Exogenous Sulfide Reverses the Alteration of Transcriptional Profiling of the des1-1 Mutant (Arabidopsis thaliana)

Arabidopsis thaliana cells contain different O-acetylserine(thiol)lyase (OASTL) enzymes that catalyze the biosynthesis of cysteine. Recently, we have deeply investigated about one of the minor OASTL-like protein located in the cytosol, named DES1, highlighting some important clues about its metabolic function. We have demonstrated that DES1 catalyzes the desulfuration of L-cysteine to sulfide plus ammonia and pyruvate, instead of the biosynthesis of Cys, and thus, is a novel L-cysteine desulfhydrase (EC 4.4.1.1). The functionality of DES1 is being revealed by the phenotype of the T-DNA insertion mutants des1-1 and des1-2. We have performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis on leaves of the des1-1 and Col-0 wild type plants grown for 30 days under long-day conditions. The normalized data from the replicates showed differential expression of 1614 genes in the des1-1 mutant, with 701 genes down-regulated and 913 genes up-regulated by more than twofold, with a False Discovery Rate (FDR) of < 0.05 and an intensity signal restriction of lgSignal >7. This des1-1 transcriptional profile show a strong alteration when compared to a previous comparative transcriptomic analysis performed on leaves of the des1-1 and Col-0 wild type plants grown for 20 days under identical long-day conditions (GSE 19244). We have also performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis on leaves of the des1-1 and Col-0 wild type plants grown for 20 days and treated with sodium sulfide for 10 additional days. The comparison of the transcriptional profile of des1-1+Na2S versus Col-0+Na2S clearly shows that exogenous sulfide reversed the transcriptional level differences between the mutant and the wild type to reach similar transcriptional patterns as the array GSE19244. Our results suggest a role of sulfide as transcriptional regulator in the des1-1 mutant background.

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Álvarez C, García I, Moreno I, Pérez-Pérez ME, Crespo JL, Romero LC, Gotor C