Sulphur plays a regulatory role in the ageing process, according to research led by the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF), part of cicCartuja. The article*, published in the journal The Plant Cell, indicates that Arabidopsis thaliana specimens lacking this molecule age earlier.
IBVF researcher Cecilia Gotor, who led the research, explains: ‘Until now, only the toxicity of this molecule was considered. However, its presence in the cytoplasm of certain plants is essential for the regulation of ageing and autophagy.
Autophagy is a universal process in eukaryotic cells that involves the digestion of cell contents and damaged components. Plants, like animals, induce autophagy under certain conditions, such as nutrient limitation and during ageing and pathogen attack.
Recently, it had been shown that, in animals, sulphur also plays a regulatory role in various systems, such as the cardiovascular, neuronal, immune and endocrine systems, among others. According to Gotor, ‘this research would demonstrate, for the first time, that sulphur also plays a regulatory role in autophagy in a eukaryotic organism’. This finding had not previously been verified in animals or yeast. In the researcher’s opinion, ‘that is the importance of this discovery’.
The results were obtained using Arabidopsis mutants deficient in an enzyme called L-Cysteine Desulphhydrase 1 (DES1), which is responsible for sulphur production in the cytoplasm. After about 30 days in soil, the mutant plants were larger, and even had larger stems and flowers, compared to wild-type plants grown at the same time as a control group.
The result indicates that plants lacking sulphur age earlier. Gotor points out that ‘sulphur therefore represses the progression of the autophagy process’.
* Consolación Álvarez, Irene García, Inmaculada Moreno, María Esther Pérez‐Pérez, José L. Crespo, Luis C. Romero and Cecilia Gotor: “Cysteine‐Generated Sulfide in the Cytosol Negatively Regulates Autophagy and Modulates the Transcriptional Profile in Arabidopsis”. The Plant Cell. DOI: 10.1105/tpc.112.105403
This work was featured as ‘Article of the Month’ for December 2012 on the cicCartuja website.
