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The maize high-lysine mutant opaque7 is defective in an acyl-CoA synthetase-like protein.

ABSTRACT: Maize (Zea mays) has a large class of seed mutants with opaque or nonvitreous endosperms that could improve the nutritional quality of our food supply. The phenotype of some of them appears to be linked to the improper formation of protein bodies (PBs) where zein storage proteins are deposited. Although a number of genes affecting endosperm vitreousness have been isolated, it has been difficult to clone opaque7 (o7), mainly because of its low penetrance in many genetic backgrounds. The o7-reference (o7-ref) mutant arose spontaneously in a W22 inbred, but is poorly expressed in other lines. We report here the isolation of o7 with a combination of map-based cloning and transposon tagging. We first identified an o7 candidate gene by map-based cloning. The putative o7-ref allele has a 12-bp in-frame deletion of codons 350-353 in a 528-codon-long acyl-CoA synthetase-like gene (ACS). We then confirmed this candidate gene by generating another mutant allele from a transposon-tagging experiment using the Activator/Dissociation (Ac/Ds) system in a W22 background. The second allele, isolated from ?1 million gametes, presented a 2-kb Ds insertion that resembles the single Ds component of double-Ds, McClintock's original Dissociation element, at codon 496 of the ACS gene. PBs exhibited striking membrane invaginations in the o7-ref allele and a severe number reduction in the Ds-insertion mutant, respectively. We propose a model in which the ACS enzyme plays a key role in membrane biogenesis, by taking part in protein acylation, and that altered PBs render the seed nonvitreous.

SUBMITTER: Miclaus M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3241421 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The maize high-lysine mutant opaque7 is defective in an acyl-CoA synthetase-like protein.

Miclaus Mihai M Wu Yongrui Y Xu Jian-Hong JH Dooner Hugo K HK Messing Joachim J

Genetics 20110916 4

Maize (Zea mays) has a large class of seed mutants with opaque or nonvitreous endosperms that could improve the nutritional quality of our food supply. The phenotype of some of them appears to be linked to the improper formation of protein bodies (PBs) where zein storage proteins are deposited. Although a number of genes affecting endosperm vitreousness have been isolated, it has been difficult to clone opaque7 (o7), mainly because of its low penetrance in many genetic backgrounds. The o7-refere ...[more]

PMID: 21926304

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Project description:Long chain acyl-CoA synthetase 1 (ACSL1) contributes 50 to 90% of total ACSL activity in liver, adipose tissue, and heart and appears to direct the use of long chain fatty acids for energy. Although the functional importance of ACSL1 is becoming clear, little is understood about its post-translational regulation. In order to investigate the post-translational modifications of ACSL1 under different physiological conditions, we overexpressed ACSL1 in hepatocytes, brown adipocytes, and 3T3-L1 differentiated adipocytes, treated these cells with different hormones, and analyzed the resulting phosphorylated and acetylated amino acids by mass spectrometry. We then compared these results to the post-translational modifications observed in vivo in liver and brown adipose tissue after mice were fasted or exposed to a cold environment. We identified universal N-terminal acetylation, 15 acetylated lysines, and 25 phosphorylation sites on ACSL1. Several unique acetylation and phosphorylation sites occurred under conditions in which fatty acid β-oxidation is normally enhanced. Thirteen of the acetylated lysines had not previously been identified, and none of the phosphorylation sites had been previously identified. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to introduce mutations at three potential acetylation and phosphorylation sites believed to be important for ACSL1 function. At the ATP/AMP binding site and at a highly conserved site near the C terminus, modifications of Ser278 or Lys676, respectively, totally inhibited ACSL1 activity. In contrast, mutations of Lys285 that mimicked acetylation (Lys285Ala and Lys285Gln) reduced ACSL activity, whereas full activity was retained by Lys285Arg, suggesting that acetylation of Lys285 would be likely to decrease ACSL1 activity. These results indicate that ACSL1 is highly modified post-translationally. Several of these modifications would be expected to alter enzymatic function, but others may affect protein stability or protein-protein interactions.

Dataset Information

The maize high-lysine mutant opaque7 is defective in an acyl-CoA synthetase-like protein.

Publications

The maize high-lysine mutant opaque7 is defective in an acyl-CoA synthetase-like protein.

Similar Datasets

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