Molecular-biological studies on the function of cardiolipin in higher plants

我们研究了CL在拟南芥CLS突变体中的生理作用，其中CL合成酶的CLS基因被T-DNA插入打乱。本研究的研究结果如下：(1)CLS的表达调控CL的水平，CL在植物的生长发育中起重要作用。(2)CLS基因在小柱、保卫细胞等组织细胞中高表达，线粒体数量高于其他组织细胞，提示CLS在富线粒体细胞中具有重要意义。(3)CLS突变体的线粒体形态异常，即突变细胞的线粒体比野生型细胞的线粒体大得多。这些发现表明CL在维持线粒体结构和植物发育中起着关键作用。

We studied physiological roles of CL with cls mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana, in which the CLS gene for CL synthase is disrupted by T-DNA insertion. The findings obtained in this study are as follows: (1) CLS expression can control the level of CL and CL plays important roles in growth of plants. (2) CLS gene is highly expressed in cells of tissues, such as the columella and guard cells, where the number of mitochondria is higher than that in cells of other tissues, suggesting importance of CLS in mitochondria-rich cells. (3) The shape of mitochondria in cls mutants is abnormal, namely, mitochondria in mutant cells are extremely larger than those in wild-type cells. These findings demonstrate that CL plays critical roles in maintenance of mitochondrial structure and plant development.