Gy. Jauh et al., DELTA-TONOPLAST INTRINSIC PROTEIN DEFINES UNIQUE PLANT VACUOLE FUNCTIONS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 95(22), 1998, pp. 12995-12999
Plant cell vacuoles may have either storage or degradative functions.
Vegetative storage proteins (VSPs) are synthesized in response to woun
ding and to developmental switches that affect carbon and nitrogen sin
ks. Here we show that VSPs are stored in a unique type of vacuole that
is derived from degradative central vacuoles coincident with insertio
n of a new tonoplast intrinsic protein (TIP), delta-TIP, into their me
mbranes. This finding demonstrates a tight coupling between the presen
ce of delta-TIP and acquisition of a specialized storage function and
indicates that TIP isoforms may determine vacuole identity.