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Publications - Cell and Metabolic Biology
Publications
Plant S-adenosyl-l-methionine-dependent class I natural product O-methyltransferases (OMTs), related to animal catechol OMTs, are dependent on bivalent cations and strictly specific for the meta position of aromatic vicinal dihydroxy groups. While the primary activity of these class I enzymes is methylation of caffeoyl coenzyme A OMTs, a distinct subset is able to methylate a wider range of substrates, characterized by the promiscuous phenylpropanoid and flavonoid OMT. The observed broad substrate specificity resides in two regions: the N-terminus and a variable insertion loop near the C-terminus, which displays the lowest degree of sequence conservation between the two subfamilies. Structural and biochemical data, based on site-directed mutagenesis and domain exchange between the two enzyme types, present evidence that only small topological changes among otherwise highly conserved 3-D structures are sufficient to differentiate between an enzymatic generalist and an enzymatic specialist in plant natural product methylation.
Publications
Two new amide-linked conjugates of jasmonic acid, N-[(3R,7R)-(−)-jasmonoyl]-(S)-dopa (3) and N-[(3R,7R)-(−)-jasmonoyl]-dopamine (5), were isolated in addition to the known compound N-[(3R,7R)-(−)-jasmonoyl]-(S)-tyrosine (2) from the methanolic extract of flowers of broad bean (Vicia faba). Their structures were proposed on the basis of spectroscopic data (LC-MS/MS) and chromatographic properties on reversed and chiral phases and confirmed by partial syntheses. Furthermore, tyrosine conjugates of two cucurbic acid isomers (7, 8) were detected and characterized by LC-MS. Crude enzyme preparations from flowers of V. faba hydroxylated both (±)-2 and N-[(3R,7R/3S,7S)-(−)-jasmonoyl]tyramine [(±)-4] to (±)-3 and (±)-5, respectively, suggesting a possible biosynthetic relationship. In addition, a commercial tyrosinase (mushroom) and a tyrosinase-containing extract from hairy roots of red beet exhibited the same catalytic properties, but with different substrate specificities. The conjugates (±)-2, (±)-3, (±)-4, and (±)-5 exhibited in a bioassay low activity to elicit alkaloid formation in comparison to free (±)-jasmonic acid [(±)-1].
This page was last modified on 27 Jan 2025 .
