Blocking the metabolism of starch breakdown products in Arabidopsis leaves triggers chloroplast degradation.

In most plants, a large fraction of photo-assimilated carbon is stored in the chloroplasts during the day as starch and remobilized during the subsequent night to support metabolism. Mutations blocking either starch synthesis or starch breakdown in Arabidopsis thaliana reduce plant growth. Maltose is the major product of starch breakdown exported from the chloroplast at night.

Large-scale Arabidopsis phosphoproteome profiling reveals novel chloroplast kinase substrates and phosphorylation networks.

We have characterized the phosphoproteome of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings using high-accuracy mass spectrometry and report the identification of 1,429 phosphoproteins and 3,029 unique phosphopeptides. Among these, 174 proteins were chloroplast phosphoproteins. Motif-X (motif extractor) analysis of the phosphorylation sites in chloroplast proteins identified four significantly enriched kinase motifs, which include casein kinase II (CKII) and proline-directed kinase motifs, as well as two new motifs at the carboxyl terminus of ribosomal proteins.

Beta-AMYLASE4, a noncatalytic protein required for starch breakdown, acts upstream of three active beta-amylases in Arabidopsis chloroplasts.

This work investigated the roles of beta-amylases in the breakdown of leaf starch. Of the nine beta-amylase (BAM)-like proteins encoded in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, at least four (BAM1, -2, -3, and -4) are chloroplastic. When expressed as recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli, BAM1, BAM2, and BAM3 had measurable beta-amylase activity but BAM4 did not.

Starch breakdown: recent discoveries suggest distinct pathways and novel mechanisms.

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of current models of starch breakdown in leaves. We summarise the results of our recent work focusing on Arabidopsis, relating them to other work in the field. Early biochemical studies of starch containing tissues identified numerous enzymes capable of participating in starch degradation.

Rapid classification of phenotypic mutants of Arabidopsis via metabolite fingerprinting.

We evaluated the application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry metabolic fingerprinting to classify forward genetic mutants with similar phenotypes. Mutations affecting distinct metabolic or signaling pathways can result in common phenotypic traits that are used to identify mutants in genetic screens. Measurement of a broad range of metabolites provides information about the underlying processes affected in such mutants.

Similar protein phosphatases control starch metabolism in plants and glycogen metabolism in mammals.

We report that protein phosphorylation is involved in the control of starch metabolism in Arabidopsis leaves at night. sex4 (starch excess 4) mutants, which have strongly reduced rates of starch metabolism, lack a protein predicted to be a dual specificity protein phosphatase. We have shown that this protein is chloroplastic and can bind to glucans and have presented evidence that it acts to regulate the initial steps of starch degradation at the granule surface.

A cytosolic glucosyltransferase is required for conversion of starch to sucrose in Arabidopsis leaves at night.

Maltose is exported from the Arabidopsis chloroplast as the main product of starch degradation at night. To investigate its fate in the cytosol, we characterised plants with mutations in a gene encoding a putative glucanotransferase (disproportionating enzyme; DPE2), a protein similar to the maltase Q (MalQ) gene product involved in maltose metabolism in bacteria. Use of a DPE2 antiserum revealed that the DPE2 protein is cytosolic.

A previously unknown maltose transporter essential for starch degradation in leaves.

A previously unknown maltose transporter is essential for the conversion of starch to sucrose in Arabidopsis leaves at night. The transporter was identified by isolating two allelic mutants with high starch levels and very high maltose, an intermediate of starch breakdown. The mutations affect a gene of previously unknown function, MEX1.