Membrane phospholipids as a phosphate reserve: the dynamic nature of phospholipid‐to‐digalactosyl diacylglycerol exchange in higher plants

It is well established that phosphate deficiency induces the replacement of membrane phospholipid with non-phosphorous lipids in extra-plastidial membranes (e.g. plasma membrane, tonoplast, mitochondria). The predominant replacement lipid is digalactosyl diacylglycerol (DGDG). This paper reports that the phospholipid-to-DGDG replacement is reversible, and that when oat seedlings are re-supplied with radio-labelled phosphate, it is initially recovered primarily in phosphatidylcholine (PC). Within 2 d, the shoot contains more than half of the lipid-associated radiolabel, reflecting phosphate translocation. Oat was also cultivated in different concentrations of phosphate and the DGDG/PC ratio in roots and phospholipase activities in isolated plasma membranes was assayed after different times of cultivation. The DGDG/PC ratio in root tissue correlated more closely with plasma membrane-localized phospholipase D, yielding phosphatidic acid (PA), than with plasma membrane-localized PA phosphatase, the activity that results in a decreased proportion of phospolipids. The lipid degradation data did not reflect a significant involvement of phospholipase C, although a putative phospholipase C analogue, non-specific phospholipase C4 (NPC4), was present in oat roots. The correlation between increased phospholipase D activity and DGDG/PC ratio is consistent with a model where phospholipid-to-DGDG replacement involves formation of PA that readily is removed from the plasma membrane for further degradation elsewhere.