Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 55, No. 404,
Sulphur Metabolism in Plants Special Issue, pp. 1765–1773, August 2004
DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erh206 Advance Access publication 16 July, 2004
Plant sulphate transporters: co-ordination of uptake,
intracellular and long-distance transport
Peter Buchner1,*, Hideki Takahashi2 and Malcolm J. Hawkesford1
1
Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK
2
RIKEN Plant Science Center, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045, Japan
Received 19 February 2004; Accepted 18 May 2004
Abstract
Proton/sulphate co-transport in the plasma membrane
of root cells is the first step for the uptake of sulphate
from the environment by plants. Further intracellular,
cell-to-cell and long-distance transport must fulfil the
requirements for sulphate assimilation and source/sink
demands within the plant. A gene family of sulphate
transporters, which may be subdivided into five
groups, has been identified with examples from many
different plant species. For at least two groups, proton/
sulphate co-transport activity has been confirmed. It
appears that each group represents sulphate transporters with distinct kinetic properties, patterns of
expression, and cell/tissue specificity related to specific roles in the uptake and allocation of sulphate.
High-affinity sulphate uptake and low-affinity vascular
transport, as well as vacuolar efflux, are controlled by
the nutritional status of the plant. Most notably there is
an apparent increase in capacity for cellular sulphate
uptake and vacuolar efflux when sulphur supply is
limiting. Within the groups, the individual sulphate
transporters may be further subdivided by differences
in temporal, cellular and tissue expression. Many of
the transporters are regulated by the nutritional status
of the individual tissues, to optimize sulphate movement within and between sink and source organs.
Key words: Expression, gene family, nutritional regulation,
sulphate, transport.
Introduction
Sulphur is an essential nutrient required for plant growth.
Sulphur is mainly taken up by the plant as inorganic
sulphate from the soil, and the assimilation into cysteine is
considered to be the key entry point of the natural sulphur
cycle. The acquisition of sulphur by plants has become an
increasingly important concern for the agricultural industry
due to the decreasing trends of S-emissions from industrial
sources and the consequent limitation of inputs from
deposition (McGrath et al., 1996). The recognition of the
importance of sulphate for plant growth and vigour and
hence crop yield, as well as the nutritional importance of
sulphur for human and animal diets, has led to an increased
emphasis on research on the processes of sulphate uptake,
transport and assimilation.
After entry into the plant, sulphate is the major form
of transported as well as stored sulphur. The delivery of
sulphate into plastids for assimilation, sulphate storage
within the vacuoles, and the long-distance transport between organs in order to fulfil the source/sink demands
during plant growth require specific sulphate transporter
proteins. The suggested mechanism for plasma membrane
sulphate transport is proton coupled co-transport. Studies
with membrane vesicles and yeast complementation confirmed a pH-dependent transport with a probable 3H+/
sulphate stoichiometry (Lass and Ullrich-Eberius, 1984;
Hawkesford et al., 1993; Smith et al., 1995). Since the first
reported cloning of a plant sulphate transporter in Stylosanthes hamata (Smith et al., 1995), it has been apparent
that sulphate transport in plants is carried out by a complex
system of transporters encoded by a large gene family. In
recent years, many genes encoding sulphate transporters
from a variety of plant species have been isolated and
characterized (Bolchi et al., 1999; Buchner et al., 2004;
Howarth et al., 2003; Smith et al., 1995, 1997; Vidmar
et al., 1999, 2000; Shibagaki et al., 2002; Takahashi et al.,
1996, 1997, 1999a, b, 2000; Yoshimoto et al., 2002, 2003).
Subsequent analysis of the Arabidopsis and rice genome
sequences (The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, 2000;
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Fax: +44 (0)1582 763010. E-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 55, No. 404, ª Society for Experimental Biology 2004; all rights reserved
1766 Buchner et al.
Feng et al., 2002; Goff et al., 2002; Sasaki et al., 2002;
Yu et al., 2002) has enabled the identification of 14 putative
sulphate transporter genes in each genome (Table 1). Alignment and phylogenetic analysis of the 14 Arabidopsis
and rice proteins (Fig. 1) subdivides the plant sulphatetransporter family into four closely related groups, all with
12 membrane-spanning domains and a STAS domain at
their carboxy-terminus (Aravind and Koonin, 2000), and
a fifth more diverse, but clearly related, group with two
smaller proteins lacking the STAS domain (Hawkesford,
2003). To date, sulphate transport activity has been
demonstrated only for Group 1 and 2 transporters. However, due to the high homology between the members of
the family, it is reasonable to expect that most are involved
in sulphate transport. The kinetic differences and expression patterns of the phylogenetic subdivisions led to the
suggestion that the groups represent functional subtypes
(Hawkesford, 2000).
