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JXB Advance Access originally published online on December 26, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(2):697-707; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern314
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

Silencing of StKCS6 in potato periderm leads to reduced chain lengths of suberin and wax compounds and increased peridermal transpiration

Olga Serra1, Marçal Soler1, Carolin Hohn2, Rochus Franke2, Lukas Schreiber2, Salomé Prat3, Marisa Molinas1 and Mercè Figueras1,*

1Laboratori del Suro, Departament de Biologia, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat de Girona, Campus Montilivi s/n, E-17071 Girona, Spain
2Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
3Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Campus Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, c/Darwin 3, E-28049 Madrid, Spain

* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: merce.figueras{at}udg.edu

Very long chain aliphatic compounds occur in the suberin polymer and associated wax. Up to now only few genes involved in suberin biosynthesis have been identified. This is a report on the isolation of a potato (Solanum tuberosum) 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase (KCS) gene and the study of its molecular and physiological relevance by means of a reverse genetic approach. This gene, called StKCS6, was stably silenced by RNA interference (RNAi) in potato. Analysis of the chemical composition of silenced potato tuber periderms indicated that StKCS6 down-regulation has a significant and fairly specific effect on the chain length distribution of very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) and derivatives, occurring in the suberin polymer and peridermal wax. All compounds with chain lengths of C28 and higher were significantly reduced in silenced periderms, whereas compounds with chain lengths of C26 and lower accumulated. Thus, StKCS6 is preferentially involved in the formation of suberin and wax lipidic monomers with chain lengths of C28 and higher. As a result, peridermal transpiration of the silenced lines was about 1.5-times higher than that of the wild type. Our results convincingly show that StKCS6 is involved in both suberin and wax biosynthesis and that a reduction of the monomeric carbon chain lengths leads to increased rates of peridermal transpiration.

Key words: Fatty acid elongase, ketoacyl-CoA synthase, lipophilic barrier, periderm, permeability, potato tuber, Solanum tuberosum, suberin, very long chain fatty acid (VLCFA), waxes

Received 22 August 2008; Revised 23 October 2008 Accepted 17 November 2008


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