Anaerobiosis Induces Transcription but Not Translation of Sucrose Synthase in Maize

This report examines the effect of anaerobic stress on the expression of sucrose synthase in maize (Zea mays L.). Following 24 hours of anaerobic treatment, alcohol dehydrogenase displayed the classical characteristics of induction: increased mRNA and protein levels. However, there was no detectable increase in sucrose synthase specific proteins by either native or denaturing Western blot analysis nor was there an increase in sucrose synthase activity. Anaerobic treatment did induce significantly higher steady state levels of sucrose synthase mRNA. Even though previous work has implicated sucrose synthase as an anaerobically induced protein, the data in this report suggest that sucrose synthase is not inducible at the protein level by anaerobic treatment.