Plant cell gatekeepers' diversity could be key to better crops

Date:
June 12, 2020
Source:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis
Summary:
Scientists have shed new light on how the network of gatekeepers
that controls the traffic in and out of plant cells works, which
they think is key to develop food crops with bigger yields and
greater ability to cope with extreme environments.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scientists have shed new light on how the network of gatekeepers that
controls the traffic in and out of plant cells works, which researchers
believe is key to develop food crops with bigger yields and greater
ability to cope with extreme environments.


========================================================================== Everything that a plant needs to grow first needs to pass through its
cells' membranes, which are guarded by a sieve of microscopic pores
called aquaporins.

"Aquaporins (AQPs) are ancient channel proteins that are found in most organisms, from bacteria to humans. In plants, they are vital for numerous plant processes including, water transport, growth and development,
stress responses, root nutrient uptake, and photosynthesis," says former
PhD student Annamaria De Rosa from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP) at The Australian National University (ANU).

"We know that if we are able to manipulate aquaporins, it will open
numerous useful applications for agriculture, including improving crop productivity, but first we need to know more about their diversity, evolutionary history and the many functional roles they have inside the
plant," Ms De Rosa says.

Their research, published this week in the Journal BMC Plant Biology, did
just that. They identified all the different types of aquaporins found
in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), a model plant species closely related
to major economic crops such as tomato, potato, eggplant and capsicum.

"We described 76 types of these microscopic hour-glass shape channels
based on their gene structures, protein composition, location in the plant
cell and in the different organs of the plant and their evolutionary
origin. These results are extremely important as they will help us to
transfer basic research to applied agriculture," says Ms De Rosa, whose
PhD project focused on aquaporins.

"The Centre (CoETP) is really interested in understanding aquaporins
because we believe they are a key player in energy conversion through photosynthesis and also control how a plant uses water. That is why
we think we can use aquaporins to enhance plant performance and crop
resilience to environmental changes," says lead researcher Dr Michael
Groszmann from the Research School of Biology and the CoETP at ANU.

Aquaporins are found everywhere in the plant, from the roots to flowers, transporting very different molecules in each location, at an astonishing
100 million molecules per second. The configuration of an aquaporin
channel determines the substrate it transports and therefore its function,
from the transport of water and nutrients from roots to shoots, to stress signalling or seed development.

"We focused on tobacco because it is a fast-growing model species that
allows us to scale from the lab to the field, allowing us to evaluate performance in real-world scenarios. Tobacco is closely related to
several important commercial crops, which means we can easily transfer the knowledge we obtain in tobacco to species like tomato and potato. Tobacco itself has own commercial applications and there is a renewed interest
in the biofuel and plant-based pharmaceutical sectors," he says.

"This research is extremely exciting because the diversity of aquaporins
in terms of their function and the substrates they transport, mean
they have many potential applications for crop improvement ranging from improved salt tolerance, more efficient fertiliser use, improved drought tolerance, and even more effective response to disease infection. They
are currently being used in water filtration systems and our results
could help to expand these applications. The future of aquaporins is
full of possibilities," says Dr Groszmann.

This research has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC)
Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CoETP), led by
the Australian National University, which aims to improve the process
of photosynthesis to increase the production of major food crops such
as sorghum, wheat and rice.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
ARC_Centre_of_Excellence_for_Translational Photosynthesis. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Annamaria De Rosa, Alexander Watson-Lazowski, John R. Evans, Michael
Groszmann. Genome-wide identification and characterisation of
Aquaporins in Nicotiana tabacum and their relationships with
other Solanaceae species. BMC Plant Biology, 2020; 20 (1) DOI:
10.1186/s12870-020-02412-5 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200612111423.htm

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