Les Ferritines chez A. thaliana (fonction et régulation)

Fe is essential for all cells because it is the cofactor of numerous proteins, however, excess free Fe is potentially deleterious for the cell. Ferritins are multimeric proteins, present in all the kingdoms of life that can store iron in a safe and bioavailable form. In mammals, ferritins are the main Fe store. They have been predicted to fulfil the same function in plants, but direct evidences are lacking. In plants, ferritin synthesis in response to iron overload is mainly regulated at the transcriptional level, whereas, in animals, it is mainly regulated at the post-transcriptional level by the aconitase dependent IRP/IRE system. The aims of my PhD project were: (i) to elucidate ferritin function in plant physiology and (ii) to decipher the signaling pathway leading to ferritin accumulation in response to iron overload. (i) To directly study ferritin function in plants, a loss-of-function approach was developed in Arabidopsis. We present evidence that ferritins do not constitute the major iron pool either in seeds for seedling development or in leaves for proper functioning of the photosynthetic apparatus. The loss of ferritins in vegetative and reproductive organs resulted in sensitivity to excess iron. Furthermore, the absence of ferritin led to a strong deregulation of expression of several metal transporter genes in the stalk, over-accumulation of iron in reproductive organs, and a decrease in fertility. Finally, I showed that in the absence of ferritin, plants had higher levels of ROS, and increased activity of enzymes involved in their detoxification. Ferritins are also involved in iron-detoxification during senescence to avoid ROS accumulation. Seeds ferritins are also involved in the protection against oxidative stress during germination and appear to take part in the integrated iron homeostasis establishment. Taken together, my work showed that Arabidopsis ferritins are essential factors that integrate iron and redox homeostasis, while they do not constitute a major iron source for development. (ii) To study ferritin regulation in A. thaliana, the characterization of mutants in the three genes encoding aconitase permitted us to demonstrate that the IRP/IRE system does not occur in the regulation of iron metabolism in plants. Nevertheless, AtFer1 mRNA stability studies have revealed that iron treatment leads to the destabilization of the AtFer1 mRNA. We identified the presence of DST sequences, characterized as mRNA stability determinant, in the 3'-UTR of AtFer1 mRNA. Using chimeric constructs in which the AtFer1 3'-UTR or the AtFer1 3'-UTR with a mutated DST sequence were fused downstream of reporter genes, we have shown that the DST sequence in the 3'-UTR of AtFer1 is functional and sufficient for the iron-dependent mRNA degradation. Using dst1 and dst2 mutants, which are unable to destabilize transcript via DST sequences, we have shown that the DST1 and DST2 gene products, acting in trans in the DST-dependent degradation pathway, are involved in the degradation of AtFer1. Therefore, in addition to the transcriptional regulation described so far, iron is also involved in DST-dependent post-transcriptional regulation of AtFer1 expression. In conclusion, my work has shown that Arabidopsis ferritins are essential elements, which prevent iron toxicity by maintaining a proper labile iron level into the cell, and that sophisticated mechanisms, involving transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulations, permit the tight adjustment of the ferritin accumulation required for the optimal effectiveness of this systemMONTPELLIER-BU Sciences (341722106) / SudocSudocFranceF

Ferritins and iron storage in plants.

International audienceIron is essential for both plant productivity and nutritional quality. Improving plant iron content was attempted through genetic engineering of plants overexpressing ferritins. However, both the roles of these proteins in the plant physiology, and the mechanisms involved in the regulation of their expression are largely unknown. Although the structure of ferritins is highly conserved between plants and animals, their cellular localization differ. Furthermore, regulation of ferritin gene expression in response to iron excess occurs at the transcriptional level in plants, in contrast to animals which regulate ferritin expression at the translational level. In this review, our knowledge of the specific features of plant ferritins is presented, at the level of their (i) structure/function relationships, (ii) cellular localization, and (iii) synthesis regulation during development and in response to various environmental cues. A special emphasis is given to their function in plant physiology, in particular concerning their respective roles in iron storage and in protection against oxidative stress. Indeed, the use of reverse genetics in Arabidopsis recently enabled to produce various knock-out ferritin mutants, revealing strong links between these proteins and protection against oxidative stress. In contrast, their putative iron storage function to furnish iron during various development processes is unlikely to be essential. Ferritins, by buffering iron, exert a fine tuning of the quantity of metal required for metabolic purposes, and help plants to cope with adverse situations, the deleterious effects of which would be amplified if no system had evolved to take care of free reactive iron

Arabidopsis ferritins as an integrative model linking iron metabolism to light, clock and oxidative stress signalings

Arabidopsis ferritins as an integrative model linking iron metabolism to light, clock and oxidative stress signalings. POSTECH International Conference on Plant Scienc

Knock-out of ferritin AtFer1 causes earlier onset of age-dependent leaf senescence in Arabidopsis.

