Bao Yang, Zengdong Tan, Jiayu Yan, Ke Zhang, Zhewen Ouyang, Ruyi Fan, Yefei Lu, Yuting Zhang, Xuan Yao, Hu Zhao, Xuemin Wang, Shaoping Lu, Liang Guo

Genome Biology, volume25, Article number: 199(2024), Published: 29 July 2024

Abstract

Background

Phosphorus is a macronutrient necessary for plant growth and development and its availability and efficient use affect crop yields. Leaves are the largest tissue that uses phosphorus in plants, and membrane phospholipids are the main source of cellular phosphorus usage.

Results

Here we identify a key process for plant cellular phosphorus recycling mediated by membrane phospholipid hydrolysis during leaf senescence. Our results indicate that over 90% of lipid phosphorus, accounting for more than one-third of total cellular phosphorus, is recycled from senescent leaves before falling off the plants.Nonspecific phospholipase C4 (NPC4) andphospholipase Dζ2 (PLDζ2) are highly induced during leaf senescence, and knockouts of PLDζ2 and NPC4 decrease the loss of membrane phospholipids and delay leaf senescence. Conversely, overexpression of PLDζ2 and NPC4 accelerates the loss of phospholipids and leaf senescence, promoting phosphorus remobilization from senescent leaves to young tissues and plant growth. We also show that this phosphorus recycling process in senescent leaves mediated by membrane phospholipid hydrolysis is conserved in plants.

Conclusions

These results indicate that PLDζ2- and NPC4-mediated membrane phospholipid hydrolysis promotes phosphorus remobilization from senescent leaves to growing tissues and that the phospholipid hydrolysis-mediated phosphorus recycling improves phosphorus use efficiency in plants.

论文链接：https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-024-03348-x