Quantifying the Metabolites of the Methylerythritol 4-Phosphate (MEP) Pathway in Plants and Bacteria by Liquid Chromatography-Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

The 2-C-methyl-d-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway occurs in the plastids of higher plants and in most economically important prokaryotes where it is responsible for the biosynthesis of the isoprenoid building blocks, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate. These five-carbon compounds are the substrates for the enormous variety of terpenoid products, including many essential metabolites and substances of commercial value. Increased knowledge of the regulation of the MEP pathway is critical to understanding many aspects of plant and microbial metabolism as well as in developing biotechnological platforms for producing these commercially valuable isoprenoids. To achieve this goal, researchers must have the ability to investigate the in vivo kinetics of the pathway by accurately measuring the concentrations of MEP pathway metabolites. However, the low levels of these metabolites complicate their accurate determination without suitable internal standards. This chapter describes a sensitive method to accurately determine the concentrations of MEP pathway metabolites occurring at trace amounts in biological samples using liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. In addition, simple protocols are given for producing stable isotope-labeled internal standards for these analyses.

The role of 1-deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate synthase and phytoene synthase gene family in citrus carotenoid accumulation

Three 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate synthases (DXS) and three phytoene synthases (PSY) were identified in citrus, from Affymetrix GeneChip Citrus Genome Array, GenBank and public orange genome databases. Tissue-specific expression analysis of these genes was carried out on fruit peel and flesh, flower and leaf of Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc.) in order to determine their roles in carotenoid accumulation in different tissues. Expression of CitDXS1 and CitPSY1 was highest in all test tissues, while that of CitDXS2 and CitPSY2 was lower, and that of CitDXS3 and CitPSY3 undetectable. The transcript profiles of CitDXS1 and CitPSY1 paralleled carotenoid accumulation in flesh of Satsuma mandarin and orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) during fruit development, and CitPSY1 expression was also associated with carotenoid accumulation in peel, while the CitDXS1 transcript level was only weakly correlated with carotenoid accumulation in peel. Similar results were obtained following correlation analysis between expression of CitDXS1 and CitPSY1 and carotenoid accumulation in peel and flesh of 16 citrus cultivars. These findings identify CitPSY1 and CitDXS1 as the main gene members controlling carotenoid biosynthesis in citrus fruit. Furthermore, chromoplasts were extracted from flesh tissue of these citrus, and chromoplasts of different shape (spindle or globular), different size, and color depth were observed in different cultivars, indicating chromoplast abundance, number per gram tissue, size and color depth were closely correlated with carotenoid content in most cultivars. The relationship between carotenoid biosynthesis and chromoplast development was discussed.