This paper aims to provide an overview of current
knowledge of the cellular, subcellular, tissue, and organspecific function of the individual sulphate-transporter
subtypes. It will focus on the specific transport steps of
the allocation of sulphate from the soil to the different
organs and organelles in relation to nutritional demands on
a whole plant basis.
cDNA from Stylosanthes hamata by yeast complementation, two different sulphate transporter isoforms were
distinguished, which may be responsible for the dual
pattern of high- and low-affinity transport (Smith et al.,
1995). Finally, more detailed expression and mutant analysis has confirmed the high-affinity component as the initial
step for the entry of sulphate into the plant root (Shibagaki
et al., 2002; Yoshimoto et al., 2002; Maruyama-Nakashita
et al., 2003).
The high-affinity sulphate transporters (Kms in the range
of 1.5–10 lM) are the best-characterized transporters and
all belong to the Group 1 sulphate-transporter clade (Smith
et al., 1995, 1997; Shibagaki et al., 2002; Yoshimoto et al.,
2002; Howarth et al., 2003). The primary uptake of
sulphate by the root is mediated by two different Group 1
sulphate transporter isoforms. The spatial expression of
these two high-affinity transporters in the root tip and root
epidermis, including root hairs and in the cortical cells of
the mature root (Takahashi et al., 2000; Shibagaki et al.,
2002; Yoshimoto et al., 2002; Howarth et al., 2003; Rae
and Smith, 2002) suggests that all these tissues have the
capacity for high-affinity sulphate influx across the plasma
membrane into the symplast (see Fig. 2 for an overview).
Sulphur deficiency leads to an enhanced capacity for
sulphate uptake, measured in intact plants (Lee, 1982;
Sulphate uptake: the primary step
The influx of sulphate across the plasma membrane is well
characterized at the physiological and functional level.
Epstein et al. (Legett and Epstein, 1956; Epstein, 1966)
described sulphate uptake which was resolved into a saturable high-affinity phase and a non-saturable low-affinity
phase. After isolation of the first plant sulphate transporter
Table 1. Arabidopsis and rice sulphate transporter gene family:
accession numbers, protein ID and genome locus number (not
available for the rice sulphate transporter genes)
Group Arabidopsis
1
2
3
4
5
Rice
Name
Locus
number
Accession
number
Name
Accession
number/
protein ID
AtSultr1;1
AtSultr1;2
AtSultr1;3
AtSultr2;1
AtSultr2;2
AtSultr3;1
AtSultr3;2
AtSultr3;3
AtSultr3;4
AtSultr3;5
At4g08620
At1g78000
At1g22150
At5g10180
At1g77990
At3g51900
At4g02700
At1g23090
At3g15990
At5g19600
AB018695
AB042322
AB049624
AB003591
D85416
D89631
AB004060
AB023423
AB054645
AB061739
AtSultr4;1
AtSultr4;2
AtSultr5;1
AtSultr5;2
At5g13550
At3g12520
At1g80310
At2g25680
OsSultr1;1
OsSultr1;2
OsSultr1;3
OsSultr2;1
OsSultr2;2
OsSultr3;1
OsSultr3;2
OsSultr3;3
OsSultr3;4
OsSultr3;5
OsSultr3;6
OsSultr4;1
AF493790
AAN59764.1
BAC98594
AAN59769
AAN59770
NP_921514
AAN06871
AK104831
AK067270
NM_192602
NM_191791
AF493791
AB008782
AB052775
NP_178147 OsSultr5;1 BAC05530
NP_180139 OsSultr5;2 BAB03554
Fig. 1. Phylogenetic analysis. Neighbor–Joining tree (MEGA V.2.1;
Kumar et al., 2001) from the multiple alignment (ClustalX V.1.81;
Thompson et al., 1997) of the coding cDNAs of the Arabidopsis
(AB018695, AB042322, AB049624, AB003591, D85416, D89631,
AB004060, AB023423, AB054645, AB061739, AB008782, AB052775,
AC018848, AC006053) and O. sativa sulphate transporter family (from
genomic sequences, Feng et al., 2002; Goff et al., 2002; Sasaki et al.,
2002; Yu et al. 2002). The bootstrap values, expressed as a percentage,
were obtained from 1000 replicate trees.
