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Importance of ornithine-δ-aminotransferase to proline accumulation caused by water stress in detached rice leaves

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Abstract

Proline is synthesized either from glutamate or from ornithine in plants. Relatively little is known about the contribution of the pathway from ornithine to proline biosynthesis. In this paper we investigated the contribution of ornithine-δ-aminotransterase (OAT), an enzyme responsible for ornithine pathway, to proline accumulation in water-stressed detached rice leaves. Although OAT activity increased with the increase of water stress duration, a pattern similar to that obtained for proline accumulation, the ornithine pathway in rice leaves seems to contribute little, if any, to proline accumulation under water stress condition. This conclusion was based on the observations that (a) gabaculine (50 μM), an inhibitor of OAT, inhibited about 75% OAT activity caused by water stress but reduced only 20% of proline content and (b) cycloheximide, a protein synthesis inhibitor, had no effect on OAT activity induced by water stress but significantly reduced proline accumulation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chao-Wei Yang & Ching Huei Kao*

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  1. Chao-Wei Yang
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  2. Ching Huei Kao*
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Yang, CW., Kao*, C.H. Importance of ornithine-δ-aminotransferase to proline accumulation caused by water stress in detached rice leaves. Plant Growth Regulation 27, 191–194 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006226732574

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006226732574

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