Regulation of β-Glucan Synthetase Activity by Auxin in Pea Stem Tissue

Treatment of pea stem segments with indoleacetic acid (IAA) causes within 1 hour a 2- to 4-fold increase in activity of particulate uridine diphosphoglucose-dependent beta-glucan synthetase obtainable from the tissue. The IAA effect is observable in tissue from all parts of the elongation zone of the pea stem, and also in older tissue that is not capable of a cell enlargement response to IAA. A large increase in activity is caused by IAA only if synthetase activity in the isolated tissue has first been allowed to fall substantially below the intact plant level, and only if sucrose is supplied along with IAA. Treatment of tissue with sucrose alone after a period of sugar starvation causes a transient rise of synthetase activity. The decline in synthetase activity in absence of IAA, the rise caused by IAA, and the transient rise caused by sucrose are all strongly temperature-dependent. IAA and sucrose do not affect the activity of isolated synthetase particles. Synthetase activity in vivo is sensitive to as low as 0.1 mum IAA and is increased by IAA analogues that are active as auxins on elongation but not by nonauxin analogues. Activity begins to rise 10 to 15 minutes after exposure to IAA, which places this among the most rapid enzyme effects of a plant growth regulator heretofore demonstrated, and among the most rapid known metabolic effects of auxins. The effect is seen also with polysaccharide synthetase activity using uridine diphosphate-galactose or uridine diphosphate-xylose as substrates, and to a lesser extent with guanosine diphosphoglucose-dependent glucan synthetase activity. Glucan synthetase from IAA-treated tissue appears to have a higher affinity for uridine diphosphate-glucose than the control.