Background: Even though the catecholamines (dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine) have been detected in plants their role is poorly documented. Correlations between norepinephrine, soluble sugars and starch concentration have been recently reported for potato plants over-expressing tyrosine decarboxylase, the enzyme mediating the first step of catecholamine synthesis. More recently norepinephrine level was shown to significantly increase after osmotic stress, abscisic acid treatment and wounding. Therefore, it is possible that catecholamines might play a role in plant stress responses by modulating primary carbon metabolism, possibly by a mechanism similar to that in animal cells. Since to date no catecholamine receptor has been identified in plants we transformed potato plants with a cDNA encoding human dopamine receptor (HD1).
Results: Tuber analysis of transgenic plants revealed changes in the activities of key enzymes mediating sucrose to starch conversion (ADP-glucose phosphorylase and sucrose synthase) and sucrose synthesis (sucrose phosphate synthase) leading to altered content of both soluble sugars and starch. Surprisingly the catecholamine level measured in transgenic plants was significantly increased; the reason for this is as yet unknown. However the presence of the receptor affected a broader range of enzyme activities than those affected by the massive accumulation of norepinephrine reported for plants over-expressing tyrosine decarboxylase. Therefore, it is suggested that the presence of the exogenous receptor activates catecholamine cAMP signalling in plants.
Conclusions: Our data support the possible involvement of catecholamines in regulating plant carbon metabolism via cAMP signalling pathway.