Plant sulphate transporters
1767
Fig. 2. Simplified Arabidopsis root cross-section: cell specificity of
sulphate transporters.
Clarkson et al., 1983) and isolated plasma-membrane
vesicles (Hawkesford et al., 1993). Many studies have
shown that the changes in the capacity were paralleled by
changes in the steady-state contents of mRNAs and protein
of the Group 1 sulphate transporters (Clarkson et al., 1992;
Smith et al., 1995, 1997; Takahashi et al., 2000; Hawkesford and Wray, 2000; Shibagaki et al., 2002; Yoshimoto
et al., 2002; Howarth et al., 2003). The de-repression/
repression of gene expression seems to be a major factor in
the regulation of sulphate uptake in plants. The two distinct
Group 1 sulphate transporters are different in their inducibilities in relation to the nutritional status of the plant. One
transporter (AtSultr1;2, LeSultr1;1) mediates the uptake of
sulphate under both sulphur-replete and sulphur-deficient
conditions, and expression is relatively insensitive to
external sulphate concentrations. The second transporter
(AtSultr1;1, LeSultr1;2) is highly inducible under sulphate
limitation, but almost absent in non-sulphur-stressed plants
(Yoshimoto et al., 2002; Hawkesford et al., 2003; Howarth
et al., 2003). This dual inducible uptake system was
verified by the identification of selenate resistant (sel)
mutants of Arabidopsis (Shibagaki et al., 2002). This study
indicated that a lesion in the AtSultr1;2 sulphate transporter
isoform restricted the uptake of both sulphate and its toxic
analogue, selenate. No mutations of the inducible isoform
were found in the screen. Analysis of another mutation of
AtSultr1;2, (sel1-10), indicated that AtSultr1;2 serves as
a major facilitator for the acquisition of sulphate: although
AtSultr1;1 expression was up-regulated in the sel1-10
mutant, reduced growth indicated that the AtSultr1;1
was not able to compensate for the missing AtSultr1;2
(Maruyama-Nakashita et al., 2003).
Subcellular sulphate movement
Of fundamental importance to plant sulphur assimilation is
the effective delivery of sulphate to the plastid, the major
site of the assimilatory reductive pathway. In addition, the
requirement for cytosolic ion homeostasis leads to a flux of
surplus sulphate into the vacuole, which serves as an
internal nutritional reservoir (for an overview see Fig. 3).
The nature of the plastid transporter has not been
unequivocally identified to date, but has been the subject
Fig. 3. Transmembrane sulphate movement, driving forces, and potential
mechanisms adapted and modified from Hawkesford and Wray (2000):
cytoplasmic, vacuole, plastid sulphate concentrations, pH, and tonoplast
driving forces based on Kaiser et al. (1989) and Miller et al. (2001).
Plasma membrane uptake mechanism based on Lass and Ullrich-Eberius
(1984) and Hawkesford et al. (1993). Arrows indicate transmembrane
fluxes of sulphate.
of much speculation (Clarkson et al., 1993; Leustek et al.,
2000). One suggestion is the idea that sulphate and
phosphate influxes into the stroma of the plastid are linked
(Hampp and Ziegler, 1977; Mourioux and Douce, 1979).
