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A putative rice l-cysteine desulfhydrase encodes a true l-cysteine synthase that regulates plant cadmium tolerance

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Abstract

Recent years have witnessed tremendous progress in understanding the biological relevance of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as the third gasotransmitter for multiple signaling events in plants. l-Cys desulfhydrase (LCD) catalyzes the formation of H2S by using l-Cys as a substrate. In previous studies, we detected LCD activity in rice, but the corresponding genetic information and its biological function in the alleviation of plant Cd toxicity are still unknown. In this study, a putative LCD gene (OsLCD2) with high homology to Arabidopsis LCD has been cloned in rice. Surprisingly, the biochemical characterization of the recombinant OsLCD2 protein suggests that this protein predominantly possesses cysteine synthesis activity rather than the degradation of cysteine to produce H2S, and thus, the gene has been renamed OsCS1. OsCS1 localizes inside the nucleus in rice protoplasts. Molecular evidence shows that OsCS1 mRNA is ubiquitously expressed in rice, and up-regulated by cadmium. It has been further observed that over-expression of OsCS1 in Arabidopsis results in the enhanced glutathione biosynthesis, which allows plants to tolerate cadmium stress. Overall, the above findings provide evidence that OsCS1 is a potentially important enzyme responsible for the synthesis of cysteine, which could provide a new information about the metabolism of H2S in plants.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670255), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KYZ201859), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20161447). The authors sincerely thank Dr Cecilia Gotor from Instituto de Bioquímica Vegetal y Fotosíntesis, Spain and International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscienceediting.com) for kind help in editing the manuscript.

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  1. Jie Shen, Ye Su, Can Zhou and Feng Zhang are join authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory Center of Life Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Shen, Ye Su, Can Zhou, Feng Zhang, Heng Zhou & Yanjie Xie

  2. Institute of Industrial Crops, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Shen, Ye Su & Xingxing Yuan

  3. Key Laboratory of Plant Biotechnology in Universities of Shandong Province, Life Science College, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, 266109, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Liu

  4. Key Laboratory for Control Technology and Standard for Agro-product Safety and Quality, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, People’s Republic of China

    Deliang Wu & Xianchao Yin

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  1. Jie Shen
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Shen, J., Su, Y., Zhou, C. et al. A putative rice l-cysteine desulfhydrase encodes a true l-cysteine synthase that regulates plant cadmium tolerance. Plant Growth Regul 89, 217–226 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-019-00528-9

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