Regulation of methionine biosynthesis in plants; transgenic study

The committing step in Met and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) synthesis is catalyzed by cystathionine ${\gamma}$ -synthase (CGS). Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana overexpressing CGS under control of 35S promoter show increased soluble Met and its metabolite S-methylmethionine, but only at specific stages of development. CGS-overexpressing seedlings are resistant to ethionine. Similar results were obtained with transgenic potato plants overexpressing Arabidopsis CGS. Several of the transgenic lines show silencing of CGS resulting in deformed p]ants with a reduced capacity for reproductive growth similar as transgenic plants by antisense RNA (CGS[-]). Exogenous feeding of Met to the CGS[-] and CGS[+] silenced plants partially restores their growth. Similar morphological deformities are observed in plants cosuppressed for SAM synthetase, even though such plants accumulate 250 fold more soluble Met than wild type and they overexpress CGS. The results suggest that the abnormalities associated with CGS and SAM synthetase silencing are due in part to a reduced ability to produce SAM, and that SAM may be a regulator of CGS expression.