Abstract
Plant lifespan is affected by factors with genetic and environmental bases. The laws governing these two factors and how they affect plant lifespan are unclear. Here we show that the acyl chain length (ACL) of phosphatidylserine (PS) is correlated with plant lifespan. Among the detected eight head-group classes of membrane lipids with lipidomics based on triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry, the ACL of PS showed high diversity, in contrast to the ACLs of the other seven classes, which were highly conserved over all stages of development in all plant species and organs and under all conditions that we studied. Further investigation found that acyl chains of PS lengthened during development, senescence, and under environmental stresses and that increasing length was accelerated by promoted- senescence. The acyl chains of PS were limited to a certain carbon number and ceased to increase in length when plants were close to death. These findings suggest that the ACL of PS can count plant lifespan and could be a molecular scale ruler for measuring plant development and senescence.
Publication types
-
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
-
Arabidopsis / chemistry
-
Arabidopsis / growth & development
-
Arabidopsis / physiology
-
Brassicaceae / chemistry
-
Brassicaceae / growth & development
-
Brassicaceae / physiology
-
Cellular Senescence
-
Environment
-
Germination / physiology
-
Membrane Lipids / chemistry*
-
Membrane Lipids / metabolism
-
Phosphatidylserines / chemistry*
-
Phosphatidylserines / metabolism
-
Plant Development / physiology
-
Plant Leaves / chemistry
-
Plant Leaves / growth & development
-
Plant Leaves / metabolism
-
Plant Physiological Phenomena*
-
Plants / chemistry*
-
Plants / metabolism
-
Stress, Physiological / physiology
-
Time Factors
Substances
-
Membrane Lipids
-
Phosphatidylserines
Grants and funding
The research was supported by grants from NSFC (30670474 & 30870571), Fund of State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China (0807B01211 and 097C1211Z1), Kunming Institute of Botany (KSCX2-EW-J-24), Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, and CAS Innovation Program of Kunming Institute (540806321211), and “100 Talents Program, CAS”. Lipid analysis was performed at the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.