Enzymes of the homogentisate ring-cleavage pathway in cell suspension cultures of higher plants

Structural and pharmacological diversity of 1,4-naphthoquinone glycosides in recent 20 years

1,4-naphthoquinones are the most widespread naphthoquinone compounds. Recently, many 1,4-naphthoquinone glycosides with different structural features have been obtained from both nature and synthesis, which has led to an increasing variety of naphthoquinone glycosides. In this paper, the structure variety and biological activity in recent 20 years are reviewed, and classified them according to the source and structure characteristics. Meanwhile the synthetic methods of O-, S-, C- and N-naphthoquinone glycosides and their structure activity relationships are also described. It was referred that the presence of polar groups of C2 and C5 and non-polar groups attached to C3 on the naphthoquinone ring are beneficial for their biological activities. It will provide more comprehensive literature resources for the future research of 1, 4-naphthoquinone glycosides and lay a theoretical foundation.

TAT1 and TAT2 tyrosine aminotransferases have both distinct and shared functions in tyrosine metabolism and degradation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plants produce various l-tyrosine (Tyr)-derived compounds that are critical for plant adaptation and have pharmaceutical or nutritional importance for human health. Tyrosine aminotransferases (TATs) catalyze the reversible reaction between Tyr and 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate (HPP), representing the entry point in plants for both biosynthesis of various natural products and Tyr degradation in the recycling of energy and nutrients. To better understand the roles of TATs and how Tyr is metabolized in planta, here we characterized single and double loss-of-function mutants of TAT1 (At5g53970) and TAT2 (At5g36160) in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana As reported previously, tat1 mutants exhibited elevated and decreased levels of Tyr and tocopherols, respectively. The tat2 mutation alone had no impact on Tyr and tocopherol levels, but a tat1 tat2 double mutant had increased Tyr accumulation and decreased tocopherol levels under high-light stress compared with the tat1 mutant. Relative to WT and the tat2 mutant, the tat1 mutant displayed increased vulnerability to continuous dark treatment, associated with an early drop in respiratory activity and sucrose depletion. During isotope-labeled Tyr feeding in the dark, we observed that the tat1 mutant exhibits much slower 13C incorporation into tocopherols, fumarate, and other tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates than WT and the tat2 mutant. These results indicate that TAT1 and TAT2 function together in tocopherol biosynthesis, with TAT2 having a lesser role, and that TAT1 plays the major role in Tyr degradation in planta Our study also highlights the importance of Tyr degradation under carbon starvation conditions during dark-induced senescence in plants.

Tyrosine biosynthesis, metabolism, and catabolism in plants

L-Tyrosine (Tyr) is an aromatic amino acid (AAA) required for protein synthesis in all organisms, but synthesized de novo only in plants and microorganisms. In plants, Tyr also serves as a precursor of numerous specialized metabolites that have diverse physiological roles as electron carriers, antioxidants, attractants, and defense compounds. Some of these Tyr-derived plant natural products are also used in human medicine and nutrition (e.g. morphine and vitamin E). While the Tyr biosynthesis and catabolic pathways have been extensively studied in microbes and animals, respectively, those of plants have received much less attention until recently. Accumulating evidence suggest that the Tyr biosynthetic pathways differ between microbes and plants and even within the plant kingdom, likely to support the production of lineage-specific plant specialized metabolites derived from Tyr. The interspecies variations of plant Tyr pathway enzymes can now be used to enhance the production of Tyr and Tyr-derived compounds in plants and other synthetic biology platforms.

Biochemical properties and subcellular localization of tyrosine aminotransferases in Arabidopsis thaliana

Plants produce various L-tyrosine (Tyr)-derived compounds that are of pharmaceutical or nutritional importance to humans. Tyr aminotransferase (TAT) catalyzes the reversible transamination between Tyr and 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate (HPP), the initial step in the biosynthesis of many Tyr-derived plant natural products. Herein reported is the biochemical characterization and subcellular localization of TAT enzymes from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Phylogenetic analysis showed that Arabidopsis has at least two homologous TAT genes, At5g53970 (AtTAT1) and At5g36160 (AtTAT2). Their recombinant enzymes showed distinct biochemical properties: AtTAT1 had the highest activity towards Tyr, while AtTAT2 exhibited a broad substrate specificity for both amino and keto acid substrates. Also, AtTAT1 favored the direction of Tyr deamination to HPP, whereas AtTAT2 preferred transamination of HPP to Tyr. Subcellular localization analysis using GFP-fusion proteins and confocal microscopy showed that AtTAT1, AtTAT2, and HPP dioxygenase (HPPD), which catalyzes the subsequent step of TAT, are localized in the cytosol, unlike plastid-localized Tyr and tocopherol biosynthetic enzymes. Furthermore, subcellular fractionation indicated that, while HPPD activity is restricted to the cytosol, TAT activity is detected in both cytosolic and plastidic fractions of Arabidopsis leaf tissue, suggesting that an unknown aminotransferase(s) having TAT activity is also present in the plastids. Biochemical and cellular analyses of Arabidopsis TATs provide a fundamental basis for future in vivo studies and metabolic engineering for enhanced production of Tyr-derived phytochemicals in plants.

