To understand better the significance of tissue-specific expression patterns, the Frommer lab has used promoter–GUS fusion analysis to investigate the function of AAP1 and AAP2 in seed development [20]. Prior experiments showed that AAP1 and AAP2 are highly expressed in flowers and siliques, and their expression is associated with the vascular system in cotyledons [9] and [21]. Hirner et al. [20] showed that the expression of both AAP1 and AAP2 are developmentally regulated and greatly induced at the heart stage of embryogenesis. The promoter–GUS analyses showed that AAP1 was expressed in the developing endosperm and cotyledon, whereas AAP2 was restricted to the vascular strand of siliques. Based on the timing and localization of its expression pattern, AAP1 was proposed to function in transporting amino acids into the developing endosperm and embryo, whereas AAP2 is particularly abundant in the vascular tissue of the stem and silique, suggesting a role in amino acid retrieval [20].
Environmental regulation of amino acid transport activity and gene expression also plays an important role in differentiating the function of these essential transport proteins. For example, although ProT1 and ProT2 are widely expressed proline-specific amino acid transporters in Arabidopsis, they respond differentially to changes in water and salt stress [16]. ProT2 expression was strongly induced under stress conditions whereas ProT1 expression was relatively unchanged and several AAPs were repressed. Increased proline transport capacity is consistent with the role proline plays as a compatible solute under water stress conditions. In addition to this environmental response, the expression of the tomato LeProT1 orthologue is restricted to the pollen and it appears to play a role in pollen maturation and germination. Significantly, 70% of the amino nitrogen in tomato pollen is proline, suggesting it plays an initial role as a compatible solute and later as energy source for tube elongation [22]. A pollen-specific amino acid transporter has also been identified in Nicotiana sylvestris [23].
Recent studies have shown that many important aspects of carbon and nitrogen metabolism are regulated by dynamic changes in C/N ratios where decreases in C or N resources up-regulate genes involved in their acquisition while abundance of these resources induces genes associated with use and storage [24], [25] and [26]. Nitrogen assimilation in Arabidopsis, for example, is regulated by changes in metabolic status. Light and sugars, which both increase C/N balance, up-regulate the expression of genes involved in ammonia assimilation into glutamine and glutamate by chloroplastic GS (GLU1) and Fd-GOGAT (GLN2), while they repress AS (ASN1) and GDH expression [25]. In dark-adapted plants, however, carbon skeletons are less abundant (low C/N balance) and ASN1 gene expression is induced and there is a concomitant increase in asparagine levels observed in the phloem exudate [24]. Amino acid transporter gene expression also appears to be linked to the metabolic status of the plant C/N balance.
AAP1 (also known as NAT2) gene expression is regulated by light and carbon status. AAP1 transcript abundance in leaf tissue increases within 6 h in dark-adapted plants exposed to light. Likewise, dark-adapted plants fed sucrose as an exogenous carbon source also increase message abundance [38]. Since both treatments increase sugar content, it is not possible to differentiate between a direct light signal versus indirect changes mediated by positive changes in the C/N ratio.