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Effects of validamycin A, a potent trehalase inhibitor, and phytohormones on trehalose metabolism in roots and root nodules of soybean and cowpea

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Abstract

Trehalose, a common microbial disaccharide, has been reported to be toxic to plants, and plant trehalase has therefore been hypothesized to function as a detoxifying enzyme. To test this, aseptically grown soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) plantlets were supplied with trehalose. The plants accumulated trehalose only when validamycin A, a potent trehalase inhibitor, was added as well. Under these conditions, they accumulated trehalose to up to 8% of the dry weight in their primary leaves without any detectable impairment of growth or health. We have previously shown that in soybean nodules, trehalose is generated by the symbiotic bacteria, and trehalase is strongly induced. However, direct exposure of plants to trehalose did not affect their trehalase activity, whereas a treatment with auxin strongly increased it, indicating that the enzyme level is regulated by hormones rather than by its substrate. Addition of validamycin A to nodules caused an increase in the amount of trehalose and a decrease in the sucrose and starch pools, but nitrogen fixation was not affected. Similar results were obtained with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) plantlets and nodules. These results indicate that plant trehalase is functional in metabolizing trehalose from exogenous and endogenous sources, even though the disaccharide has no obvious toxic effects.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

abscisic acid

ARA:

acetylene-reduction activity (assay for nitrogenase)

2,4-D:

2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

DW:

dry weight

FW:

fresh weight

GA3 :

gibberellic acid

α-NAA, β-NAA:

α-,β-naphthaleneacetic acid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Botanisches Institut der Universität Basel, Hebelstrasse 1, CH-4056, Basel, Switzerland

    Joachim Müller, Thomas Boller & Andres Wiemken

Authors
  1. Joachim Müller
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  2. Thomas Boller
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  3. Andres Wiemken
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andres Wiemken.

Additional information

We are indebted to Prof. Dr. W. Broughton (University of Geneva, Switzerland) for kindly providing us cowpea seeds and the symbiont strain Rhizobium sp. NGR 234. Validamycin A was a gift of Dr. J.-P. Métraux, Ciba, Basel. This work was supported by the Swiss National Foundation.

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Müller, J., Boller, T. & Wiemken, A. Effects of validamycin A, a potent trehalase inhibitor, and phytohormones on trehalose metabolism in roots and root nodules of soybean and cowpea. Planta 197, 362–368 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00202658

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00202658

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