Studies of potential effectors of myrosinase function
Abstract: Glucosinolates are sulphur and nitrogen containing secondary metabolites which are present in the order Brassicales. These compounds are hydrolysed by enzymes called myrosinases upon tissue damage and serve to protect plants against insects and pathogens. Protein extracts from leaves of fully developed Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 plants and the ascorbic acid deficient mutants vtc1-1 and vtc4-1 were utilised to characterize effects on basal myrosinase expression. The catalytic activity of myrosinases against the glucosinolate sinigrin was lower in vtc4-1 compared to Col-0 and vtc1-1. The content of myrosinase and myrosinase related proteins in Col-0, vtc1-1 and vtc4-1 was analysed by Western blotting and immunoprecipitation using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Differences were found regarding myrosinase and myrosinase related proteins in the evaluated genotypes. However, further analysis is required to clearly identify all the proteins present upon Western blot and IP analysis. His-tagged recombinant Arabidopsis myrosinases TGG1 and TGG4 were overexpressed in Pichia pastoris, extracted and purified through immobilised metal affinity chromatography. The effect of the sinigrin product allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) for enzyme inactivation (“suicide inactivation”) of TGG1 and TGG4 was measured. Decrease of myrosinase activity was observed both for TGG1 and TGG4 in the presence of 1 mM AITC. The catalytic activity of TGG1 was completely inhibited by 5 mM and 10 mM AITC. On the other hand, 5 mM and 10 mM AITC caused a reduction of activity in TGG4 but more than 60 % activity was still remaining. Accordingly it seems that glucosinolate products can affect myrosinase activity in plant tissues if not finding other nucleophiles to react with which may represent an endogenous regulatory mechanism.
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