Abstract
The ubiquity of the apo-carotenoid abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthetic pathway elucidated in water-stressed, etiolated leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris (see A.D. Parry and R. Horgan, 1991, Physiol. Plant. 82, 320–326), has been difficult to establish. Light-grown leaves contain very high carotenoid: ABA ratios, preventing correlative studies, and no etiolated leaves so far studied, other than those of Phaseolus, have been found capable of synthesising significant amounts of ABA in response to stress. Roots are known to synthesise ABA and contain low carotenoid levels; therefore ABA biosynthesis was investigated in soil- and hydroponically grown roots of Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. Hydroponically grown roots were stressed by immersion in 100 mM mannitol and soil-grown roots by withholding water. In both cases stress led to an increase in ABA levels and a decrease in the levels of specific xanthophylls, namely all-trans- and 9′-cis-neoxanthin and all-trans-violaxanthin. In hydroponically grown roots, and soil-grown roots stressed after removal of the shoot, ratios of xanthophyll cleaved:ABA synthesised of approx. 1∶1 were obtained. These findings are consistent with the operation of an apo-carotenoid pathway in roots, involving the conversion of all-trans-violaxanthin via all-trans-neoxanthin, to 9′-cis-neoxanthin, and the specific cleavage of 9′-cis-neoxanthin to yield the C15 ABA precursor xanthosin. Similar experiments with roots of the “leaky”, ABA-deficient mutant of Lycopersicon, notabilis, indicate that the mutation does not affect the perception or transduction of stress, or the ability of the plant to cleave carotenoids. Rather, it appears that notabilis possesses an enzyme with reduced substrate specificity which cleaves more all-trans-than 9′-cis-neoxanthin.
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Abbreviations
- ABA:
-
abscisic acid
- DPA:
-
dihydrophaseic acid
- not :
-
notabilis
- PA:
-
phaseic acid
- t :
-
trans
- XaA:
-
xanthoxin acid
- Xan:
-
xanthoxin
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The authors would like to thank Drs. A.D. Tomos (Department of Biochemistry, The University College of North Wales, Bangor) and H.G. Jones (AFRC Institute of Horticultural Research, Wellesbourne, Warwick, UK) for useful discussions, and Mr. J.K. Heald for his expert operation of the mass spectrometer. A.D.P. was supported by a grant from the Agricultural and Food Research Council (AFRC), from whom funds were also obtained to purchase the HPLC-photodiode-array detector. A.G. was supported by Science and Engineering Research Council-Cooperative Awards in Science and Engineering award to Drs. H.G. Jones and A.D. Tomos.
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Parry, A.D., Griffiths, A. & Horgan, R. Abscisic acid biosynthesis in roots. Planta 187, 192–197 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00201937
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00201937