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Assimilate Partitioning and Plant Development

Article  in  Molecular Plant · November 2010

DOI: 10.1093/mp/ssq069 · Source: PubMed

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 Molecular Plant • Volume 3 • Number 6 • Page 941
Editorial
Assimilate Partitioning and Plant Development
It has been a pleasure to organize this special issue of Molec-
ular Plant on ‘Assimilate Partitioning and Plant Development’.
Assimilate, a collective term describing organic carbon (C) and
nitrogen (N), is of paramount importance for plant develop-
ment and realization of crop productivity. The rapid advances
in C and N research in recent years and their direct applications
to, or implications in, increasing world crop yield, which needs
to increase two-fold by ;2050, make this themed issue a timely
publication. We are delighted to present in this special issue 10
articles covering key aspects of organic C and N transport, me-
tabolism, and signaling from molecular to whole-plant levels.
Also included in this issue is a regular submission on molecular
regulation of secondary cell wall biosynthesis, which shares
a strong synergy with the theme of the issue.
This issue is featured with a comprehensive review on the cur-
rent understanding of how organic C and N metabolism is inte-
grated and regulated, which builds contemporary insight into
the field (Nunes-Nesi et al., pp. 973–996). It evaluates recent advan-
ces on C/N metabolisms as well as sensing and signalling systems in
leaves and provides a perspective of the type of experiments re-
quired for further understanding. This follows with a review on
sugar import, metabolism, and signaling mediated by invertase
(INV),akeyenzymeresponsibleforthedegradationofsucroseinto
hexoses (Ruan et al., pp. 942–955). It focuses (1) new or emerging
rolesofINVinplantdevelopment,interactionsbetweenINVandits
inhibitorproteinsandbetweensugarsignalingandhormonalcon-
trol of development and (2) sugar and INV-mediated responses to
drought and heat stresses during seed and fruit set. Two research
papers provide detailed analyses on the roles of post-translational
regulation of cell wall INV activity in plant defense and sugar–
hormone cross-talk during seed development. Here, the release
of cell wall INV activity by repression of INV inhibitor expression
during pathogen infection is shown to be required for the defense
response in tobacco leaves (Bonfig et al., pp. 1037–1048).
Examination on expression levels of IAA biosynthetic genes in
the maize miniature1 INV-deficient mutant reveals new levels of
complexity in the cross-talk between sugar signaling and auxin
regulation of seed development (Chourey et al., pp. 1026–1036).
Linking sugar metabolism with transport, the role of plasma
membrane hexose transporter in fruit sugar accumulation was
demonstrated in tomato. This was based on functional character-
ization of the transporters in yeast and transgenic analyses of a set
of RNAi plants (McCurdy et al., pp. 1049–1063). Another frontier in
understanding the mechanisms controlling ‘Assimilate Partition-
ing’ is the regulation of the targeting process of sugar transporters
from endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to membrane destination. To
this end, cellular and molecular studies provide evidence on the
involvement of cellular redox status, cytoskeleton and membrane
View publication stats
• November 2010 EDITORIAL
microdomains in regulating intracellular targeting and recycling
between ER and plasma membranes in yeast and plant cells
including the phloem path, sieve element (Liesche et al., pp.
1064–1074).
Similar to transport and utilization of sugars, plants have
evolved efficient and selective systems for the uptake and
allocating of N within the plant to sustain vegetative develop-
ment and reproduction. A review summarizes current knowl-
edge on membrane proteins facilitating transport of amino
acids and peptides a focus on uptake of these organic nitrogen
by the root, partitioning between source and sink, and import in-
to floral tissues and seeds (Tegeder and Rentsch, pp. 997–1011).
Regulation of amino acid biosynthesis is featured in another re-
view by Tzin and Galili (pp. 956–972). It provides new insights into
the shikimate and aromatic amino acids biosynthesis pathways in
plants and updates recent progresses in identifying transcription
factors regulating the expression of genes encoding enzymes of
the shikimate and aromatic amino acids pathways as well as of
multiple secondary metabolites derived from them.
The close coupling between ‘Assimilate Partitioning’ and crop
yield has been further explored in two research papers. In one
study, light and electron microscopic analyses and immunolocali-
zation experiments were conducted to assess the potential role of
transfer cells (TCs) in the increase of seed yield from a comparative
evolutionary perspective (Pugh et al., pp. 1075–1086). The analyses
revealed that the degree of TC wall ingrowth correlated with the
estimated capacity of the TCs to transport assimilates and hence
the seed and fiber biomass yield increase in cotton during evolu-
tion. In another study, comparative gene expression profiling and
biochemical measurements between parental lines and F1 hybrid
point to the roles of enhanced expression of genes encoding car-
bon-fixation enzymes in rice heterosis (Song et al., pp. 1012–1025).
There is no doubt that ‘Assimilate Partitioning and Plant De-
velopment’ is a rapidly advancing field in contemporary Plant Bi-
ology with ever increasing significance in Agriculture and Plant
Biotechnology. We hope this special issue will contribute to shed-
ding light on some major aspects of organic C and N allocation
and stimulate further fruitful research in this critical area. Finally,
we would like to thank the scientific community for their warm
response and the contributing authors for their support.
Yong-Ling Ruan
John W. Patrick
Hans Weber
ª The Author 2010. Published by the Molecular Plant Shanghai Editorial
Office in association with Oxford University Press on behalf of CSPP and
IPPE, SIBS, CAS.
doi: 10.1093/mp/ssq069