Arabidopsis OR proteins are the major posttranscriptional regulators of phytoene synthase in controlling carotenoid biosynthesis.

ABSTRACT: Carotenoids are indispensable natural pigments to plants and humans. Phytoene synthase (PSY), the rate-limiting enzyme in the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, and ORANGE (OR), a regulator of chromoplast differentiation and enhancer of carotenoid biosynthesis, represent two key proteins that control carotenoid biosynthesis and accumulation in plants. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying their posttranscriptional regulation. Here we report that PSY and OR family proteins [Arabidopsis thaliana OR (AtOR) and AtOR-like] physically interacted with each other in plastids. We found that alteration of OR expression in Arabidopsis exerted minimal effect on PSY transcript abundance. However, overexpression of AtOR significantly increased the amount of enzymatically active PSY, whe

SUBMITTER: Zhou X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4371912 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature