Analysis of Carbon Metabolism in Transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana Transformed with the Cyanobacterial Sucrose Phosphate Synthase Gene

To investigate the effects of sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) on carbon partitioning, transgenic Arabidopsis plants transformed with Synechocystis SPS were constructed. The integration, copy number and expression level were confirmed by Southern and Northern blot analyses. SPS activity in leaves from the transgenic and wild type plants was not significantly different. The level of sucrose and starch in the leaves of transgenic plant were slightly decreased compared to wild type. The glucose and fructose contents were increased up to two-fold compared to wild type during the light period. It is our speculation that the decreased sucrose level of the transgenic plant might be caused by the high acid invertase.