Carbon Catabolite Repression Regulates Glyoxylate Gene Expression

We have previously proposed that metabolic status is important in the regulation of cucumber malate synthase (MS) and isocitrate lyase (ICL) gene expression during plant development. In this article, we used a cell culture system to demonstrate that intracellular metabolic status does influence expression of both of these genes. Starvation of cucumber cell cultures resulted in the coordinate induction of the expression of MS and ICL genes, and this effect was reversed when sucrose was returned to the culture media. The induction of gene expression was closely correlated with a drop in intracellular sucrose, glucose, and fructose below threshold concentrations, but it was not correlated with a decrease in respiration rate. Glucose, fructose, or raffinose in the culture media also resulted in repression of MS and ICL. Both 2-deoxyglucose and mannose, which are phosphorylated by hexokinase but not further metabolized, specifically repressed MS and ICL gene expression relative to a third glyoxylate cycle gene, malate dehydrogenase. However, the addition of 3-methylglucose, an analog of glucose that is not phosphorylated, did not result in repression of either MS or ICL. It is proposed that the signal giving rise to a change in gene expression originates from the intracellular concentration of hexose sugars or the flux of hexose sugars into glycolysis.