MINI REVIEW article

Front. Plant Sci., 24 January 2014

Sec. Plant Nutrition

Volume 5 - 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2014.00011

Autophagy as a possible mechanism for micronutrient remobilization from leaves to seeds

  • MP

    Mathieu Pottier 1

  • CM

    Céline Masclaux-Daubresse 2,3

  • KY

    Kohki Yoshimoto 2,3

  • ST

    Sébastien Thomine 1*

  • 1. Institut des Sciences du Végétal-UPR2355, Saclay Plant Sciences, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette France

  • 2. Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin-UMR1318, Saclay Plant Sciences, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Versailles, France

  • 3. Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin-UMR1318, Saclay Plant Sciences, AgroParisTech, Versailles France

Abstract

Seed formation is an important step of plant development which depends on nutrient allocation. Uptake from soil is an obvious source of nutrients which mainly occurs during vegetative stage. Because seed filling and leaf senescence are synchronized, subsequent mobilization of nutrients from vegetative organs also play an essential role in nutrient use efficiency, providing source-sink relationships. However, nutrient accumulation during the formation of seeds may be limited by their availability in source tissues. While several mechanisms contributing to make leaf macronutrients available were already described, little is known regarding micronutrients such as metals. Autophagy, which is involved in nutrient recycling, was already shown to play a critical role in nitrogen remobilization to seeds during leaf senescence. Because it is a non-specific mechanism, it could also control remobilization of metals. This article reviews actors and processes involved in metal remobilization with emphasis on autophagy and methodology to study metal fluxes inside the plant. A better understanding of metal remobilization is needed to improve metal use efficiency in the context of biofortification.

INTRODUCTION

Micronutrients, such as metals, are essentials for cell functions. Zinc (Zn), which exists only as divalent cation, plays an important role in protein structure and function thank to its Lewis acids properties. Transition metals such as iron (Fe), copper (Cu), or manganese (Mn), which have unpaired electrons that promote their involvement in oxido-reduction reactions, are used in a wealth of biological processes (). A third of the proteins characterized at the structural level are metalloproteins, highlighting the need of metals for cell functions ().

In plants, transition metal functions are mainly associated to energy production mechanisms, thereby about 80% of Fe in mesophyll cell is localized in chloroplasts (). Fe is essential for chlorophyll synthesis, nitrogen fixation, DNA replication, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detoxification, and electron transport chain in both mitochondria and chloroplasts (; ). Mn plays a central role in the photosystem II (PS II) where it catalyzes water oxidation (). This element is also involved in sugar metabolism, Mn-superoxide dismutase (SOD), and chloroplastic enzymes such as decarboxylases and dehydrogenases (; ; ). Cu is integrated into plastocyanines involved in electron transfer of chloroplasts (). It plays also an essential role in the cytochrome oxidase of mitochondria (). Zn is required for carbon fixation through the carbonic anhydrase (). It is also needed for the Cu/Zn-SOD, transcriptional regulation by zinc-finger DNA binding proteins and for the turnover of PSII in chloroplasts (; ; ). Therefore, plants need metals to achieve vital functions in all their organs.

Among all plant organs, seed is a special one because it has to store metals required for germination and during the first days of seedling development. Hence in annual plants, seed formation is a crucial step in which plant sacrifices itself to store nutrients for its offspring. Seed filling depends on nutrient originating from de novo uptake by roots or remobilization from senescent organs.

Here, we review genes and processes involved in metal remobilization during seed filling. We will discuss methodologies that can be used to study metal fluxes in plants and thereby determine the relative contribution of uptake and remobilization pathways. Autophagy is a ubiquitous process involved in cellular nutrient recycling. Because it was recently shown to play a critical role in nitrogen remobilization (; ), this review focuses on autophagy as a potential mechanism to make metal available for subsequent remobilization during senescence.