Alternatively, the existence of a chloroplast sulphate
transporter belonging to the ABC transporter superfamily
was described on the basis of sequence information from the
chloroplast genome of many algae and a liverwort (Chen
et al., 2003; Ohyma et al., 1986). These putative sulphate
transporters are highly homologous to the CysT gene
product of the cyanobacterial sulphate transport system
(Kertesz, 2001), however, sequences with homology to
CysT have not been found in nuclear or chloroplast
genomes of vascular plants. The protein sequences of all
Group 4 sulphate transporters contain a putative plastidial
transit peptide. A transient expression assay of the Arabidopsis Sultr4;1, in which the putative transit peptide region
(N-terminal 99 amino acids) or the truncated transporter (1–
672 amino acids) was fused to GFP, indicated localization
in the chloroplast (Takahashi et al., 1999a). The high
sequence similarity of the Group 4 sulphate transporters to
the Group 1 transporters may support a proton-coupled
sulphate transport mechanism. Proton-linked transport
across the chloroplast inner envelope has been reported
for phosphoglycerate/phosphate exchange, as well as nitrite
transport (Flügge et al., 1983; Shingles et al., 1996),
however, Mourioux and Douce (1979) found no stimulation of sulphate import into the chloroplast by acidic
solutions. Further studies of the Arabidopsis Sultr4;1
sulphate transporter indicated that fusion of the whole
cDNA encoding the complete 685 amino acid protein to
1768 Buchner et al.
a GFP reporter gene localized the transporter in the
tonoplast membrane. This may be an indication that the
region encompassing residues 673–685 is involved in
targeting rather than the putative plastidial transit peptide
(Takahashi et al., 2003).
It is assumed that the sulphate concentrations in the
cytoplasm and in the chloroplast are quite similar (Kaiser
et al., 1989). Photosynthesis is known to be sensitive to
sulphate: sulphate is a competitive inhibitor of ribulose-1,5biphosphate carboxylase and inhibits photophosphorylation (Kaiser et al., 1986; Jagendorf and Ryrie, 1971).
Clearly, cytosolic and plastidic sulphate homeostasis is
important and to avoid toxification excess sulphate is
accumulated in the vacuole. The transport of sulphate
across the tonoplast has been investigated in detail only in
yeast and barley mesophyll vacuoles (Hirata et al., 2002;
Kaiser et al., 1989). For both, sulphate uptake was
stimulated by MgATP and driven by the membrane
potential (DW), but not by a pH gradient. Concentrationdependent sulphate transport into the vacuole has been
reported to be either saturable (Dietz et al., 1992) or
biphasic with a saturable and a linear component (Kaiser
et al., 1989). To date, genes encoding vacuole sulphate
influx transporters have not been identified. Preliminary
data suggest a tonoplast localization of one of the Group 5
sulphate transporters (P Buchner, unpublished results). The
sequence divergence of the Group 5 compared with the
Group 1–4 sulphate transporters suggests that these may be
functionally distinct. Whether the Group 5 transporters are
involved in vacuole sulphate influx remains to be verified.
For the vacuole to serve as a mobilizable internal
reservoir of sulphur there is a need for a specific efflux
system. In addition to the verification of the subcellular
localization of the Arabidopsis Group 4 sulphate transporters, analysis of T-DNA mutations showed an increased
accumulation of sulphate and decrease of cysteine and
glutathione contents when plants were grown on low
sulphate (Takahashi et al., 2003). The drastic reduction of
root sulphate concentrations under sulphate deficiency is
accompanied by an up-regulation of sulphate transporter
4;1 in Brassica (Hawkesford et al., 2003). Increased
expression of this transporter would maximize the vacuolar
efflux of stored sulphate under these conditions. The pH
gradient across the tonoplast (Kaiser et al., 1989) would
favour a proton-coupled transport mechanism for efflux.
Long-distance sulphate transport
Several distinct steps are involved in the process of translocation of sulphate to other tissues and organs. Once inside
the symplast, radial transport across the root to the central
stele and, subsequently, unloading into the xylem are
necessary for translocation to the shoot. Discharging the
sulphate from the xylem vessels into the apoplastic continuum and uptake into the symplast will bring the sulphate to
the cells of the target organs and tissues for reduction in the
plastids or storage in the vacuoles (see Figs 2, 4 for
overviews).
The radial transport from the epidermis through the
cortex and endodermis may be via plasmodesmata without
traversing plasma membranes. From the stele, sulphate has
to be loaded into the xylem. The nature of the efflux system
for sulphate from plant cells is unknown. There is no
evidence that Group 1 and 2 sulphate transporters are able
to act in the reverse direction. In Arabidopsis hypocotyl
cells, a voltage-dependent anion channel is activated by
sulphate and deactivated by nucleotides (Frachisse et al.,
1999). Such a channel may contribute to homeostasis, but
may also be involved in the delivery to the vascular system,
especially to the xylem from vascular parenchyma cells.
