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CC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Modules of co-regulated metabolites in turmeric (Curcuma longa) rhizome suggest the existence of biosynthetic modules in plant specialized metabolism
Journal of experimental botany, Vol.60(1), pp.87-97
01/2009
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/103372
PMCID: PMC3071761
PMID: 19073964
Abstract
Turmeric is an excellent example of a plant that produces large numbers of metabolites from diverse metabolic pathways or networks. It is hypothesized that these metabolic pathways or networks contain biosynthetic modules, which lead to the formation of metabolite modules—groups of metabolites whose production is co-regulated and biosynthetically linked. To test whether such co-regulated metabolite modules do exist in this plant, metabolic profiling analysis was performed on turmeric rhizome samples that were collected from 16 different growth and development treatments, which had significant impacts on the levels of 249 volatile and non-volatile metabolites that were detected. Importantly, one of the many co-regulated metabolite modules that were indeed readily detected in this analysis contained the three major curcuminoids, whereas many other structurally related diarylheptanoids belonged to separate metabolite modules, as did groups of terpenoids. The existence of these co-regulated metabolite modules supported the hypothesis that the 3-methoxyl groups on the aromatic rings of the curcuminoids are formed before the formation of the heptanoid backbone during the biosynthesis of curcumin and also suggested the involvement of multiple polyketide synthases with different substrate selectivities in the formation of the array of diarylheptanoids detected in turmeric. Similar conclusions about terpenoid biosynthesis could also be made. Thus, discovery and analysis of metabolite modules can be a powerful predictive tool in efforts to understand metabolism in plants.
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Details
- Title
- Modules of co-regulated metabolites in turmeric (Curcuma longa) rhizome suggest the existence of biosynthetic modules in plant specialized metabolism
- Creators
- Zhengzhi Xie - Department of Plant Sciences and BIO5 Institute, 1657 E. Helen Street, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USAXiaoqiang Ma - Department of Plant Sciences and BIO5 Institute, 1657 E. Helen Street, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USADavid R Gang - Department of Plant Sciences and BIO5 Institute, 1657 E. Helen Street, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Publication Details
- Journal of experimental botany, Vol.60(1), pp.87-97
- Academic Unit
- Institute of Biological Chemistry
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Number of pages
- 11
- Identifiers
- 99900546539801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article