ORIGIN OF SEED METALS: UPTAKE FROM SOIL VS REMOBILIZATION FROM SENESCENT TISSUES

CIRCULATION OF METALS INTO THE PLANT AND MICRONUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY

Understanding metal seed filling requires knowledge on the general micronutrient pathways which was already summarized in several recent reviews (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ).

On the whole, both uptake from soil and remobilization from senescent organs may participate in metal loading in seeds (Figure 1). To date, little is known about the contribution of metal remobilization from senescent organs to seed filling. In contrast, this topic is well documented regarding nitrogen. It was shown that uptake and fixation of nitrogen dramatically decrease at the onset of reproductive stage in cereals, oilseed rape and legumes (). Accordingly, 50 to 90% of nitrogen grain of rice, wheat, or maize originate from leaf remobilization (). This highlights that the importance of nitrogen remobilization for seed filling is conserved in most plants. However, some species, such as oilseed rape, have a low nitrogen remobilization capacity resulting in low nitrogen use efficiency (; ).

FIGURE 1

; ; ). This is essential for seed filling which is only achieved by the phloem sap (). Phloem micronutrients are unloaded to fill seeds. Because seed filling is also achieved by nutrient remobilized from senescent tissues (green arrow), seed formation requires close synchronization between sink formation and source organ senescence. Age, biotic and abiotic stresses contribute to orchestrate nutrient mobilization during leaf senescence with the formation of reproductive organs and seed filling (black arrows). Light and photoperiod act indirectly on leaf senescence by stimulating the development of the reproductive organs.

As for nitrogen, it is necessary to better understand metal remobilization from senescent organs during seed filling with the aim to increase micronutrient use efficiency in the context of intensive agriculture, fertilization limitations, and biofortification. This is especially important as metal availability may become limiting under certain environmental conditions (drought, low temperature) and soil characteristics (low metal content, high salt content, ionic unbalance, low pH, high bicarbonate concentration; ; ; ; ).

METHODOLOGIES TO DETERMINE NUTRIENT FLUX

The most common way to study nutrient fluxes within the plant is to determine the “apparent remobilization” which consists in the measurement of the total amount of element of interest present in different plant organs at different times (). However, this approach does not provide sufficient resolution and does not allow distinguishing nutrients coming from different pathways, such as nutrient uptake from soil and nutrient remobilization from senescent leaves.

The most appropriate approach to study short-term accumulation, uptake from soil and fluxes between tissues is the use of isotopes as tracers. Isotopic labeling can be implemented with different protocols (; ; ; ).

Metal fluxes may be monitored by pulse-chase labeling using radioactive or stable isotopes. The 59Fe, 65Zn, and 68Zn radioisotopes have been used for pulse labeling on specific organs followed by a chase period to facilitate the identification of source organs contributing to seed filling in peas, wheat and rice (; ; ; ). Following this approach, it was demonstrated that nutrient supply can affect Zn remobilization in wheat (). In rice, differences in Zn remobilization efficiency between genotypes were observed using isotopic pulse-chase on specific organs ().

Recently, pulse labeling using very short life ß+ radioisotope like 52Fe, 52Mn, and 62Zn has been used to image metal fluxes within a plant via a real-time and non-destructive technique called Positron-Emitting Tracer Imaging System (; ; ).

Non-radioactive isotope is also used for pulse labeling on specific organs. Application of 65Cu to one individual leaf of rice allowed to study Cu redistribution between the different leaves during vegetative stage (). Non-radioactive isotopes can be also added in the nutrient solution for labeling plants early during development in order to monitor nutrient movement during vegetative stages or later at reproductive stage to study remobilization and seed filling. Using Zn isotopes, this pulse-chase approach has been used to quantify the effect of nutrient limitation on Zn fluxes between organs in rice and wheat (; ). Moreover, 70Zn pulse-chase labeling combined with laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry has provided a spatial distribution of Zn within wheat seeds revealing zinc transport barriers during grain filling in wheat ().

