生命の源、光合成の足場を保つしくみの解明~「足場=チラコイド膜」を守り植物を高温に強くする~

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2025-04-14 岡山大学,大阪大学,理化学研究所,京都産業大学

生命の源、光合成の足場を保つしくみの解明~「足場=チラコイド膜」を守り植物を高温に強くする~

岡山大学を中心とする研究グループは、光合成の主要な反応が行われる「チラコイド膜」の構造維持に関与するタンパク質VIPP1の機能を解明し、植物の高温耐性向上に成功しました。VIPP1は、光合成の場であるチラコイド膜上でフィラメント状の構造を形成し、熱ストレス時にその形状を変化させることで膜の安定性を保ちます。タバコ植物でVIPP1の発現を増加させたところ、高温環境下でも光合成能力が維持されることが確認されました。この成果は、気候変動に対応した作物の開発や光合成効率の向上に貢献する可能性があります。研究成果は2025年4月8日付で国際誌『Plant Physiology』に掲載されました。

<関連情報>

タバコ葉緑体においてチラコイド膜リモデリングタンパク質VIPP1は束状のオリゴマーを形成する The thylakoid membrane remodeling protein VIPP1 forms bundled oligomers in tobacco chloroplasts

Sarah W Gachie, Alexandre Muhire, Di Li, Akihiro Kawamoto, Noriko Takeda-Kamiya, Yumi Goto, Mayuko Sato, Kiminori Toyooka, Ryo Yoshimura, Tsuneaki Takami …
Plant Physiology  Published:08 April 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiaf137

Abstract

The thylakoid membrane (TM) serves as the scaffold for oxygen-evolving photosynthesis, hosting the protein complexes responsible for the light reactions and ATP synthesis. Vesicle Inducing Protein in Plastid 1 (VIPP1), a key protein in TM remodeling, has been recognized as essential for TM homeostasis. In vitro studies of cyanobacterial VIPP1 demonstrated its ability to form large homo-oligomers (> 2 MDa) manifesting as ring-like or filament-like assemblies associated with membranes. Similarly, VIPP1 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii assembles into rods that encapsulate liposomes or into stacked spiral structures. However, the nature of VIPP1 assemblies in chloroplasts, particularly in Arabidopsis, remains uncharacterized. Here, we expressed Arabidopsis thaliana VIPP1 fused to GFP (AtVIPP1-GFP) in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) chloroplasts and performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A purified AtVIPP1-GFP fraction was enriched with long filamentous tubule-like structures. Detailed TEM observations of chloroplasts in fixed resin-embedded tissues identified VIPP1 assemblies in situ that appeared to colocalize with GFP fluorescence. Electron tomography demonstrated that the AtVIPP1 oligomers consisted of bundled filaments near membranes, some of which appeared connected to the TM or inner chloroplast envelope at their contact sites. The observed bundles were never detected in wild-type Arabidopsis but were observed in Arabidopsis vipp1 mutants expressing AtVIPP1-GFP. Taken together, we propose that the bundled filaments are the dominant AtVIPP1 oligomers that represent its static state in vivo.

生物工学一般
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