In situ hybridization and the use of promoter–reporter
gene constructions have localized expression of Arabidopsis Group 2 sulphate transporters in the vascular tissues
(Takahashi et al., 1997, 2000). Kinetic studies suggest that
Group 2 sulphate transporters are responsible for lowaffinity sulphate transport with Kms between 99.2 lM and
1.2 mM (Smith et al., 1995; Takahashi et al., 2000).
Differences in the kinetic and expression pattern of the two
Arabidopsis Group 2 transporters, AtSultr2;1 (Km 0.41
mM) and AtSultr2;2 (Km 1.2 mM), suggested specific
functions in the process of vascular movement of sulphate.
In leaves, AtSultr2;1 is expressed in the xylem parenchyma
and phloem cells, but in the root in xylem parenchyma and
pericycle cells. By contrast, AtSultr2;2 is localized specifically in the phloem of roots and in vascular bundle sheath
cells of leaves (Fig. 2; Takahashi et al., 2000). The
expression of AtSultr2;1 in the root pericycle and xylem
parenchyma cells may indicate an efflux of sulphate from
the endodermal cells leading to a high concentration of
sulphate in the apoplast of the vascular tissue. AtSultr2;1
would reabsorb this sulphate and will optimize the amount
of sulphate transferred to the shoots during sulphate deficiency. The observed up-regulation of AtSultr2;1 in roots
during sulphate starvation, and the increase of the mRNA
level of AtSultr2;1 under selenate treatment, may be an
indication of this function (Takahashi et al., 2000). The leaf
phloem expression suggests a role in phloem loading for
sulphate transport to other organs. The leaf xylem parenchyma localization of AtSultr2;1 might indicate absorption
of sulphate from the xylem vessels or reabsorption for
further xylem transport. The localization of AtSultr2;2 in
the root indicates a role in sulphate transport via the
phloem. In leaves, however, the expression in the bundle
sheath cells surrounding the vascular veins suggests the
uptake of sulphate released from xylem vessels at millimolar concentrations for transfer to the primary sites of
assimilation in leaf palisade and mesophyll cells.
The expression pattern of both Group 2 transporters
suggests that the two transporters are involved in balancing
the vascular movement of sulphate in relation to the
Plant sulphate transporters
sulphate status of the different tissues (Takahashi et al.,
2000).
Spatial expression analysis of AtSultr1;3 in Arabidopsis,
and of Group 1 high affinity sulphate transporters in other
plant species, indicated that sulphate transport in vascular
tissues is not restricted to low-affinity transport. In sulphatedeprived barley roots, HvSultr1;1 was expressed
within the stele (Rae and Smith, 2002). This was not
observed for the homologous Arabidopsis AtSultr1;1 and
1;2. Rae and Smith (2002) speculated that, in barley,
a single transporter is responsible for functions carried out
by more than one transporter in Arabidopsis. In the rice
genome, two Group 2 transporters are present, but no
information on their spatial expression exists. In tomato,
LeSultr1;1 is expressed under sulphate-deficient conditions
in the pericycle (Howarth et al., 2003). This may indicate
that under sulphate stress, plants are able to induce an
additional high affinity sulphate transport to maintain
vascular movement of sulphate under low sulphate concentrations. The role of the AtSultr1;3 high affinity transporter seems to be to mediate the inter-organ transport of
sulphate by specific expression exclusively in the phloem
of all Arabidopsis organs analysed (Yoshimoto et al.,
2003). Analysis of a AtSultr1;3 T-DNA insertion mutant
provided direct evidence for this function by restricting
movement of labelled sulphate from the cotyledon to
the other organs. Yoshimoto et al. (2003) concluded that
AtSultr1;3 is important for source-to-sink transport of
sulphate.
Sulphate transport at the whole plant level
Growing plants have a constitutive demand for sulphur
to synthesize protein, sulpholipid and other essential Scontaining molecules for growth. Furthermore, the different
tissues and organs differ in their demands for sulphur, which
in turn may depend on developmental stage and function.
