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JXB Advance Access originally published online on June 18, 2003
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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 54, No. 389, pp. 1813-1820, August 1, 2003
© 2003 Oxford University Press

Elevated sucrose-phosphate synthase activity in transgenic tobacco sustains photosynthesis in older leaves and alters development

Received 17 December 2002; Accepted 16 April 2003

Charles J. Baxter*,1, Christine H. Foyer2, Janice Turner2, Stephen A. Rolfe1 and W. Paul Quick1

1 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
2 Crop Performance and Improvement Division, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK

* Present address and to whom correspondence should be sent: Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB, UK. Fax: +44 (0)1865 275074. E-mail: charles.baxter{at}plants.ox.ac.uk

Constitutive over-expression of a maize sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) gene in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) had major effects on leaf carbohydrate budgets with consequences for whole plant development. Transgenic tobacco plants flowered earlier and had greater flower numbers than wild-type plants. These changes were not linked to modified source leaf carbon assimilation or carbon export, although sucrose to starch ratios were significantly higher in leaves expressing the transgene. The youngest and oldest leaves of plants over-expressing SPS had up to 10-fold wild-type maximal extractable SPS activity, but source leaf SPS activities were only 2–3 times greater in these lines than in the wild type. In the oldest leaves, where the expression of the transgene led to the most marked enhancement in SPS activity, photosynthesis was also increased. It was concluded that these increases in the capacity for sucrose synthesis and carbon assimilation, particularly in older leaves, accelerate the whole plant development and increase the abundance of flowers without substantial changes in the overall shoot biomass.

Key words: Carbon partitioning, flowering, photosynthesis, plant development, sucrose-phosphate synthase.


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