Overexpression of Arabidopsis Ceramide Synthases Differentially Affects Growth, Sphingolipid Metabolism, Programmed Cell Death, and Mycotoxin Resistance

Ceramide synthases catalyze an N-acyltransferase reaction using fatty acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) and long-chain base (LCB) substrates to form the sphingolipid ceramide backbone and are targets for inhibition by the mycotoxin fumonisin B1 (FB1). Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) contains three genes encoding ceramide synthases with distinct substrate specificities: LONGEVITY ASSURANCE GENE ONE HOMOLOG1 (LOH1; At3g25540)- and LOH3 (At1g19260)-encoded ceramide synthases use very-long-chain fatty acyl-CoA and trihydroxy LCB substrates, and LOH2 (At3g19260)-encoded ceramide synthase uses palmitoyl-CoA and dihydroxy LCB substrates. In this study, complementary DNAs for each gene were overexpressed to determine the role of individual isoforms in physiology and sphingolipid metabolism. Differences were observed in growth resulting from LOH1 and LOH3 overexpression compared with LOH2 overexpression. LOH1- and LOH3-overexpressing plants had enhanced biomass relative to wild-type plants, due in part to increased cell division, suggesting that enhanced synthesis of very-long-chain fatty acid/trihydroxy LCB ceramides promotes cell division and growth. Conversely, LOH2 overexpression resulted in dwarfing. LOH2 overexpression also resulted in the accumulation of sphingolipids with C16 fatty acid/dihydroxy LCB ceramides, constitutive induction of programmed cell death, and accumulation of salicylic acid, closely mimicking phenotypes observed previously in LCB C-4 hydroxylase mutants defective in trihydroxy LCB synthesis. In addition, LOH2- and LOH3-overexpressing plants acquired increased resistance to FB1, whereas LOH1-overexpressing plants showed no increase in FB1 resistance, compared with wild-type plants, indicating that LOH1 ceramide synthase is most strongly inhibited by FB1. Overall, the findings described here demonstrate that overexpression of Arabidopsis ceramide synthases results in strongly divergent physiological and metabolic phenotypes, some of which have significance for improved plant performance.