Plant Sphingolipid Metabolism and Function

Abstract

Sphingolipids, a once overlooked class of lipids in plants, are now recognized as abundant and essential components of plasma membrane and other endomembranes of plant cells. In addition to providing structural integrity to plant membranes, sphingolipids contribute to Golgi trafficking and protein organizational domains in the plasma membrane. Sphingolipid metabolites have also been linked to the regulation of cellular processes, including programmed cell death. Advances in mass spectrometry-based sphingolipid profiling and analyses of Arabidopsis mutants have enabled fundamental discoveries in sphingolipid structural diversity, metabolism, and function that are reviewed here. These discoveries are laying the groundwork for the tailoring of sphingolipid biosynthesis and catabolism for improved tolerance of plants to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Unraveling the metabolic response of Brassica oleracea exposed to Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris

“…Today, the sphingolipid compound class is recognized as an essential component of membranes, with a key role in various situations such as plant growth and responses to environmental stimuli. Recently, connections between sphingolipids and programmed cell death or the related hypersensitive response have been stablished in Arabidopsis . Thus it is not surprising that this compound has an important presence in all analyzed samples, with three induction peaks during the progress of infection.…”

Plasma Membrane Microdomains Are Essential for Rac1-RbohB/H-Mediated Immunity in Rice

“…This promotes the generation of ROS, leading to resistance to rice blast fungus infection. treatment was lower than in the wild type, suggesting that the decrease in 2-hydroxy sphingolipids may also affect the secretion pathway of PM proteins, in which sphingolipids are involved (Luttgeharm et al, 2016). Future work should examine the relationship among 2-hydroxy sphingolipids, secretion of Os-Rbohs and ROS production.…”

Loss of alkaline ceramidase inhibits autophagy in Arabidopsis and plays an important role during environmental stress response

“…Sphingolipids, classically thought to be inert structural elements of the cell membrane, have recently been recognized as being bioactive signalling mediators that modulate numerous fundamental cellular processes (Li et al, ; Luttgeharm, Kimberlin, & Cahoon, ; Magnin‐Robert et al, ). Sphingolipids make up a significant proportion of the lipids in higher plants; they have been estimated to compose ≥40% of the lipids of the plasma membrane and are also enriched in the tonoplast (Chen, Cahoon, Saucedo‐Garcia, Plasencia, & Gavilanes‐Ruíz, ).…”

“…Sphingolipids have considerable natural diversity and contain a ceramide backbone composed of a long‐chain base (LCB) esterified to a long‐chain fatty acid. Sphingolipids in plants are mainly classified as ceramides, hydroxyceramides, glucosylceramides (GlcCers), glycosyl inositolphosphoceramides, free LCBs, and LCB phosphates based on the composition of their head groups, the degree of hydroxylation, and the number and positions of double bonds (Luttgeharm et al, ).…”