S‐methylmethionine is involved in the salinity tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana plants at germination and early growth stages

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Abstract
Methionine (Met) is biosynthesized by the activated methyl cycle and S‐methylmethionine (SMM) cycle in one‐carbon (C1) metabolism in plants. It is converted to S‐adenosylmethionine (SAM) which serves as a precursor for many metabolites including glycinebetaine, methylated polyols, polyamines and ethylene which accumulate in plants in response to salinity. We have investigated how the Met biosynthetic pathway is regulated under saline conditions at the transcriptional level in Arabidopsis thaliana plants. Within Met biosynthesis‐related genes, the expression of homocysteine methyltransferase (HMT) and methionine methyltransferase (MMT) genes in SMM cycle had altered toward increasing Met production by the presence of NaCl. We have determined the salinity tolerance of an Arabidopsis mmt mutant with an insertional mutation in the single copy of the AtMMT gene. Although the mmt mutant showed comparable germination and shoot growth with wild type under normal conditions, NaCl treatment caused severe repression of germination rate and shoot growth in the mmt mutant compared with in the wild type. These results indicate that the utilization of SMM is important for the salinity tolerance of Arabidopsis plants at the germination and early growth stages.

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