Publikationen - Molekulare Signalverarbeitung

Plant secondary metabolites, also termed specialized plant metabolites, currently comprise more than 200 000 natural products that are all based on a few biosynthetic pathways and key primary metabolites. Some pathways like flavonoid and terpenoid biosynthesis are universally distributed in the plant kingdom, whereas others like alkaloid or cyanogenic glycoside biosynthesis are restricted to a limited set of taxa. Diversification is achieved by an array of mechanisms at the genetic and enzymatic level including gene duplications, substrate promiscuity of enzymes, cell‐specific regulatory systems, together with modularity and combinatorial aspects. Specialized metabolites reflect adaptations to a specific environment. The observed diversity illustrates the heterogeneity and multitude of ecological habitats and niches that plants have colonized so far and constitutes a reservoir of potential new metabolites that may provide adaptive advantage in the face of environmental changes. The code that connects the observed chemical diversity to this ecological diversity is largely unknown. One way to apprehend this diversity is to realize its tremendous plasticity and evolutionary potential. This chapter presents an overview of the most widespread and popular secondary metabolites, which provide a definite advantage to adapt to or to colonize a particular environment, making the boundary between the “primary” and the “secondary” old fashioned and blurry.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are a source of numerous oxidation products, the oxylipins. In leaves, α-linolenic acid (α-LeA) is the preferential substrate for lipid peroxidation reactions. This reaction may be catalyzed either by a 9-lipoxygenase (9-LOX) or by a 13-LOX and oxygen is inserted regioselectively as well as stereospecifically leading to formation of 13S- or 9S-hydroperoxy octadecatrienoic acid (13-/9-HPOT; Brash, 1999). At least, seven different enzyme families or reaction branches within the LOX pathway can use these HPOTs or other hydroperoxy PUFAs leading to (i) keto-PUFAs (LOX); (ii) epoxy hydroxy-PUFAs (epoxy alcohol synthase, EAS); (iii) octadecanoids and jasmonates (allene oxide synthase, AOS); (iv) leaf aldehydes and leaf alcohols (hydroperoxide lyase, HPL); (v) hydroxy PUFAs (reductase); (vi) divinyl ether PUFAs (divinyl ether synthase, DES); and (vii) epoxy- or dihydrodiol-PUFAs (peroxygenase, PDX; Fig. 1; Feussner and Wasternack, 2002).

Jasmonic acid (JA) and its precursor 12-oxo phytodienoic acid (OPDA) are lipid-derived signals in plant stress responses and development (Wasternack and Hause, 2002). Within the wound-response pathway of tomato, a local response of expression of defense genes such as the proteinase inhibitor 2 gene (PIN2) is preceded by a rise in JA (Herde et al., 1996; Howe et al., 1996) and ethylene (O’Donnell et al., 1996). Mutants affected in JA biosynthesis such as defl (Howe et al., 1996) or spr-2 (Li et al., 2002) clearly indicated that JA biosynthesis is an ultimate part of wound signaling. It is less understood, however, how the rise in JA is regulated.

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