Long term labeling in nutrient solution may be performed to address the contribution of uptake from soil to organs during a specific developmental stage, with respect to the contribution of endogenous remobilization. Continuous application of 68Zn provided evidence that Zn uptake before anthesis contributes to more than 50% to the total Zn grain content in rice (). Shorter continuous labeling can also be used to determine the uptake capacity by measuring isotope accumulation in roots () or isotope depletion in the nutritive solution ().

Isotopic labeling is an essential tool to study metal fluxes within the plant but require the availability of enriched isotopes and adequate analytical tools. Initially, isotopic labeling was mainly performed using radioactive isotope despite the risk for humans. Nowadays, enriched stable isotopes are more and more accessible at least for Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Mo. They represent a healthier and less restrictive alternative but their analysis requires the use of mass spectrometry, such as inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

THE COUPLING BETWEEN SENESCENCE AND MICRONUTRIENT REMOBILIZATION

CONTROL OF SENESCENCE AND REMOBILIZATION AT THE WHOLE PLANT LEVEL

Senescence is an active process controlled by age whereby sink tissues performing photosynthesis and anabolism become source tissues undergoing catabolism (Figure 2). Senescence makes nutrients available for further plant organs (), contributing to nutrient use efficiency. Optimal remobilization requires close synchronization between sink formation and source organ senescence (Figure 1). It was observed that the removal of sink tissues delays senescence in oilseed rape, soybean and wheat and decrease nitrogen remobilization in oilseed rape and soybean (; ; ; ). However, senescence and remobilization are also controlled by other parameters such as nutrient availability (Figure 1). In Arabidopsis, nitrogen limitation triggers leaf senescence (). In wheat, remobilization of Fe and Zn from flag leaves to seeds is increased under nutrient-limiting conditions (; ; ). Conversely continuous nutrient uptake during seed formation may account for low nutrient remobilization in some species (; ). However, an opposite behavior was observed in barley plants for which remobilization increased upon high Zn supply. This illustrates the diversity of Zn management at the whole plant level (). Moreover, other abiotic and biotic stresses such as pathogen attack, high salinity, drought, low temperature, modifications of light intensity, and quality can also cause premature senescence and remobilization (; ; ). Because they are sessile, plants developed high plasticity to respond to environment conditions, triggering cell death and remobilization in order to save nutrients and produce more adapted organs and tissues.

FIGURE 2

). Pigment degradation directly takes place in chloroplasts (; ). However, stromal proteins are degradated into the central vacuole through rubisco containing body (RCB: autophagosome) or into senescence associated vacuoles (SAV) through an ATG-independent route which is not well understand yet (; ; ). These dismantling mechanisms decrease chloroplast seize enabling whole chloroplast degradation via chlorophagy (). Peroxisomes are modified to glyoxysomes, which produce energy and soluble sugars from lipid catabolism (; ). Mitochondria that remain intact until late after senescence onset, are in turn degraded when the energy demand decreases (). Finally, membrane permeabilization causes loss of cytoplasm that finally leads to death. ROS, reactive oxygen species; SAV, senescence-associated vacuoles; RCB, rubisco containing body; N, nucleus.

CONTROL OF SENESCENCE AND REMOBILIZATION AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL

Transcript analysis, comparing green and senescing leaves, led to the identification of senescence-associated genes (SAG) in different species (; ; ; ; ; ; ). Irrevocably, the expression of genes encoding cysteine proteases is strongly induced in senescent leaves (; ; ; ; ; ). As expected, these analyses confirmed induction of genes involved in hormonal pathways (; ; ). Indeed, senescence is regulated by the balance between senescence promoting hormones, namely jasmonic acid, abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and ethylene, and senescence repressing hormones such as cytokinins, auxins, and gibberellins (). As hormones, sugars are known to act as signaling molecules and several lines of evidence indicate that they also contribute to senescence regulation. Sugar concentrations rise in senescent leaves. Moreover, overexpression of hexokinase, a sugar sensor, accelerates senescence whereas anti-sense expression delays senescence in Arabidopsis (; ; ; ).

