Peroxisomal Acyl-CoA Synthetase Activity Is Essential for.pdfVIP

The Plant Cell, Vol. 16, 394–405, February 2004, ª 2004 American Society of Plant Biologists Peroxisomal Acyl-CoA Synthetase Activity Is Essential for Seedling Development in Arabidopsis thaliana , , , Martin Fulda,a 1 Judy Schnurr,a 2 Amine Abbadi,b Ernst Heinz,b and John Browsea 3 a Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164 b ¨ ¨ Institut fur Allgemeine Botanik, Universitat Hamburg, 22609 Hamburg, Germany In plants and other eukaryotes, long-chain acyl-CoAs are assumed to be imported into peroxisomes for b-oxidation by an ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter. However, two genes in Arabidopsis thaliana , LACS6 and LACS7, encode peroxi- somal long-chain acyl-CoA synthetase (LACS) isozymes. To investigate the biochemical and biological roles of peroxisomal LACS, we identified T-DNA knockout mutants for both genes. The single-mutant lines, lacs6-1 and lacs7-1, were indis- tinguishable from the wild type in germination, growth, and reproductive development. By contrast, the lacs6-1 lacs7-1 double mutant was specifically defective in seed lipid mobilization and required exogenous sucrose for seedling estab- lishment. This phenotype is similar to the A. thaliana pxa1 mutants deficient in the peroxisomal ABC transporter and other mutants deficient in b-oxidation. Our results demonstrate that peroxisomal LACS activity and the PXA1 transporter are essential for early seedling growth. The peroxisomal LACS activity would be necessary if the PXA1 transporter de- livered unesterified fatty acids into the peroxisomal matrix. Alternatively, PXA1 and LACS6/LACS7 may act in parallel pathways that are both required to ensure adequate delivery of a