Ferritins are iron-storage proteins involved in the regulation of free iron levels in the cells. Arabidopsis thaliana AtFer1 ferritin, one of the best characterized plant ferritin isoforms to date, strongly accumulates upon treatment with excess iron, via a nitric oxide-mediated pathway. However other environmental factors, such as exposure to oxidative stress or to pathogen attack, as well as developmental factors regulate AtFer1 transcript levels. In particular, recent findings have highlighted an accumulation of the ferritin transcript during senescence. To investigate the physiological relevance of AtFer1 ferritin during senescence we isolated an Arabidopsis mutant knock-out in the AtFer1 gene, which we named atfer1-2. We analyzed it together with a second, independent AtFer1 KO mutant, the atfer1-1 mutant. Interestingly, both atfer1-1 and atfer1-2 mutants show symptoms of accelerated natural senescence; the precocious leaf yellowing is accompanied by accelerated decrease of maximal photochemical efficiency and chlorophyll degradation. However, no accelerated senescence upon dark treatment was observed in the atfer1 mutants with respect to their wt. These results suggest that AtFer1 ferritin isoform is functionally involved in events leading to the onset of age-dependent senescence in Arabidopsis and that its iron-detoxification function during senescence is required when reactive oxygen species accumulate

A Program for Iron Economy during Deficiency Targets Specific Fe Proteins

International audienceIron (Fe) is an essential element for plants, utilized in nearly every cellular process. Because the adjustment of uptake under Fe limitation cannot satisfy all demands, plants need to acclimate their physiology and biochemistry, especially in their chloroplasts, which have a high demand for Fe. To investigate if a program exists for the utilization of Fe under deficiency, we analyzed how hydroponically grown Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) adjusts its physiology and Fe protein composition in vegetative photosynthetic tissue during Fe deficiency. Fe deficiency first affected photosynthetic electron transport with concomitant reductions in carbon assimilation and biomass production when effects on respiration were not yet significant. Photosynthetic electron transport function and protein levels of Fe-dependent enzymes were fully recovered upon Fe resupply, indicating that the Fe depletion stress did not cause irreversible secondary damage. At the protein level, ferredoxin, the cytochrome-b(6)f complex, and Fe-containing enzymes of the plastid sulfur assimilation pathway were major targets of Fe deficiency, whereas other Fe-dependent functions were relatively less affected. In coordination, SufA and SufB, two proteins of the plastid Fe-sulfur cofactor assembly pathway, were also diminished early by Fe depletion. Iron depletion reduced mRNA levels for the majority of the affected proteins, indicating that loss of enzyme was not just due to lack of Fe cofactors. SufB and ferredoxin were early targets of transcript down-regulation. The data reveal a hierarchy for Fe utilization in photosynthetic tissue and indicate that a program is in place to acclimate to impending Fe deficiency

Iron uptake and storage in plants

International audienc

Effects of EPSPS Copy Number Variation (CNV) and Glyphosate Application on the Aromatic and Branched Chain Amino Acid Synthesis Pathways in Amaranthus palmeri

A key enzyme of the shikimate pathway, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS; EC 2.5.1.19), is the known target of the widely used herbicide glyphosate. Glyphosate resistance in Amaranthus palmeri, one of the most troublesome weeds in agriculture, has evolved through increased EPSPS gene copy number. The aim of this work was to study the pleiotropic effects of (i) EPSPS increased transcript abundance due to gene copy number variation (CNV) and of (ii) glyphosate application on the aromatic amino acid (AAA) and branched chain amino acid (BCAA) synthesis pathways. Hydroponically grown glyphosate sensitive (GS) and glyphosate resistant (GR) plants were treated with glyphosate 3 days after treatment. In absence of glyphosate treatment, high EPSPS gene copy number had only a subtle effect on transcriptional regulation of AAA and BCAA pathway genes. In contrast, glyphosate treatment provoked a general accumulation of the transcripts corresponding to genes of the AAA pathway leading to synthesis of chorismate in both GS and GR. After chorismate, anthranilate synthase transcript abundance was higher while chorismate mutase transcription showed a small decrease in GR and remained stable in GS, suggesting a regulatory branch point in the pathway that favors synthesis toward tryptophan over phenylalanine and tyrosine after glyphosate treatment. This was confirmed by studying enzyme activities in vitro and amino acid analysis. Importantly, this upregulation was glyphosate dose dependent and was observed similarly in both GS and GR populations. Glyphosate treatment also had a slight effect on the expression of BCAA genes but no general effect on the pathway could be observed. Taken together, our observations suggest that the high CNV of EPSPS in A. palmeri GR populations has no major pleiotropic effect on the expression of AAA biosynthetic genes, even in response to glyphosate treatment. This finding supports the idea that the fitness cost associated with EPSPS CNV in A. palmeri may be limited