Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase genes differentially affect Arabidopsis metabolism and development

[EN] Unlike animals, plants possess diverse L-serine (Ser) biosynthetic pathways. One of them, the Phosphorylated Pathway of Serine Biosynthesis (PPSB) has been recently described as essential for embryo, pollen and root development, and required for ammonium and sulfur assimilation. The first and rate limiting step of PPSB is the reaction catalyzed by the enzyme phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PGDH). In Arabidopsis, the PGDH family consists of three genes, PGDH1, PGDH2 and PGDH3. PGDH1 is characterized as being the essential gene of the family. However, the biological significance of PGDH2 and PGDH3 remains unknown. In this manuscript, we have functionally characterized PGDH2 and PGDH3. Phenotypic, metabolomic and gene expression analysis in PGDH single, double and triple mutants indicate that both PGDH2 and PGDH3 are functional, affecting plant metabolism and development. PGDH2 has a stronger effect on plant growth than PGDH3, having a partial redundant role with PGDH1. PGDH3, however, could have additional functions in photosynthetic cells unrelated to Ser biosynthesis.
We thank SCIE of the Universitat de Valencia for technical assistance. We thank Saleh Alseekh for assistance in the analysis of GC-MS samples. This research was supported by the Spanish Government and the European Union (FEDER/BFU2015-64204R, PID2019-107174GB-I00 to R. R. and BES-2016-077943 to R. C-A.), the Valencian Regional Government to S.R-T. (APOSTD/2017/132).