Bioactive compounds from northern plants

Northern conditions are characterised by long days with much light and low temperatures during the growing season. It has been chimed that herbs and berries grown in the north are stronger tasting compared to those of southern origin. The compounds imparting aroma and color to berries and herbs are secondary metabolites which in plants mostly act as chemical means of defense. Recently, the production of secondary metabolites using plant cells has been the subject of expanding research. Light intensity, photoperiod and temperature have been reported to influence the biosynthesis of many secondary metabolites. Native wild aromatic and medicinal plant species of different families are being studied to meet the needs of raw material for the expanding industry of e.g., health-promoting food products known as nutraceutics. There are already a large number of known secondary compounds produced by plants, but the recent advances in modern extraction and analysis should enable many more as yet unknown compounds to be found, characterised and utilised. Rose root (Rhodiola rosea) is a perennial herbaceous plant which inhabits mountain regions throughout Europe, Asia and east coastal regions of North America. The extract made from the rhizomes acts as a stimulant like the Ginseng root. Roseroot has been categorized as an adaptogen and is reported to have many pharmacological properties. The biologically active components of the extract are salitroside tyrosol and cinnamic acid glycosides (rosavin, rosarin, rosin). Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia L.) has circumboreal distribution. It inhabits nutrient-poor, moist and sunny areas such as peat bogs and wetlands. Sundew leaves are collected from the wild-type for various medicinal preparations and can be utilized in treating e.g., as an important "cough-medicine" for different respiratory diseases. The antimicrobial activity of extracts of aerial parts against various bacteria has been investigated. Drosera produces various secondary metabolites. The most abundant, among these compounds, are the naphthoquinones. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is a characteristic field layer species in boreal forests. Bilberry and other northern Vaccinium species, berries and leaves, contain high amounts of phenolic compounds. Bilberries are known for its exceptionally high amounts ofanthocyanins with powerful antioxidant capacity. They have been shown to possess beneficial health effects, like having a protective role in cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Many flavonoids also seem to have antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal and antiallergenic properties. The effect of ingested cranberry (V. oxycoccus) juice has been shown to prevent urinary tract infections in women.

Characterization of transplastomic tobacco plants with a plastid localized barley 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase

The 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPD) is the only enzyme of the biosynthetic pathway of tocopherols and tocotrienols localized outside of plastids. In order to investigate whether a plastid localized HPD could give rise to an increase in tocopherol levels of tobacco leaves and seeds, in the present study the HPD enzyme was transferred to the plastid by introducing a cDNA specific for the barley hpd gene into the plastome of tobacco. The expression of the hpd gene expression cassette was demonstrated by accumulation of the hpd gene-specific transcript and by a higher resistance of the transgenic seedlings towards the HPD specific inhibitor sulcotrione. The alpha-tocopherol content was increased in leaves of the transplastomic plants, whereas the transplastomic seeds contained a significantly increased gamma-tocochromanol level. With respect to enhanced accumulation of the tocopherol content in plants tissue, overexpression of the hpd gene in plastids did not prove to be advantageous in comparison to transgenic plants expressing high HPD level in the cytoplasm. It is hypothesized that homogentisate synthesized in plastids will have to pass the envelope membrane in order to be accessible to the following enzymes of the tocopherol biosynthetic pathway.

Characterisation of a Zeta Class Glutathione Transferase from Arabidopsis thaliana with a Putative Role in Tyrosine Catabolism

A glutathione transferase (GST) similar to zeta GSTs in animals and fungi has been cloned from Arabidopsis thaliana using RT-PCR. The Arabidopsis zeta GST (AtGSTZ1) was expressed in Escherichia coli as his-tagged polypeptides, which associated together to form the 50-kDa AtGSTZ1-1 homodimer. Following purification, AtGSTZ1-1 was assayed for a range of activities and compared with other purified recombinant plant GSTs from the phi, tau, and theta classes. AtGSTZ1-1 differed from the other GSTs in showing no glutathione conjugating activity toward xenobiotics and no glutathione peroxidase activity toward organic hydroperoxides. Uniquely among the plant GSTs, AtGSTZ1-1 showed activity as a maleylacetone isomerase (MAI). This glutathione-dependent reaction is analogous to the cis-trans isomerization of maleylacetoacetate to fumarylacetoacetate, which occurs in the course of tyrosine catabolism to acetoacetate and fumarate. Thus, rather than functioning as a conventional GST, AtGSTZ1-1 appears to be involved in tyrosine degradation. In addition to the MAI activity, the AtGSTZ1-1 also catalyzed the glutathione-dependent dehalogenation of dichloroacetic acid to glyoxylic acid. This latter activity was used to demonstrate the presence of functional AtGSTZ1-1 inplanta.

Chlorophyll breakdown in senescent cotyledons of rape, Brassica napus L.: Enzymatic cleavage of phaeophorbide a in vitro

Solubilization of senescent thylakoids from rape cotyledons in the presence of Triton X-100 was employed to establish an in vitro system that allowed the assessment of enzymatic conversion of phaeophorbide a into an uncoloured fluorescent chlorophyll catabolite, Bn-FCC-2. The action of the putative dioxygenase responsible for the cleavage of the porphyrin macrocycle depends on reduced ferredoxin as reductant. Apart from this thylakoidal catalyst, stromal protein is also required for the production of FCC-2 in vitro. The cleavage reaction does not occur with phaeophorbide b as substrate. Saturation kinetics with phaeophorbide a as substrate yielded an apparent K_m -value of c. 200 μ. The enzyme contains iron as suggested by inhibitory effects of appropriate chelators. Enzyme activity lost upon treatment with bipyridyl was partly restored in the presence of Fe-ions; other metal ions such as Cu, Zn and Co were ineffective. The enzyme is absent in the thylakoids of mature green cotyledons. It appears upon the induction of foliar senescence and reaches the highest levels towards the end of the yellowing process.