Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

Land plants evolved from charophytic algae, among which Charophyceae possess the most complex body plans. We present the genome of Chara braunii; comparison of the genome to those of land plants identified evolutionary novelties for plant terrestrialization and land plant heritage genes. C. braunii employs unique xylan synthases for cell wall biosynthesis, a phragmoplast (cell separation) mechanism similar to that of land plants, and many phytohormones. C. braunii plastids are controlled via land-plant-like retrograde signaling, and transcriptional regulation is more elaborate than in other algae. The morphological complexity of this organism may result from expanded gene families, with three cases of particular note: genes effecting tolerance to reactive oxygen species (ROS), LysM receptor-like kinases, and transcription factors (TFs). Transcriptomic analysis of sexual reproductive structures reveals intricate control by TFs, activity of the ROS gene network, and the ancestral use of plant-like storage and stress protection proteins in the zygote.

Lipoxygenases (LOXs) and other LOX pathway enzymes are potentially able to form a large set of compounds being of commercial interest. Among them are conjugated dienic acids, jasmonates, and volatile aldehydes. Additionally, fatty acid hydroperoxides, formed by LOX, can serve as precursors for further transformation by either enzymes of the so‐called LOX pathway or by chemical reactions. In the case of linoleic acid more than one hundred products generated from its LOX‐derived fatty acid hydroperoxides have been described. Many of these products exhibit biological activity, suggesting a significant biological function of LOXs. This will be described for two different 13‐LOXs. (I) In various oilseeds we found that specific 13‐LOXs are localized at the lipid body membrane. They are capable of oxygenating esterified polyenoic fatty acids, such as triacylglycerols and phospho‐lipids. In addition, they form with arachidonic acid as substrate preferentially either 8‐ or 11‐hydroperoxy eicosatetraenoic acid, which is a very unusual positional specificity for plant LOXs. (II) From barley leaves we isolated another linoleate 13‐LOX form, which is localized within chloroplasts and is induced by jasmonic acid methyl ester. It is suggested, that this LOX form is capable of oxygenating linolenic acid residues of galactolipids. Examples will be presented for barley leaves of oxygenated derivatives of linolenic acid and compounds resulting from the hydroperoxide lyase‐branch of the LOX pathway.