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Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on November 4, 2009
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcp158
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The peptidoglycan biosynthesis genes, MurA and MraY, are related to chloroplast division in the moss Physcomitrella patens.

Shoko Homi1, Katsuaki Takechi1, Koji Tanidokoro2, Hiroshi Sato2, Susumu Takio1,3 and Hiroyoshi Takano1,4

1Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan
2Faculty of Science, Kumamoto University, Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan
3Center for Marine Environment Studies, Kumamoto University, Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan
4Bioelectrics Research Center, Kumamoto University, Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan

Corresponding author: Hiroyoshi Takano Bioelectrics Research Center, Kumamoto University, Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan Tel&Fax: +81-96-342-3432 e-mail: takano{at}kumamoto-u.ac.jp


  Abstract

In the moss Physcomitrella patens, 10 Mur genes involved in peptidoglycan biosynthesis were found, and the MurE and Pbp genes are related to plastid division. Although the MraY and MurG genes were missing in our previous EST screening, they were discovered in the P. patens genome in this study, indicating that P. patens has a full set of genes capable of synthesizing peptidoglycan. In addition, a second MurA gene (PpMurA2) was found. Whereas Northern analyses indicated that PpMurA1, PpMurG, and PpMraY were expressed, transcripts of PpMurA2 were detected only when RT-PCR was employed. Whereas GFP fusion proteins with either PpMurA1 or PpMraY were detected in chloroplasts, the PpMurA2 fusion proteins were located in the cytoplasm. Protonema cells in the wild-type plants had an average of 46 chloroplasts. PpMurA1 gene-disrupted lines had fewer than 10 chloroplasts, whereas approximately 30 chloroplasts existed in the PpMurA2 knockout lines. The PpMurA1/A2 double-knockout lines had only a few macrochloroplasts, suggesting a redundant function for these two genes. Disruption of the PpMraY gene in P. patens resulted in the appearance of macrochloroplasts. The Anabaena MraY, fused with the N-terminal region of PpMraY and the A. thaliana MraY, could complement the macrochloroplast phenotype in the PpMraY knockout line. Electron microscopic observations showed no obvious differences in the shape or stacking of thylakoid membranes between all knockout transformants and wild-type plants, suggesting that these Mur genes are related only to plastid division in moss.

Keywords: moss - MurA - MraY - peptidoglycan - plastid division - Physcomitrella patens

The nucleotide sequence reported in this paper has been submitted to the DNA databank of Japan (DDBJ) under the following accession numbers: AB474259 (MurA2 gene), AB474260 (MurA2 cDNA), AB426135 [GenBank] (MraY gene), AB426133 [GenBank] (MraY cDNA), and AB426137 [GenBank] (MurG cDNA).

(Received August 5, 2009; Accepted October 28, 2009)
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