Sulfur represents the ninth and least abundant essential macronutrient in plants, preceded …

• Abstract
• Why is sulfur important?
• Sulfur nutrition impacts agriculture, food quality, and nutra-and pharmaceuticals
• Sulfur is assimilated through multiple steps: an overview
• Sulfate uptake and translocation is mediated by specialized membrane proteins
• Sulfate needs to be activate for assimilation
• Unique mechanisms operate for reduction of activated sulfate
• Sulfite is reduced to sulfide by ferredoxin
• Sulfide incorporation into Cys requires Ser
• Cys is the pivotal compound in sulfur assimilation
• Multiple regulatory circuits are located between Cys, OAS, and sulfide
• GSH and S-methyl-Met represent major transported organic sulfur-containing metabolites
• Multilayer regulatory mechanisms operate in sulfur assimilation
• Transcriptome and metabolome studies shed light on global responses to sulfur nutritional stress
• Hormonal control is involved in regulation of assimilation
• Other factors such as development, the circadian clock, and abiotic stresses also influence sulfur assimilation
• Conclusions and future directions
• Literature cited
• Figures

Biology Articles » Anatomy & Physiology » Physiology, Plant » Sulfur Assimilatory Metabolism. The Long and Smelling Road

Abstract

- Sulfur Assimilatory Metabolism. The Long and Smelling Road

Sulfur Assimilatory Metabolism. The Long and Smelling Road¹

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Inage-ku, Chiba 263–8522, Japan

Sulfur represents the ninth and least abundant essential macronutrient in plants, preceded by carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. The dry matter of sulfur in plants is only about one-fifteenth of that of nitrogen. Both sulfur and nitrogen are necessary to be assimilated into organic metabolites. While nitrogen is mainly used for structural macromolecules, sulfur plays critical roles in the catalytic or electrochemical functions of the biomolecules in cells.

Plant Physiology 136:2443-2450 (2004). © 2004 American Society of Plant Biologists.