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
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 (
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 (
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 (
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 (
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 (
FIGURE 2

Sink/source transition at the cellular level. Active photosynthetic cells perform carbon fixation, energy production and anabolism and require micronutrients for these functions. Senescence modifies these sink cells into a source cells undergoing catabolism. Intense catabolism activities and nutrient recycling occurs in chloroplasts, cytosol, and vacuole allowing nutrient remobilization. Chloroplasts, which concentrate a large part of metals, are first affected (
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 (
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 (
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 (
Autophagy can be triggered upon nutrient starvation and stress leading to intracellular remodeling, which allows plants to respond to environmental constraints (
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 (
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;
Chloroplast is the organelle where metals are most intensively used. Thereby about 80% of the cellular Fe is localized in chloroplasts (
REMOBILIZATION AND AUTOPHAGY IN THE CONTEXT OF BIOFORTIFICATION
BIOFORTIFICATION TO IMPROVE HUMAN DIET
Key micronutrients are often not sufficiently available in human diet (
Biofortification aims at increasing the availability of key micronutrients such as Fe and Zn in crops (
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.
More than thirty genes are involved in autophagy (
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
© 2014 Pottier, Masclaux-Daubresse, Yoshimoto and Thomine.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sébastien Thomine, Institut des Sciences du Végétal-UPR2355, Saclay Plant Sciences, CNRS, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France e-mail: thomine@isv.cnrs-gif.fr
This article was submitted to Plant Nutrition, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.
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