in the concentration of amino acids used for nitrogen transport were apparent. A 15 NH 4 ؉ -labeling kinetic over a 48-hr period confirmed that in leaves of transgenic plants, the decrease in proline production was directly related to glutamine availability. After 2 weeks of salt treatment, the transgenic plants had a pronounced stress phenotype, consisting of wilting and bleaching in the older leaves. We conclude that GS in the phloem plays a major role in regulating proline production consistent with the function of proline as a nitrogen source and as a key metabolite synthesized in response to water stress. INTRODUCTIONIn higher plants, glutamine synthetase (GS; EC 6.3.1.2) is a key enzyme involved in the assimilation of inorganic nitrogen into organic forms (O'Neal and Joy, 1973; Lea and Miflin, 1974). GS catalyzes the ATP-dependent condensation of ammonium with glutamate to yield glutamine, which then provides nitrogen groups, either directly or via glutamate for the biosynthesis of all nitrogenous compounds in the plant (Lea et al., 1989).Two groups of GS isoenzymes, plastidic (GS2) and cytosolic (GS1), have been identified in higher plants (McNally et al., 1983;Hirel et al., 1993). In the majority of higher plants, GS2 is predominant in most chlorophyllous tissue and is localized in the chloroplast stroma (Botella et al., 1988; Brangeon et al., 1989; Dubois et al., 1996). In a limited number of species, such as legumes, GS2 was shown to be present also in plastids of either roots (Vézina and Langlois, 1989) or root nodules (Lightfoot et al., 1988; Brangeon et al., 1989), representing ‫ف‬ 5% of total GS protein content. More recently, isolation of cDNAs encoding GS2 allowed the demonstration that in most plant species, this isoenzyme is encoded by a single nuclear gene per haploid genome (Lightfoot et al., 1988;Becker et al., 1992). Using photorespiratory mutants of barley that were deficient in leaf GS2 activity, Blackwell et al. (1987) and Wallsgrove et al. (1987) demonstrated that GS2 is indispensable for the reassimilation of ammonium released from the photorespiratory nitrogen cycle. Interestingly, these mutants possess levels of GS1 protein and activity comparable to the wild ty...

The insertion of foreign DNA in plants occurs through a complex interaction between Agrobacteria and host plant cells. The marker gene β-glucuronidase of Escherichia coli and cytological methods were used to characterize competent cells for Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, to study early cellular events of transformation, and to identify the potential host-cell barriers that limit transformation in Arabidopsis thaliana L. Heynh. In cotyledon and leaf explants, competent cells were mesophyll cells that were dedifferentiating, a process induced by wounding and-or phytohormones. The cells were located either at the cut surface or within the explant after phytohormone pretreatment. In root explants, competent cells were present in dedifferentiating pericycle, and were produced only after phytohormone pretreatment. Irrespective of their origin, the competent cells were small, isodiametric with thin primary cell walls, small and multiple vacuoles, prominent nuclei and dense cytoplasm. In both cotyledon and root explants, histological enumeration and β-glucuronidase assays showed that the number of putatively competent cells was increased by preculture treatment, indicating that cell activation and cell division following wounding were insufficient for transformation without phytohormone treatment. Exposure of explants for 48 h to A. tumefaciens produced no characteristic stress response nor any gradual loss of viability nor cell death. However, in the competent cell, association between the polysaccharide of the host cell wall and that of the bacterial filament was frequently observed, indicating that transformation required polysaccharide-to-polysaccharide contact. Flow cytofluorometry and histological analysis showed that abundant transformation required not only cell activation (an early state exhibiting an increase in nuclear protein) but also cell proliferation (which in cotyledon tissue occurred at many ploidy levels). Noncompetent cells could be made competent with the appropriate phytohormone treatments before bacterial infection: this should aid analysis of critical steps in transformation procedures and should facilitate developing new strategies to transform recalcitrant plants.

SummaryA novel Arabidopsis thaliana mutant, named hoc, was found to have an high organogenic capacity for shoot regeneration. The HOC locus may be involved in cytokinin metabolism leading to cytokininoverproduction. In vitro, hoc root explants develop many shoots in the absence of exogenous growth regulators. The mutant displays a bushy phenotype with supernumerary rosettes and with normal phyllotaxy, resulting from precocious axillary meristem development. Genetic and molecular analyses show that the high shoot regeneration and the bushy phenotype are controlled by a recessive single gene, located on chromosome I, next to the GAPB CAPS marker. The mapping data and allelism tests reveal that the hoc mutant is not allelic to other reported Arabidopsis growth-regulator mutants. In darkness the hoc mutant is de-etiolated, with a short hypocotyl, opened cotyledons and true leaves. Growth regulator assays reveal that the mutant accumulates cytokinins at about two-and sevenfold the cytokinin level of wild-type plants in its aerial parts and roots, respectively. Consequently, the elevated amounts of endogenous cytokinins in hoc plants are associated with high organogenic capacity and hence bushy phenotype. Thus hoc is the ®rst cytokinin-overproducing Arabidopsis mutant capable of auto-regenerating shoots without exogenous growth regulators.