Deciphering the core shunt mechanism in Arabidopsis cuticular wax biosynthesis and its role in plant environmental adaptation

Shipeng Li; Xuanhao Zhang; Haodong Huang; Mou Yin; Matthew A Jenks; Dylan K Kosma; Pingfang Yang; Xianpeng Yang; Huayan Zhao; Shiyou Lü

doi:10.1038/s41477-024-01892-9

Deciphering the core shunt mechanism in Arabidopsis cuticular wax biosynthesis and its role in plant environmental adaptation

Nat Plants. 2025 Jan 3. doi: 10.1038/s41477-024-01892-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shipeng Li^#^{1

2}, Xuanhao Zhang^#^{1

2}, Haodong Huang^#^{1

2}, Mou Yin³, Matthew A Jenks⁴, Dylan K Kosma⁵, Pingfang Yang¹, Xianpeng Yang⁶, Huayan Zhao⁷, Shiyou Lü^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China.
² Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, China.
³ Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ School of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA.
⁶ College of Life Sciences, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China. [email protected].
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China. [email protected].
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Hubei University, Wuhan, China. [email protected].
⁹ Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Wuhan, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 39753959
DOI: 10.1038/s41477-024-01892-9

Abstract

Plant cuticular waxes serve as highly responsive adaptations to variable environments^1-7. Aliphatic waxes consist of very-long-chain (VLC) compounds produced from 1-alcohol- or alkane-forming pathways^5,8. The existing variation in 1-alcohols and alkanes across Arabidopsis accessions revealed that 1-alcohol amounts are negatively correlated with aridity factors, whereas alkanes display the opposite behaviour. How carbon resources are allocated between the 1-alcohol and alkane pathways responding to environmental stimuli is still largely unknown. Here, in Arabidopsis, we report a novel 1-alcohol biosynthesis pathway in which VLC acyl-CoAs are first reduced to aldehydes by CER3 and then converted into 1-alcohols via a newly identified putative aldehyde reductase SOH1. CER3, previously shown to interact with CER1 in alkane synthesis, is identified to interact with SOH1 as well, channelling wax precursors into either alcohol- or alkane-forming pathways, and the directional shunting of these precursors is tightly regulated by the SOH1-CER3-CER1 module in response to environmental conditions.

Abstract

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