Catalytic and functional aspects of different isozymes of glycolate oxidase in rice

BACKGROUND: Glycolate oxidase (GLO) is a key enzyme for photorespiration in plants. There are four GLO genes encoding and forming different isozymes in rice, but their functional differences are not well understood. In this study, enzymatic and physiological characteristics of the GLO isozymes were comparatively analyzed. RESULTS: When expressed heterologously in yeast, GLO1, GLO4 and GLO1 + 4 showed the highest activities and lowest K (m) for glycolate as substrate, whereas GLO3 displayed high activities and affinities for both glycolate and L-lactate, and GLO5 was catalytically inactive with all substrates tested. To further reveal the physiological role of each GLO isozyme in plants, various GLO genetically modified rice lines were generated and functionally analyzed. GLO activity was significantly increased both in GLO1 and GLO4 overexpression lines. Nevertheless, when either GLO1 or GLO4 was knocked out, the activity was suppressed much more significantly in GLO1 knockout lines than in GLO4 knockout lines, and both knockout mutants exhibited obvious dwarfism phenotypes. Among GLO3 and GLO5 overexpression lines and RNAi lines, only GLO3 overexpression lines showed significantly increased L-lactate-oxidizing activity but no other noticeable phenotype changes. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that rice GLO isozymes have distinct enzymatic characteristics, and they may have different physiological functions in rice. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-017-1084-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.