Genes coding metal ion binding proteins such as metallothioneins, ferritins, zinc-finger proteins, metalloproteases (Ftsh) and metal transporters were also frequently found to be upregulated in senescent leaves (; ; ; ; ). This may illustrate the involvement of metals in degradation mechanisms and/or the importance of their remobilization (). Furthermore, these transcriptomic analyses highlighted the significant induction of autophagy related genes (ATG genes) and genes encoding NAC and WRKY transcription factors (; ; ; ). Whereas NAC have already been demonstrated to be involved in micronutrient remobilization during senescence (; ; ; , ; ), nothing is known about the implication of ATG genes in this process.

ROLE OF AUTOPHAGY IN NUTRIENT RECYCLING AND REMOBILIZATION

INVOLVEMENT OF AUTOPHAGY IN NUTRIENT RECYCLING

Autophagy catabolizes cytoplasmic components that are no longer useful. It eliminates aberrant proteins and damaged organelles for the maintenance of essential cellular function by vacuole internalization mediated by double membrane vesicles called autophagosomes (). Genes involved in autophagy (ATG) were first defined by a genetic screen in yeast (), thereby molecular mechanisms have been well described on this organism (for reviews see ; ; ; ). Most of these genes turned out to have conserved functions in all eukaryotic cells. They encode proteins involved in the induction of autophagy, membrane delivery for autophagosome formation, nucleation, expansion, and enclosure of autophagosomes ().

Autophagy can be triggered upon nutrient starvation and stress leading to intracellular remodeling, which allows plants to respond to environmental constraints (). Accordingly, mutants impaired in ATG genes exhibit decreased growth associated with premature senescence when they develop under carbon or nitrogen starvation (; ; ; ; ; ). Plants defective in autophagy are thus unable to cope with nutrient starvation suggesting that autophagy is an important mechanism for nutrient use efficiency and cellular homeostasis.

AUTOPHAGY CONTROLS NUTRIENT REMOBILIZATION DURING SENESCENCE

During senescence, cytoplasmic components such as organelles are gradually dismantled and degraded. Autophagy is an essential degradation process for nutrient recycling and remobilization. Accordingly, up-regulation of ATG genes is observed during leaf senescence in Arabidopsis (; ; ; ) and the decrease of chloroplast number and chloroplast size during senescence is affected in Arabidopsisatg4a4b-1 mutant ().

Because of its key role in the degradation of cellular components during nutrient recycling and its up-regulation and involvement during senescence, it was hypothesized that autophagy could play a role in nutrient remobilization. During senescence, autophagy was shown to be involved in the degradation of chloroplasts and specifically of RuBisCO which is the most abundant leaf protein containing about 80% of the cellular nitrogen (Figure 2; ; ; ; ; ). In addition, pulse-chase experiments in which 15N labeling was applied in nutrient solution during vegetative stage revealed a significant decrease of nitrogen remobilization from vegetative tissues to seeds in atg mutants. These results demonstrated that autophagy is required for nitrogen remobilization and seed filling ().

Chloroplast is the organelle where metals are most intensively used. Thereby about 80% of the cellular Fe is localized in chloroplasts (). Because autophagy is involved in the degradation of organelles, including chloroplasts, the role of autophagy in metal recycling in source tissues for remobilization to the seeds has to be considered. In plants, autophagy leads to the degradation of autophagosome cargo within the vacuole. Hence, tonoplastic metal efflux transporters are needed to retrieve metals from the vacuole. Interestingly, transcriptomic analyses that highlight autophagy induction during senescence in Arabidopsis leaf also show specific up-regulation of NRAMP3, a gene encoding a transporter involved in metal mobilization from vacuoles (; , ; ). Availability of metals in source tissues may therefore also be dependent on autophagy and subsequent mobilization from vacuole during senescence.

