Two homeologous MATE transporter genes,NtMATE21andNtMATE22, are involved in the modulation of plant growth and flavonol transport inNicotiana tabacum

Abstract

Multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family has been implicated in the transport of a diverse range of molecules, including specialized metabolites. In Nicotiana tabacum, only a limited number of MATE transporters have been functionally characterized, and no MATE transporter has been studied in the context of flavonoid transport in this plant species so far. Here in the present study, we characterize two homeologous MATE genes, NtMATE21 and NtMATE22, and demonstrate their role in flavonol transport and in plant growth and development. The expression of these two genes was reported to be up-regulated in trichomes as compared to the trichome-free leaf. The transcript levels of NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 were found to be higher in flavonol over-producing tobacco transgenic lines as compared to wild type (WT) tobacco. The two transporters were demonstrated to be localized to the plasma membrane. Genetic manipulation of NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 led to altered growth phenotypes and modulated flavonol contents in N. tabacum. The GUS and GFP fusion transgenic lines of promoter regions suggested that NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 exclusively express in the trichome heads in the leaf tissue and petals. Moreover, in transient transactivation assay, NtMYB12, a flavonol-specific MYB transcription factor, was found to transactivate the expression of NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 genes. Together, our results strongly suggest the involvement of NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 in flavonol transport as well as in the regulation of plant growth and development.

Functional identification of PhMATE1 in flower color formation in petunia

“…It was reported that MATEs could affect the expression levels of the genes involved in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway. For example, the expression levels of NtCHI1 , NtCHI2 , NtF3H1 , NtF3H2 , NtFLS1 , and NtFLS2 were downregulated in NtMATE‐amiR knockdown lines, but the expression level of NtCHS3 and NtCHS4 genes were not found to be significantly downregulated (Gani et al, 2022). In addition, the UDP‐glycosyltransferase gene was up‐regulated when OsMATE1 was overexpressed in Arabidopsis (Tiwari et al, 2014).…”

“…NtMATE21 and NtMATE22 were identified in Nicotiana tabacum and found to play important roles in plant growth and flavonol transport. Genetic manipulation of the two transporter genes resulted in altered growth phenotypes and modulated the levels of flavonol in Nicotiana tabacum (Gani et al, 2022). Petunia hybrida is one of the most popular ornamental plants in the world and is one of the ideal plants to study plant flower color.…”

Advances on the Coloring Mechanism of Double-color Flowers in Plants

“…Generally, flavonoids are biosynthesized in the cytoplasm and then transferred to the vacuole for storage before petal coloring. Therefore, this usually involves some flavonoid transporters that may also affect flower color, such as multidrug and toxic extrusion (MATE) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) (Cao et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2015;Gani et al, 2022;Gao et al, 2016a;Gomez et al, 2009;Han et al, 2022).…”

Flavonols contrary affect the interconnected glucosinolate and camalexin biosynthesis pathway inArabidopsis thaliana

“…Experiments have shown that uptake of exogenous flavonoids is an active transport, and mediated by ABC transporters. Intracellular and inter-cellular transport of endogenous flavonoids have also been reported, which has been shown to be mediated by ABCC, P-ATPase and MATE families of transporters (20, 22, 23). Glutathione S-transferase like proteins called ligandin has been recently identified to protect flavonoids during vacuolar transport (24).…”