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Pectin RG-I rhamnosyltransferases represent a novel plant-specific glycosyltransferase family

Nature Plants volume 4, pages 669–676 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Pectin is one of the three key cell wall polysaccharides in land plants and consists of three major structural domains: homogalacturonan, rhamnogalacturonan I (RG-I) and RG-II. Although the glycosyltransferase required for the synthesis of the homogalacturonan and RG-II backbone was identified a decade ago, those for the synthesis of the RG-I backbone, which consists of the repeating disaccharide unit [→2)-α-l-Rha-(1 → 4)-α-d-GalUA-(1→], have remained unknown. Here, we report the identification and characterization of Arabidopsis RG-I:rhamnosyltransferases (RRTs), which transfer the rhamnose residue from UDP-β-l-rhamnose to RG-I oligosaccharides. RRT1, which is one of the four Arabidopsis RRTs, is a single-spanning transmembrane protein, localized to the Golgi apparatus. RRT1 was highly expressed during formation of the seed coat mucilage, which is a specialized cell wall with abundant RG-I. Loss-of-function mutation in RRT1 caused a reduction in the level of RG-I in the seed coat mucilage. The RRTs belong to a novel glycosyltransferase family, now designated GT106. This is a large plant-specific family, and glycosyltransferases in this family seem to have plant-specific roles, such as biosynthesis of plant cell wall polysaccharides.

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Fig. 1: Expression analysis of At5g15740 (RRT1).
Fig. 2: The phenotype and chemotype of the rrt1 mutant.
Fig. 3: RRT1 encodes a RRT.
Fig. 4: RRT1 represents a new glycosyltransferase family: GT106.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Tominaga for technical assistance. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (no. 15H01241 and 18H05495 to T.I.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan and by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 15H05776 to I.H.-N.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The study was also supported by the Program for the Third-Phase R-GIRO Research from the Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, to T.I.

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Author notes

  1. Tadashi Kunieda

    Present address: Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Ikoma, Japan

  2. These authors contributed equally: Yuto Takenaka, Kohei Kato.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ritsumeikan Global Innovation Research Organization, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Japan

    Yuto Takenaka, Atsushi Takeda & Takeshi Ishimizu

  2. College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Japan

    Kohei Kato, Kana Tsuruhama, Hiroyuki Kajiura, Kenta Yagyu, Atsushi Takeda, Yoichi Takeda & Takeshi Ishimizu

  3. Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Mari Ogawa-Ohnishi & Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi

  4. Faculty of Science and Technology, Konan University, Kobe, Japan

    Tadashi Kunieda & Ikuko Hara-Nishimura

  5. Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Takeshi Kuroha & Kazuhiko Nishitani

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Contributions

Y. Takenaka and T.I. conceived and designed the experiments. Y. Takenaka and K.K. carried out most of the experiments. M.O.-O. and Y.M. contributed to the heterologous expression of proteins and the subcellular localization analysis. K.T., H.K., K.Y. and A.T. contributed to the biochemical assay of the enzymes. T. Kunieda and I.H.-N. contributed to the gene expression analysis. T. Kuroha and K.N. performed the sugar compositional analysis. Y. Takeda performed the size-exclusion chromatography of polysaccharides. Y. Takenaka, K.K. and T.I. wrote the manuscript with contributions from all of the authors.

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Correspondence to Takeshi Ishimizu.

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Takenaka, Y., Kato, K., Ogawa-Ohnishi, M. et al. Pectin RG-I rhamnosyltransferases represent a novel plant-specific glycosyltransferase family. Nature Plants 4, 669–676 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0217-7

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