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Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH FRONT

Mitochondrial enzymes and citrate transporter contribute to the aluminium-induced citrate secretion from soybean (Glycine max) roots

Muyun Xu A C , Jiangfeng You A C , Ningning Hou A C , Hongmei Zhang A C , Guang Chen B D and Zhenming Yang A C D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Agriculture Ecology and Environment Laboratory, College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, People’s Republic of China.

B College of Life Sciences, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130018, People’s Republic of China.

C Laboratory of Soil and Plant Molecular Genetics, Jilin University, Changchun 130062, People’s Republic of China.

D Corresponding author. Email: zmyang@jlu.edu.cn

Functional Plant Biology 37(4) 285-295 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP09223
Submitted: 28 August 2009  Accepted: 16 January 2010   Published: 26 March 2010

Abstract

The concentration of soluble aluminium (Al) in the soil solution increases at low pH and the prevalence of toxic Al3+ cations represent the main factor limiting plant growth on acid soils. Citrate secretion from roots is an important Al-tolerance mechanism in many species including soybean. We isolated mitochondria from the roots of an Al-resistant soybean (Glycine max L.) cv. Jiyu 70 to investigate the relationship between citrate metabolism and Al-induced citrate secretion. Spectrophotometric assays revealed that the activities of mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase and citrate synthase increased and aconitase decreased with increasing of Al concentration (0–50 µM) and duration of Al treatment (30 µM Al, 0.5–9 h). Al-induced citrate secretion was inhibited by the citrate synthase inhibitor suramin, and enhanced by the aconitase inhibitor fluorocitric acid. Mersalyl acid, an inhibitor of a citrate carrier located in mitochondria membrane, also suppressed Al-induced citrate secretion. Transcript level of the mitochondrial citrate synthase gene increased in soybean roots exposed to Al, whereas expression of aconitase showed no significant difference. Expression of Gm-AlCT, a gene showing homology to Al-activated citrate transporters was also induced after 4 h in Al treatment. The Al-dependent changes in activity and expression of these enzymes are consistent with them supporting the sustained release of citrate from soybean roots.

Additional keywords: citrate synthase, mitochondrion, organic acids efflux, resistance, tricarboxylate carrier.


Acknowledgements

The authors thank Peter Richard Ryan for revising the text. Financial support for this research was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30671241) and New Teacher Research Fund of the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20070183163).


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