A possible role of glutathione as an electron source for flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana

摘要

Glutathione (GSH) is a ubiquitous tripeptide that is involved in cellular redox homeostasis, in particular, to adapt to stressful conditions following excess photons, drought, chilling (Noctor and Foyer 1998). It also plays a part in tolerance against heavy metals (Cobbett 2000). Recently, it has been shown that GSH is associated with cell division, root hair growth, tracheary element differentiation, flowering, anthocyanin accumulation (May et al. 1998, Henmi et al. 2001, Ogawa et al. 2001, Xiang et al. 2001). As described above, GSH has multiple roles in plants. GSH is synthesized from glutamate via two reactions, and the first step is catalyzed gamma-glutamylcysteine synthetase (gamma-ECS) localized in chloroplasts. Herein we investigate a relationship among light capture, GSH biosynthesis and flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana.