"Fifty years of oxygen activation"

The pepper oxidoreductase CaOXR1 interacts with the transcription factor CaRAV1 and is required for salt and osmotic stress tolerance

RAV1 (Related to ABI3/VP1) proteins function as a transcription factor in signal transduction pathways in plants. The yeast-two-hybrid and in vivo coimmunoprecipitation assays identified the pepper (Capsicum annuum) oxidoreductase protein CaOXR1 that physically interacts with the pepper CaRAV1 transcription factor. The AP2 domain of CaRAV1 protein is essential for its direct interaction with CaOXR1. Both CaRAV1 and CaOXR1 proteins co-localize to the nuclei of plant cells. Virus-induced gene silencing of CaRAV1 and CaRAV1/CAOXR1 confers enhanced susceptibility to high salinity and osmotic stresses, which is accompanied by altered expression of the stress marker genes in pepper. Expression of CaAMP1 (pepper antimicrobial protein) and CaOSM1 (pepper osmotin) is suppressed by 1.2-6.6-fold in silenced leaves upon treatment with NaCl or mannitol. Overexpression of CaRAV1, CaOXR1 and CaOXR1/CaRAV1 in Arabidopsis also confers enhanced resistance to the biotrophic oomycete Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis infection. In addition, CaRAV1- and CaOXR1/CaRAV1-overexpression (OX) Arabidopsis plants are highly tolerant to high salinity and osmotic stress. Together, these results suggest that CaOXR1 protein positively controls CaRAV1-mediated plant defense during biotic and abiotic stresses.

Oxygen-18 tracer studies of enzyme reactions with radical/cation diagnostic probes

This review considers reactions of enzymes with the cyclopropanoid radical/cation diagnostic probes norcarane, 1,1-dimethylcyclopropane, and 1,1-diethylcyclopropane as elaborated by the use of 18O2 and 18OH2 to trace the origin of O-atoms incorporated during catalysis. The reactions of soluble and integral membrane diiron enzymes are summarized and compared to results obtained from cytochrome P450 studies. Norcarane proved to be an excellent substrate for the diiron enzyme toluene 4-monooxygenase and its engineered isoforms, with kcat and coupling between NADH utilization and total hydroxylated products comparable to that determined for toluene, the natural substrate. Results obtained with toluene 4-monooxygenase show that the un-rearranged and radical-rearranged alcohol products have a high percentage of O-atom incorporation (>80-95%) from O2, while the cation-derived ring-expansion products have O-atom incorporation primarily derived from solvent water. Mechanistic possibilities accounting for this difference are discussed.