The uptake and subsequent distribution of sulphate (see
Fig. 4 for an overview) is regulated in response to demand
and environmental factors. The specific expression of lowor high-affinity transporters in the root tip, as well as in
axillary buds, indicates the importance of an adequate
sulphate supply to fast growing tissues (Takahashi et al.,
1997, 2000; Rae and Smith, 2003). In addition, in root tips,
high levels of expression are likely to be of functional
value to facilitate ‘foraging’. Developing leaves are strong
S-sinks, but may show a net loss of S after full expansion
(Sunarpi and Anderson, 1996). Many studies have shown
sulphate fluxes between organs, for example, feeding
experiments indicated an allocation of sulphate from mature
leaves into the apical parts of poplar trees and an exchange
of sulphate between xylem and phloem (Hartmann et al.,
2000). In oilseed rape, the sulphate pool was diminished in
older leaves, possibly to supply young developing leaves
under sulphur deficiency (Blake-Kalff et al., 1998). Recent
1769
Fig. 4. Model of sulphate uptake and movement on the whole plant level.
Illustration of the proposed uptake, distribution, import, remobilization,
and export of sulphate based on the function and tissue as well as
developmental specific demand of sulphate. Arrows indicate uptake and
potential movement of sulphate.
observations on the expression patterns of sulphate transporters indicate their roles in these responses. The upregulation of Arabidopsis AtSultr2;2 and 1;3 in leaves
under sulphate starvation implicated a participation of both
transporters in the vascular allocation of sulphate from
leaves to other tissues (Takahashi et al., 2000; Yoshimoto
et al., 2003). The tomato high-affinity sulphate transporter,
LeSultr1;2, was expressed in the stem and in the leaves and
was up-regulated under S-stress (Howarth et al., 2003).
Arabidopsis AtSultr1;1 and 1;2 expression is induced or upregulated in leaves under S-starvation. AtSultr1;2 promoter
activity was found in the guard cells under normal growth
conditions (Yoshimoto et al., 2002). Apart from this
example, spatial localization and function of high-affinity
sulphate transporters in the allocation of sulphate in leaves
is unknown. LeSultr1;2 expression was also induced in
the vascular tissue of the Verticillium-resistant tomato line,
GCR 218, after infection by Verticillium dahliae, which
suggested an involvement of the sulphate transporter in the
mechanism of Verticillium resistance involving elemental
sulphur formation. The up-regulation of the Arabidopsis
Group 4 transporter, AtSultr4;1, under S-deficiency in roots
as well as in leaves (Takahashi et al., 2000), indicated the
importance of vacuolar efflux of sulphate regulated by the
sulphur demand.
Generative tissues have a high demand for S. In wheat
endosperm, an accumulation of sulphate was found in
early development (Fitzgerald et al., 2001). In soybean,
sulphate accumulated in pods and decreased with the onset
of grain enlargement (Sunarpi and Anderson, 1997). This
1770 Buchner et al.
accumulation was only found under sulphate-sufficient
growth conditions. This requires, in addition to the regulation of sulphate transport by S-demand, a developmental and
tissue/cell-specific regulation of sulphate transport. Expression of sulphate transporter genes in generative tissues
has been reported. In wheat, the high-affinity sulphatetransporter homologue to the AtSultr1;1 was detected in
aleurone cells of wheat grains by immunolocalization (Mills,
2003). Antisense inhibition of the Arabidopsis AtSultr2;1
lowered the sulphate-to-nitrate ratio in mature seeds, indicating a defect in delivery of sulphate into seeds (Awazuhara
et al., 2001). In chickpeas, expression of the low affinity
AtSultr2;1 homologue was not restricted to vegetative
tissues, but was also found in pods and in the testa of developing embryos (Tabe et al., 2003). The Group 3 sulphatetransporter homologue of AtSultr3.1 was also expressed in
the pods, in the testa, and, additionally, in developing
chickpea embryos. Expression of the sulphate transporter
homologue of AtSultr3;3 was detectable in almost all organs
with high abundance in the developing chickpea embryo,
suggesting participation in sulphate transport in many cell
types (Tabe et al., 2003). The Group 3 sulphate transporters
do not appear to be regulated by nutritional S-status. No
influence on the expression of Group 3 sulphate transporters
by the sulphur status of plant has been reported. In
Arabidopsis, AtSultr3;1, 3;2, and 3;3 expression seems to
be restricted to the leaves (Takahashi et al., 2000). The
spatial and subcellular localization of these transporters in
the leaf tissue is unknown, and the specific function in the
process of sulphate transport remains to be verified.
Regulation
In general, high concentrations of cysteine and glutathione
repress S-assimilation and uptake activities, while Sstarvation results in increased activities of key enzymes in
the S-transport assimilatory pathway.
Sulphate transport consists of both constitutive and Snutrition-dependent regulated transport. A decreased intracellular content of sulphate, cysteine, and glutathione is
concomitant with increasing transporter activity (Smith
et al., 1997). Gene and protein expression studies have
confirmed that regulation occurs predominantly at the level
of the mRNA (Hawkesford et al., 1993; Smith et al., 1995,
1997; Takahashi et al., 2000; Hawkesford and Wray, 2000;
Yoshimoto et al., 2002).
A breakdown of the expression patterns of the genes of
the sulphate transporter family reflects a complex pattern of
regulation: (i) expression of the Group 3 transporters with
tissue/organ specificity but no regulation by S-nutrition; (ii)
cell-specific expression of some Group 1, 2, and 4 transporters under adequate S-nutrition which is up-regulated by
inadequate S-nutrition (AtSultr1;2, 1;3, 2;1, 4;1); and (iii)
cell/tissue-specific S-deficiency-related de-repression of
some Group 1 and 2 transporters (AtSultr1;1, 1;2, 2;1, 2;2).
The nature of the signal(s) that are sensed under
conditions of sulphate deficiency, and which are transduced
to the transporter genes and promoters are unclear. There
exists S-responsive regions in the promoters of sulphate
transporters, b-conglycinin and nitrilase, however, conservation of cis-elements within S-responsive genes has not
been identified. The ÿ1944 bp 59-promoter region of
AtSultr1;1 was sufficient to drive specific expression of
transporter in the epidermis and cortex in Arabidopsis
roots, however, an additional 1 kb extension (ÿ3031) was
necessary to confer its responsiveness to sulphur deficiency
(Maruyama-Nakashita et al., 2004). In the b-conglycinin
promoter, the ÿ307 to ÿ73 (235 bp) region has been
identified to confer the sulphur response. As this region is
able to respond to the nutritional S-status in transgenic
Arabidopsis, it appears that a common mechanism exists
for sulphur-regulated expression of this element in both
seed and non-seed tissues (Awazuhara et al., 2002).
Binding experiments have identified regulatory elements
interacting with different nuclear factors (Allen et al., 1989;
Lessard et al., 1991). The soybean embryo factors (SEF) 3
and 4 bound to the 235 bp sulphur responding promoter
region (Allen et al., 1989), but no relation between binding
activity and S-status was verified. A similar cis-element has
been identified in the 59-upstream region of the serine acetyltransferase gene of Citrullus vulgaris, a gene which has
been reported to be slightly up-regulated by S-starvation
(Saito et al., 1997). In the promoter of the Arabidopsis
nitrilase NIT3 gene, a region of 625 bp distant from the
transcription start site (ÿ3034 to ÿ2431) is necessary for
the response to sulphur starvation in combination with at
least one other cis-element in the region ÿ2206 to ÿ1834
of the promoter (Kutz et al., 2002). No trans-acting factors
involved in sulphur-regulated gene expression in plants
have been identified.
The regulation of sulphate transport is also embedded in
the overall regulation of S, N, and C assimilation and
metabolism. The up-regulation of the transporters is much
reduced in response to S deficiency when N is limiting
(Clarkson et al., 1989, 1999). Mimicking N-surplus by
supplying external O-acetylserine under adequate Snutrition resulted in an induction of high-affinity sulphatetransporter expression (Smith et al., 1997). Studies of the
regulation of Arabidopsis root ion transporters by light and
sugars found diurnal changes and induction by sucrose of
nitrate and sulphate transporters (Lejay et al., 2003).
Therefore, glycolysis-dependent pathways for sugar sensing may be involved in the control of root nutrient
acquisition. In addition to the nitrate and sulphate transporters, a sucrose-dependent up-regulation of gene expression was also found for high-affinity NH4+ , phosphate,
iron, and potassium transporters, and potassium channels
(Lejay et al., 2003).
Microarray analysis has examined short-term and longterm influences of sulphate deficiency and O-acetyl-serine
Plant sulphate transporters
treatment on global expression patterns in Arabidopsis.
Large numbers of genes including those involved in the
jasmonate and auxin biosynthetic pathways appear be
dependent on S-nutrition (Hirai et al., 2003; Nikiforova
et al., 2003). Microarray analysis of the nitrate response in
Arabidopsis roots and shoots highlighted the influence of
N-nutrition on sulphate uptake and assimilation (Wang
et al., 2003). Both, S- and N-nutrition also influence Cmetabolism by modifying the expression of glycolysis and
other C-metabolism/assimilation-related genes (Hirai et al.,
2003; Wang et al., 2003). In addition, other nutrient
conditions such as NaCl stress, and K+- and Ca+-starvation
influence the expression of different mineral transport
systems including sulphate transporters (Maathuis et al.,
2003). All these observations indicate that sensing of
nutrient status and responses to ion and nutrient stress
are far more complex than previously thought. In most of
these studies transcription factors were identified, regulated
positively or negatively in response to the nutritional
changes. Network analysis of nutrition-related microarray
data, as well as specific analysis of individual factors,
should allow identification of the key components involved
in nutritional crosstalk and regulation.
Conclusion
The identification and current state of analysis of the plant
sulphate transporter family provides a model of the role of
these transporters in plant S-nutrition. Although not all
members have been analysed in detail, there appears to be
a regulated integration of expression of the plant sulphate
transporter family. Although there are slight differences
between the Arabidopsis and rice genomes, the occurrence
of the multigene sulphate transporter family, with the
specific clustering of isoforms, seems to be ubiquitous
amongst plant species. The role of the Group 3 transporters
in this scheme is not known. The visible subclustering
of the Group 3 transporters (Fig. 1) may change the
subdivision of the family after more detailed information
of the different Group 3 isoforms becomes available. The
functional evidence for H+/sulphate co-transport exists only
for the Group 1 and 2 sulphate transporters. For the other
groups, transport function remains to be verified. The idea
that the different groups represent functional subtypes
(Hawkesford, 2000) can be augmented. The expression
pattern of the Group 1 transporters indicated that this group
was not only responsible for the initial uptake of sulphate
by the root but was active elsewhere in the plant: AtSultr1;3
was not involved in the initial uptake and was very specific
for phloem transport; AtSultr1;1 and 1;2 expression was
not restricted to the root cells which are important for the
initial sulphate uptake, but also occurs in vascular tissue
and non-root tissues. The role of the high affinity Group 1
transporters may be summarized as being responsible for
sulphate transport to enable transmembrane allocation of
1771
micromolar concentrations of sulphate throughout the
plant. The initial uptake by root epidermis and cortical
cells requires high-affinity transport, as does sulphate
movement in other tissues and organs, which, in some
cases, may be very specialized, for example, AtSultr1;3.
In addition to the high-affinity component, there is also
subcellular and long-distance transport. The low-affinity
component seems to be restricted to the vascular movement
of sulphate, and the subcellular component to the regulation
of cytoplasmic sulphate concentration by allocation and
release of vacuolar sulphate. At present, it is not known
how sulphate is released from the cell, particularly important for xylem loading. The transporter responsible for
plastid sulphate influx also remains to be identified.
The overall picture of the regulation of sulphate transport
indicates an adaptation of sulphate transport to changing
environmental conditions and to the availability of other
nutrients. This adaptation can differ between plant species,
which may reflect species-specific adaptations and demands in sulphur metabolism. The functional analysis of
the whole sulphate transporter family and the identification
of the missing transport mechanisms remain as challenges
for the future. The identification of the regulatory metabolites and transcription factors involved in the regulatory
path will open a new window in the understanding of the
general regulation of plant nutrition.
Acknowledgements
Rothamsted Research receives grant-aided support from the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) of
the UK. RIKEN Plant Science Center is supported by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
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