Trehalose Metabolism and Signaling

Abstract

Trehalose metabolism and signaling is an area of emerging significance. In less than a decade our views on the importance of trehalose metabolism and its role in plants have gone through something of a revolution. An obscure curiosity has become an indispensable regulatory system. Mutant and transgenic plants of trehalose synthesis display wide-ranging and unprecedented phenotypes for the perturbation of a metabolic pathway. Molecular physiology and genomics have provided a glimpse of trehalose biology that had not been possible with conventional techniques, largely because the products of the synthetic pathway, trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) and trehalose, are in trace abundance and difficult to measure in most plants. A consensus is emerging that T6P plays a central role in the coordination of metabolism with development. The discovery of trehalose metabolism has been one of the most exciting developments in plant metabolism and plant science in recent years. The field is fast moving and this review highlights the most recent insights.

Yeast Tolerance to Various Stresses Relies on the Trehalose-6P Synthase (Tps1) Protein, Not on Trehalose

“…Trehalose is highly abundant in anhydrobiotes, including the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that can withstand long period of desiccation, which suggests a role for this sugar in desiccation survival, because of its proposed ability to stabilize membranes and proteins (3). In plants, trehalose is thought to play a role as osmoprotectant (4), and in flying insects, it serves as the "blood" sugar in hemolymph (5).…”

Wheat Grain Development Is Characterized by Remarkable Trehalose 6-Phosphate Accumulation Pregrain Filling: Tissue Distribution and Relationship to SNF1-Related Protein Kinase1 Activity

“…T6P is an important regulatory molecule in plants with a large impact on metabolism, growth, and development (Eastmond et al, 2002;Schluepmann et al, 2003;Paul et al, 2008;Smeekens et al, 2010). We recently established a mechanistic basis for the signaling function of T6P in growing tissues through inhibition of SnRK1 of the SNF1/AMPK group of protein kinases (Zhang et al, 2009;Paul et al, 2010).…”

Comprehensive Dissection of Spatiotemporal Metabolic Shifts in Primary, Secondary, and Lipid Metabolism during Developmental Senescence in Arabidopsis

“…Of particular interest might be the accumulation of trehalose during leaf senescence. In plants, trehalose is produced in a two-step biochemical reaction involving trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) synthase, which converts UDP-Glc and Glc-6-P to T6P, and T6P phosphatase, which hydrolyzes T6P to trehalose (Eastmond and Graham, 2003;Paul et al, 2008;Schluepmann and Paul, 2009). T6P has been identified as a signaling molecule for high carbon availability and to be involved in the regulation of a number of developmental processes in plants (Paul et al, 2008;Schluepmann et al, 2012).…”

“…In plants, trehalose is produced in a two-step biochemical reaction involving trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) synthase, which converts UDP-Glc and Glc-6-P to T6P, and T6P phosphatase, which hydrolyzes T6P to trehalose (Eastmond and Graham, 2003;Paul et al, 2008;Schluepmann and Paul, 2009). T6P has been identified as a signaling molecule for high carbon availability and to be involved in the regulation of a number of developmental processes in plants (Paul et al, 2008;Schluepmann et al, 2012). Of note, a strong (approximately 30-fold) increase of T6P content was recently reported during leaf development and senescence in Arabidopsis leaves; overexpressing a bacterial T6P phosphatase to reduce T6P level in transgenic plants was accompanied by a delay of senescence (Wingler et al, 2012).…”