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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Photosynthesis and Photobiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1506375

Expression and Localization of Two β-Carbonic Anhydrases in Bienertia, a Single-Cell C 4 Plant

Provisionally accepted
Tho Nguyen Tho Nguyen 1Inhwan Hwang Inhwan Hwang 1*Nakyoung Lee Nakyoung Lee 1Fabian J Frömling Fabian J Frömling 2Toni Luise Meister Toni Luise Meister 3Jung Sun Kim Jung Sun Kim 4Sascha Offermann Sascha Offermann 5
  • 1 Department of Life Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Republic of Korea
  • 2 The Karlsruhe Municipal Hospital, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 3 University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
  • 4 Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea
  • 5 Leibniz University Hannover, Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are ubiquitous enzymes that catalyze reversibly both the hydration and dehydration reactions of CO 2 and HCO 3 ⁻, respectively. Higher plants contain many different isoforms of CAs that can be classified into α-, βand γ-type subfamilies. βtype CAs play a key role in the CO 2 -concentrating mechanism, thereby contributing to efficient photosynthesis in the C 4 plants in addition to many other biochemical reactions in plant metabolism. Here, we characterized at the molecular, cellular and biochemical levels two β-type CAs in Bienertia sinuspersici, a plant that operates a C 4 carbon concentrating mechanism within individual cells without the Kranz anatomy. These two β-type CAs (BsCAβs), named BsCA1 and BsCA2, in Bienertia were strongly induced along with maturation of leaves. Both BsCAβ1 and BsCA2 existed as a dimeric form in vivo but showed differential localization. BsCAβ2 was localized exclusively to the plasma membrane in Bienertia and when expressed heterologously in the C 3 Arabidopsis. In contrast, BsCAβ1 largely localized to the cytosol together with a portion to the plasma membrane (PM) in both plants. BsCA2 had two cysteine residues at the N-terminal region for palmitoylation and their substitution with serine residues led to a change in the localization from the plasma membrane (PM) to the cytosol. Thus, we propose that BsCAβ2 localizes to the PM using a lipid moiety added posttranslationally plays a role in conversion of cytosolic CO 2 into HCO 3 ⁻ as part of the CO 2 -concentrating mechanism, thereby contributing to the single-cell C 4 photosynthesis in Bienertia.

    Keywords: β-carbonic anhydrases, Bienertia, Cytosol, plasma membrane, palmitoylation

    Received: 05 Oct 2024; Accepted: 17 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Nguyen, Hwang, Lee, Frömling, Meister, Kim and Offermann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Inhwan Hwang, Department of Life Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Republic of Korea

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