Salinity promotes opposite patterns of carbonylation and nitrosylation of C4 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in sorghum leaves.

Carbonylation inactivates sorghum C 4 PEPCase while nitrosylation has little impact on its activity but holds back carbonylation. This interplay could be important to preserve photosynthetic C4 PEPCase activity in salinity. Previous work had shown that nitric acid (NO) increased phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase kinase (PEPCase-k) activity, promoting the phosphorylation of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) in sorghum leaves (Monreal et al. in Planta 238:859-869, 2013b). The present work investigates the effect of NO on C4 PEPCase in sorghum leaves and its interplay with carbonylation, an oxidative modification frequently observed under salt stress. The PEPCase of sorghum leaves could be carbonylated in vitro and in vivo, and this post-translational modification (PTM) was accompanied by a loss of its activity. Similarly, PEPCase could be S-nitrosylated in vitro and in vivo, and this PTM had little impact on its activity. The S-nitrosylated PEPCase showed increased resistance towards subsequent carbonylation, both in vitro and in vivo. Under salt shock, carbonylation of PEPCase increased in parallel with decreased S-nitrosylation of the enzyme. Subsequent increase of S-nitrosylation was accompanied by decreased carbonylation. Taken together, the results suggest that S-nitrosylation could contribute to maintain C4 PEPCase activity in stressed sorghum plants. Thus, salt-induced NO synthesis would be protecting photosynthetic PEPCase activity from oxidative inactivation while promoting its phosphorylation, which will guarantee its optimal functioning in suboptimal conditions.