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Involvement of sphingosine kinase in plant cell signalling

  1. Dawn Worrall1,†,
  2. Yun-Kuan Liang2,†,
  3. Sergio Alvarez3,
  4. Geoff H. Holroyd1,
  5. Sarah Spiegel3,
  6. Michael Panagopulos2,
  7. Julie E. Gray4,
  8. Alistair M. Hetherington2,*

Article first published online: 28 JUN 2008

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03579.x

Issue

The Plant Journal

The Plant Journal

Volume 56, Issue 1, pages 64–72, October 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Worrall, D., Liang, Y.-K., Alvarez, S., Holroyd, G. H., Spiegel, S., Panagopulos, M., Gray, J. E. and Hetherington, A. M. (2008), Involvement of sphingosine kinase in plant cell signalling. The Plant Journal, 56: 64–72. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03579.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK

  2. 2

    School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK

  3. 3

    Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical School, PO Box 980614, Richmond, VA 23298 0614, USA

  4. 4

    Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK

  1. †

    These workers contributed equally to the work described in this paper.

* *(fax +44 117 33179831; e-mail alistair.hetherington@bristol.ac.uk).

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 25 SEP 2008
  2. Article first published online: 28 JUN 2008
  3. Received 18 March 2008; revised 30 April 2008; accepted 19 May 2008; published online 14 July 2008.

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Keywords:

  • cell signalling;
  • sphingosine signalling;
  • calcium signalling;
  • guard cells;
  • abscisic acid;
  • germination

Summary

In mammalian cells sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a well-established messenger molecule that participates in a wide range of signalling pathways. The objective of the work reported here was to investigate the extent to which phosphorylated long-chain sphingoid bases, such as sphingosine-1-phosphate and phytosphingosine-1-phosphate (phytoS1P) are used in plant cell signalling. To do this, we manipulated Arabidopsis genes capable of metabolizing these messenger molecules. We show that Sphingosine kinase1 (SPHK1) encodes an enzyme that phosphorylates sphingosine, phytosphingosine and other sphingoid long-chain bases. The stomata of SPHK1-KD Arabidopsis plants were less sensitive, whereas the stomata of SPHK1-OE plants were more sensitive, than wild type to ABA. The rate of germination of SPHK1-KD was enhanced, whereas the converse was true for SPHK1-OE seed. Reducing expression of either the putative Arabidopsis S1P phosphatase (SPPASE) or the DPL1 gene, which encodes an enzyme with S1P lyase activity, individually, had no effect on guard-cell ABA signalling; however, stomatal responses to ABA in SPPASEDPL1 RNAi plants were compromised. Reducing the expression of DPL1 had no effect on germination; however, germination of SPPASE RNAi seeds was more sensitive to applied ABA. We also found evidence that expression of SPHK1 and SPPASE were coordinately regulated, and discuss how this might contribute to robustness in guard-cell signalling. In summary, our data establish SPHK1 as a component in two separate plant signalling systems, opening the possibility that phosphorylated long-chain sphingoid bases such as S1P and phytoS1P are ubiquitous messengers in plants.

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