Induction of tocopherol biosynthesis through heat shock treatment in Arabidopsis

Plants have developed various self-defense systems to survive many types of unfavorable conditions. Heat shock (HS) treatment, an abiotic stress, activates salicylic acid (SA) biosynthesis to enhance resistance to biotic stresses in some plant species. Since SA is produced from the shikimate pathway, other related metabolic pathways were expected to be upregulated by HS treatment. We speculated that tocopherol biosynthesis utilizing chorismic acid would be activated by HS treatment. In Arabidopsis, expression analysis of tocopherol biosynthetic genes, HPPD, VTE2, VTE3, VTE1, and VTE4, in combination with measurement of metabolites, indicated that HS treatment enhanced the biosynthesis and accumulation of tocopherols. Analyses using an SA biosynthesis-deficient mutant indicated that the upregulation of tocopherol biosynthesis was independent of the SA-mediated signaling pathway.