Increasing seed thiamin content impacts stored carbon partitioning and subsequent seedling stress tolerance

Thiamin and thiamin pyrophosphate (TPP) are essential components for the function of enzymes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids in living organisms. In addition to its role as a cofactor, thiamin plays a key role in resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. Most of the studies used exogenous thiamin to enhance stress tolerance in plants. In this study, we achieved this objective by genetically engineering Arabidopsis thaliana and Camelina sativa for the seed-specific co-overexpression of the Arabidopsis thiamin biosynthetic genes Thi4, ThiC, and ThiE. Elevated thiamin content in the seeds of transgenic plants was accompanied by the enhanced expression levels of transcripts encoding thiamin cofactor-dependent enzymes. Furthermore, seed germination and root growth in thiamin over-producing lines were more tolerant to oxidative stress caused by salt and paraquat treatments. The transgenic seeds also accumulated more oil (up to16.4% in Arabidopsis and17.9% in C. sativa) and carbohydrate but less protein than the control seeds. The same results were also observed in TPP over-producing Arabidopsis plants generated by the seed-specific overexpression of TPK1. Together, our findings suggest that thiamin and TPP over-production in transgenic lines confer a boosted abiotic stress tolerance and alter the seed carbon partitioning as well.