DELLAs proteins contribute to set the elemental composition and the tolerance to low potassium supply in Arabidopsis thaliana

OLIFERUK S; PEREZ A; RUBIO F; SANTA MARIA G.E.

Fost Iguazu

Congreso; 11th International Congress of Plant Molecular Biology; 2015

DELLAs proteins contribute to set the elemental composition and the tolerance to low potassium supply in Arabidopsis thalianaSonia Oliferuk1, Adriana Perez1, Francisco Rubio2 and Guillermo E. Santa María11-Instituto Tecnológico Chascomús (IIB-INTECH), UNSAM-CONICET, Avda Intendente Marino km 8,2. Chascomús, Buenos Aires, 7130, Argentina. 2-Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS-CSIC), CSIC, Campus Universitario de Espinardo, Espinardo, Murcia, E-30100, España. Recent research has shown that the GA-GID-DELLA module plays a major role in plant adaptation to several stresses. While, it has been recognized that DELLAs proteins contribute to set the control of growth, development and more specifically the antioxidant response, it remains unknown their possible involvement in determining other relevant physiological attributes, among them the elemental composition of plants. Here, we provide evidence that plants differing in DELLAs activity also display major differences in the shoot ionome as well as in the partitioning of macro and micro elements between shoots and roots. Shoots of plants carrying the altered function allele gaidiffer from a DELLAs quintuple mutant (5X) in the concentration of seven out of twelve elements analyzed, namely: K, P, Ca , Zn, Cu, Mn and Sr, as well as of water. Exposure of plants to long-term potassium deprivation was companied by differences in N, K, P, S, Zn and Mn between gaiand 5Xplants. WT plants display, for most elements, an intermediate phenotype. Considering as a whole, the effect of K+-deprivation on the significant changes suffered by the individual components of the ionome followed the order 5X>WT>gai. Differences in the tolerance to this stress condition followed the order gai>WT>5X. On the other hand, altered and loss of function mutants display a worst efficiency of potassium utilization than WT plants. These results unveil a critical role of DELLAs in controlling the ionome as well as the tolerance and potassium utilization efficiency of plants exposed to low potassium supply.