Modeling the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in chloroplasts under light/dark conditions

[Background] Light/dark cycles are probably the most important environmental signals that regulate plant development. Light is essential for photosynthesis, but an excess, in combination with the unavoidable presence of atmospheric oxygen inside the chloroplast, leads to excessive reactive oxygen species production. Among the defense mechanisms that activate plants to cope with environmental stress situations, it is worth noting the ascorbate-glutathione cycle, a complex metabolic pathway in which a variety of photochemical, chemical and enzymatic steps are involved.[Results] We herein studied the dynamic behavior of this pathway under light/dark conditions and for several consecutive days. For this purpose, a mathematical model was developed including a variable electron source with a rate law proportional to the intensity of solar irradiance during the photoperiod, and which is continuously turned off at night and on again the next day. The model is defined by a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations with an on/off time-dependent input, including a parameter to simulate the fact that the photoperiod length is not constant throughout the year, and which takes into account the particular experimental kinetics of each enzyme involved in the pathway. Unlike previous models, which have only provided steady-state solutions, the present model is able to simulate diurnal fluctuations in the metabolite concentrations, fluxes and enzymatic rates involved in the network.[Conclusions] The obtained results are broadly consistent with experimental observations and highlight the key role played by ascorbate recycling for plants to adapt to their surrounding environment. This approach provides a new strategy to in vivo studies to analyze plant defense mechanisms against oxidative stress induced by external changes, which can also be extrapolated to other complex metabolic pathways to constitute a useful tool to the scientific community in general.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, http://www.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/mineco/idi), Project No. BFU2013-44095-P (cofunded with FEDER funds, EU), and by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (http://www.educa.jccm.es/idiuniv/es), Project No. PEII-2014-014-A (cofunded with FEDER funds, EU).Peer reviewe

Additional file 3: of Modeling the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in chloroplasts under light/dark conditions

Simulated progress curves under NADP + -limiting and high-light conditions in the presence of 2 μM MDAR. Parametric conditions as indicated in Fig. 10A. (TIF 1806 kb

Additional file 1: of Modeling the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in chloroplasts under light/dark conditions

Fitting the average daily global clear-sky solar irradiance data to Eq. ( 11 ). Data were taken from [13] after considering these parameters: geographic coordinates = 40° 25' 0'' North, 3° 42' 1'' West (Madrid, Spain), month = September, inclination of plane = 35° and orientation (azimuth) of plane = 0°. Dots represent the real solar irradiance data (adapted so that the photoperiod starts at time = 0) and the line corresponds to the nonlinear regression analysis. Data were fitted by the SigmaPlot Scientific Graphing Software for Windows, version 13.0 (2014, Systat Software, Inc.). (TIF 187 kb

Additional file 4: of Modeling the ascorbate-glutathione cycle in chloroplasts under light/dark conditions

Simulated progress curves under NADP + -limiting and high-light conditions in the presence of 1.3 μM MDAR. Parametric conditions as indicated in Fig. 10B. (TIF 1938 kb