Poster: Nutrient Biology
Abs #
403: Multivariate analysis of gene expression and metabolite levels in sulfur metabolism under environmental alterations.
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Presenter: |
Awazuhara, Motoko , amotoko@p.chiba-u.ac.jp |
Authors | Awazuhara, Motoko (A) Hayase, Akiko (A) Masaaki, Noji (A) Kazuki, Saito (A) | | Affiliations: |
(A): Graduate school of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University
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Plants incorporate sulfate and assimilate it into various organic sulfur compounds. This sulfur assimilation pathway is regulated in response to environmental alterations, such as nutritional starvation and heavy metal stress. However, the regulatory mechanisms of the sulfur assimilation pathway are only little understood. In this study, we examined the effects of altered growth conditions on the levels of sulfur-related gene expression and metabolite accumulation.
Wild-type Arabidopsis plants were grown for about 17 days on MS solid media and then transferred to modified MS media with various levels of nutritional elements, sulfur metabolism-related compounds like glutathione or cysteine, or toxic levels of cadmium or selenate. Forty-eight hours after the transfer, rosette leaves and roots were harvested and subjected to analysis by HPLC, capillary electrophoresis or real-time PCR.
We conducted principal component analysis (PCA) for all the data of metabolite accumulation and gene expression. PCA indicated that leaf samples and root samples constituted two distinct clusters. This suggests that there are big differences between leaves and roots for the metabolite accumulation and the gene expression and that the effects of modified growth conditions are small comparing the differences between organs. Additionally, the compound that exhibited the greatest variance by modified growth conditions was O-acetylserine (OAS), a positive regulator of sulfur deficiency-responsive genes, suggesting that OAS is a key compound for the regulation of the sulfur assimilation pathway. Furthermore, we will also discuss the relationship between the levels of gene expression and metabolite accumulation based on comprehensive multivariate analysis.
