Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
Volume 58, Issue 15-16, Pages 4225-4233Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erm279
Keywords
auxin; cyanoalanine; IAA; IAN; maize; nitrilase
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The auxin indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which is essential for plant growth and development, is suggested to be synthesized via several redundant pathways. In maize (Zea mays), the nitrilase ZmNIT(2) is expressed in auxin-synthesizing tissues and efficiently hydrolyses indole-3-acetonitrile to IAA. Zmnit2 transposon insertion mutants were compromised in root growth in young seedlings and sensitivity to indole-3-acetonitrile, and accumulated lower quantities of IAA conjugates in kernels and root tips, suggesting a substantial contribution of ZmNIT2 to total IAA biosynthesis in maize. An additional enzymatic function, turnover of P-cyanoalanine, is acquired when ZMNIT2 forms heteromers with the homologue ZmNIT1. In plants carrying an insertion mutation in either nitrilase gene this activity was strongly reduced. A dual role for ZmNIT2 in auxin biosynthesis and in cyanide detoxification as a heteromer with ZMNIT1 is therefore proposed.
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