Abstract
BackgroundProline (Pro) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) play important roles in plant development and stress tolerance. However, the molecular components responsible for the transport of these molecules in rice remain largely unknown.ResultsHere we identified OsProT1 and OsProT3 as functional transporters for Pro and GABA. Transient expression of eGFP-OsProTs in plant protoplasts revealed that both OsProT1 and OsProT3 are localized to the plasma membrane. Ectopic expression in a yeast mutant demonstrated that both OsProT1 and OsProT3 specifically mediate transport of Pro and GABA with affinity for Pro in the low affinity range. qRT-PCR analyses suggested that OsProT1 was preferentially expressed in leaf sheathes during vegetative growth, while OsProT3 exhibited relatively high expression levels in several tissues, including nodes, panicles and roots. Interestingly, both OsProT1 and OsProT3 were induced by cadmium stress in rice shoots.ConclusionsOur results suggested that plasma membrane-localized OsProT1 and OsProT3 efficiently transport Pro and GABA when ectopically expressed in yeast and appear to be involved in various physiological processes, including adaption to cadmium stress in rice plants.
Highlights
Proline (Pro) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) play important roles in plant development and stress tolerance
As OsProTs are likely to participate in these transport processes and OsProT2 has been characterized as a functional Pro transporter through its expression in Xenopus oocytes (Igarashi et al 2000), we identified and functionally characterized the other two OsProT members in order to uncover the details for Pro and GABA transport in rice
Our results demonstrated that plasma membrane-localized OsProT1 and OsProT3 are functional uptake transporters for Pro and GABA in yeast and might get involved in normal growth and stress tolerance in planta
Summary
Proline (Pro) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) play important roles in plant development and stress tolerance. Pro and GABA are key players in plant growth and resistance to stresses. GABA, a nonproteinogenic amino acid, rapidly accumulates in response to both abiotic and biotic stresses (Shelp et al 2012; Bown and Shelp 2016) Lin et al Rice (2019) 12:79 shown that GABA functions in defense against insect herbivory and drought tolerance in Arabidopsis (Scholz et al 2015; Bown and Shelp 2016; Mekonnen et al 2016). GABA is considered as a pivotal amino acid in post-pollination fertilization (Biancucci et al 2015)
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