REMOBILIZATION AND AUTOPHAGY IN THE CONTEXT OF BIOFORTIFICATION

BIOFORTIFICATION TO IMPROVE HUMAN DIET

Key micronutrients are often not sufficiently available in human diet (). Over 60% of the world population are Fe deficient and over 30% are Zn deficient (). Staple food crops such as cereal grains are poor sources of some mineral nutrients, including Fe and Zn. Thus, the importance of cereals in human diet accounts in large part for micronutrients deficiencies ().

Biofortification aims at increasing the availability of key micronutrients such as Fe and Zn in crops (). For this purpose, conventional breeding and genetic engineering are performed in rice, which is the major staple crop in most countries affected by Fe-deficiency (; ; ). Single or multiple metal homeostasis genes were already introduced in rice through genetic engineering to improve grain Fe content (). By pyramiding transgenes conferring strong sink strength in seeds, high metal translocation and enhancing phloem unloading during seed maturation, it was possible to increase Fe concentration by 4.4 in rice seeds ().

ENGINEERING AUTOPHAGY AS A NEW WAY FOR BIOFORTIFICATION

Another option to increase seed micronutrient content could be to improve their availability in source tissues for remobilization during seed formation. showed that senescence of Arabidopsis leaves only leads to a decrease by 40% of leaf concentrations of metals such as Mo, Fe, Cu, and Zn. Thus, about 60% of these micronutrients are not remobilized and can therefore not participate to seed filling. Up-regulating autophagy in source tissues specifically during seed formation could improve intracellular nutrient recycling and thereby increase the nutrient pool available for reallocation. However, because autophagy is not specific, this approach may increase seed yield without increasing Zn or Fe concentrations. To improve seed quality, up-regulation of autophagy should be combined with a strategy that specifically targets a metal, such as the expression of ferritin under the control of a seed endosperm promoter in the case of Fe ().

More than thirty genes are involved in autophagy (). It might therefore not be straightforward to increase autophagy by overexpressing autophagy related genes during seed formation. However, autophagy is regulated at the post-transcriptional level by the target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase complex (; ). Because TOR is a negative regulator of autophagy, its specific inhibition in vegetative tissues during seed formation may be the best approach to stimulate autophagy and nutrient recycling. On the other hand, TOR kinase complex is not a specific regulator of autophagy. It controls many others aspect of metabolism (). Besides, autophagy itself is not only involved in nutrient recycling. It also controls the hypersensitive response (). Therefore, further investigations are necessary to determine if TOR inactivation during senescence is efficient for biofortification and to identify more specific regulators.

Statements

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr Sylvain Merlot and Sara Martins for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from Région Ile-de-France. Research in the CMD and ST laboratories is supported by INRA and CNRS funding and grants from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR 2011 BSV6 004 01).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Summary

Keywords

transition metal, isotopic labeling, nutrient use efficiency, leaf senescence, nutrient fluxes, atg, Fe, Zn

Citation

Pottier M, Masclaux-Daubresse C, Yoshimoto K and Thomine S (2014) Autophagy as a possible mechanism for micronutrient remobilization from leaves to seeds. Front. Plant Sci. 5:11. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2014.00011

Received

30 October 2013

Accepted

08 January 2014

Published

24 January 2014

Volume

5 - 2014

Edited by

Marta Wilton Vasconcelos, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal

Reviewed by

Jean-Christophe Avice, University of Caen Basse-Normandie, France; Kenichi Shibuya, NARO Institute of Floricultural Science, Japan

Copyright

*Correspondence: Sébastien Thomine, Institut des Sciences du Végétal-UPR2355, Saclay Plant Sciences, CNRS, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France e-mail:

This article was submitted to Plant Nutrition, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

Disclaimer

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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