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    beta-AMYLASE4, a noncatalytic protein required for starch breakdown, acts upstream of three active beta-amylases in arabidopsis chloroplasts

    Fulton, D.C. and Stettler, M. and Mettler, T. and Vaughan, Cara K. and Li, J. and Francisco, P. and Gil, D. and Reinhold, H. and Eicke, S. and Messerli, G. and Dorken, G. and Halliday, K. and Smith, Adrian M.L. and Smith, S.M. and Zeeman, S.C. (2008) beta-AMYLASE4, a noncatalytic protein required for starch breakdown, acts upstream of three active beta-amylases in arabidopsis chloroplasts. Plant Cell 20 (4), pp. 1040-1058. ISSN 1040-4651.

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    Abstract

    This work investigated the roles of β-amylases in the breakdown of leaf starch. Of the nine β-amylase (BAM)–like proteins encoded in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, at least four (BAM1, -2, -3, and -4) are chloroplastic. When expressed as recombinant proteins in Escherichia coli, BAM1, BAM2, and BAM3 had measurable β-amylase activity but BAM4 did not. BAM4 has multiple amino acid substitutions relative to characterized β-amylases, including one of the two catalytic residues. Modeling predicts major differences between the glucan binding site of BAM4 and those of active β-amylases. Thus, BAM4 probably lost its catalytic capacity during evolution. Total β-amylase activity was reduced in leaves of bam1 and bam3 mutants but not in bam2 and bam4 mutants. The bam3 mutant had elevated starch levels and lower nighttime maltose levels than the wild type, whereas bam1 did not. However, the bam1 bam3 double mutant had a more severe phenotype than bam3, suggesting functional overlap between the two proteins. Surprisingly, bam4 mutants had elevated starch levels. Introduction of the bam4 mutation into the bam3 and bam1 bam3 backgrounds further elevated the starch levels in both cases. These data suggest that BAM4 facilitates or regulates starch breakdown and operates independently of BAM1 and BAM3. Together, our findings are consistent with the proposal that β-amylase is a major enzyme of starch breakdown in leaves, but they reveal unexpected complexity in terms of the specialization of protein function.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Structural Molecular Biology, Institute of (ISMB)
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 04 Aug 2010 14:09
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 16:49
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/1151

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