Abstract

Rubisco's catalytic chaperone, Rubisco activase (Rca), uses the energy from ATP hydrolysis to restore catalytic competence to Rubisco. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), inhibition of Rca activity by ADP is fine tuned by redox regulation of the α-isoform. To elucidate the mechanism for Rca regulation in species containing only the redox-insensitive β-isoform, the response of activity to ADP was characterized for different Rca forms. When assayed in leaf extracts, Rubisco activation was significantly inhibited by physiological ratios of ADP to ATP in species containing both α-Rca and β-Rca (Arabidopsis and camelina [Camelina sativa]) or just the β-Rca (tobacco [Nicotiana tabacum]). However, Rca activity was insensitive to ADP inhibition in an Arabidopsis transformant, rwt43, which expresses only Arabidopsis β-Rca, although not in a transformant of Arabidopsis that expresses a tobacco-like β-Rca. ATP hydrolysis by recombinant Arabidopsis β-Rca was much less sensitive to inhibition by ADP than recombinant tobacco β-Rca. Mutation of 17 amino acids in the tobacco β-Rca to the corresponding Arabidopsis residues reduced ADP sensitivity. In planta, Rubisco deactivated at low irradiance except in the Arabidopsis rwt43 transformant containing an ADP-insensitive Rca. Induction of CO2 assimilation after transition from low to high irradiance was much more rapid in the rwt43 transformant compared with plants containing ADP-sensitive Rca forms. The faster rate of photosynthetic induction and a greater enhancement of growth under a fluctuating light regime by the rwt43 transformant compared with wild-type Arabidopsis suggests that manipulation of Rca regulation might provide a strategy for enhancing photosynthetic performance in certain variable light environments.

Highlights

  • Rubisco’s catalytic chaperone, Rubisco activase (Rca), uses the energy from ATP hydrolysis to restore catalytic competence to Rubisco

  • The sensitivity of Rca activity to inhibition by ADP was determined by measuring the rate of Rubisco activation in leaf extracts in the presence of physiological ratios of ADP to ATP (Fig. 1)

  • The response of Rca activity to physiological ratios of ADP to ATP showed that the regulatory properties of b-Rca in Arabidopsis differed from those of b-Rca in tobacco

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Summary

Introduction

Rubisco’s catalytic chaperone, Rubisco activase (Rca), uses the energy from ATP hydrolysis to restore catalytic competence to Rubisco. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), inhibition of Rca activity by ADP is fine tuned by redox regulation of the a-isoform. In cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), soybean (Glycine max), and presumably other plant species, separate genes encode the two isoforms of Rca (Salvucci et al, 2003; Yin et al, 2010). In these species, the amino acid sequences of the overlapping regions of the a- and b-polypeptides are very similar, and the C-terminal extension of the longer a-isoform is similar to the extension produced by alternative splicing (Supplemental Fig. S1).

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