Global Metabolic Profiling of Arabidopsis Polyamine Oxidase 4 (AtPAO4) Loss-of-Function Mutants Exhibiting Delayed Dark-Induced Senescence.

Early and more recent studies have suggested that some polyamines (PAs), and particularly spermine (Spm), exhibit anti-senescence properties in plants. In this work, we have investigated the role of Arabidopsis Polyamine Oxidase 4 (PAO4), encoding a PA back-conversion oxidase, during dark-induced senescence. Two independent PAO4 (pao4-1 and pao4-2) loss-of-function mutants have been found that accumulate 10-fold higher Spm, and this associated with delayed entry into senescence under dark conditions.