Metabolic Engineering of Sulfur Assimilation in Plants

Abstract

Sulfur and sulfur-containing products play important roles in plant cells. In order to enhance the ability of the production of sulfur-containing compounds by the metabolic engineering of sulfur assimilation in plants, we constructed transgenic plants over-expressing cysteine synthase (CSase), or serine acetyltransferase (SATase) gene, key enzymes for cysteine biosynthesis in plants. Transgenic plants over-expressing CSase gene were highly tolerant to sulfur dioxide, sulfite, oxidative stress, and cadmium. Besides, transgenic plants over-expressing SATase gene showed the over-accumulation of sulfur-containing compounds, cysteine and glutathione (GSH). These results indicate that the over-expression of CSase or SATase gene is promising for the metabolic engineering of sulfur assimilation in plants