Summary
Hypoxia is a rather common phenomenon in plants that occurs naturally during development (e.g. in inner seed tissues) or due to adverse environmental conditions (waterlogging in crops). However, the specific metabolic and molecular responses to hypoxia have been disentangled only recently. Quite generally, oxygen shortage impacts on energy generation by mitochondrial metabolism. There is a conserved transcriptional response orchestrated by the so-called N end rule pathway (NERP ) of proteolysis for oxygen sensing and signaling in plants. Downstream events include a deep reconfiguration of carbon metabolism that nicely illustrates the role played by biochemical enzymatic regulation as an indirect oxygen-sensing system responsible for changes in fluxes of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, glycolysis and fermentation. Hypoxia has consequences not only for primary carbon metabolism but also for nitrogen metabolism. In fact, adaptive respiratory responses to low oxygen constraints nitrate assimilation and transaminations , and are coupled to the metabolism of nitric oxide , an endogenous signaling molecule.
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Planchet, E., Lothier, J., Limami, A.M. (2017). Hypoxic Respiratory Metabolism in Plants: Reorchestration of Nitrogen and Carbon Metabolisms. In: Tcherkez, G., Ghashghaie, J. (eds) Plant Respiration: Metabolic Fluxes and Carbon Balance. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 43. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68703-2_10
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