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Uptake, degradation and chiral discrimination of N-acyl-D/L-homoserine lactones by barley (Hordeum vulgare) and yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) plants

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Abstract

Bacterial intraspecies and interspecies communication in the rhizosphere is mediated by diffusible signal molecules. Many Gram-negative bacteria use N-acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) as autoinducers in the quorum sensing response. While bacterial signalling is well described, the fate of AHLs in contact with plants is much less known. Thus, adsorption, uptake and translocation of N-hexanoyl- (C6-HSL), N-octanoyl- (C8-HSL) and N-decanoyl-homoserine lactone (C10-HSL) were studied in axenic systems with barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and the legume yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urban) as model plants using ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) and tritium-labelled AHLs. Decreases in AHL concentration due to abiotic adsorption or degradation were tolerable under the experimental conditions. The presence of plants enhanced AHL decline in media depending on the compounds’ lipophilicity, whereby the legume caused stronger AHL decrease than barley. All tested AHLs were traceable in root extracts of both plants. While all AHLs except C10-HSL were detectable in barley shoots, only C6-HSL was found in shoots of yam bean. Furthermore, tritium-labelled AHLs were used to determine short-term uptake kinetics. Chiral separation by GC-MS revealed that both plants discriminated D-AHL stereoisomers to different extents. These results indicate substantial differences in uptake and degradation of different AHLs in the plants tested.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the GSF additional funding project “Molecular interactions in the rhizosphere” and in part by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). The authors wish to thank B. Look for excellent technical assistance as well as C. Kuttler, L. Lyubenova, M. Diethelm, J. Rohlenová and M. Frommberger for valuable help and advice. The support of U. von Rad and J. B. Winkler is also much appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Microbe-Plant Interactions, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Christine Götz, Anton Hartmann & Peter Schröder

  2. Institute of Ecological Chemistry, GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Agnes Fekete, Istvan Gebefuegi, Xiaojing Li, Matthias Englmann & Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin

  3. Institute of Experimental Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 14220, Prague, Czech Republic

    Sándor T. Forczek & Miroslav Matucha

  4. First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 12108, Prague, Czech Republic

    Květoslava Fuksová

  5. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China

    Xiaojing Li

  6. Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China

    Xiaojing Li

  7. Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 14220, Prague, Czech Republic

    Milan Gryndler

Authors
  1. Christine Götz
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  2. Agnes Fekete
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  3. Istvan Gebefuegi
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  4. Sándor T. Forczek
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  5. Květoslava Fuksová
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  6. Xiaojing Li
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  7. Matthias Englmann
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  8. Milan Gryndler
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  9. Anton Hartmann
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  10. Miroslav Matucha
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  11. Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin
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  12. Peter Schröder
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter Schröder.

Additional information

Christine Götz and Agnes Fekete contributed equally to this publication.

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Götz, C., Fekete, A., Gebefuegi, I. et al. Uptake, degradation and chiral discrimination of N-acyl-D/L-homoserine lactones by barley (Hordeum vulgare) and yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus) plants. Anal Bioanal Chem 389, 1447–1457 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-007-1579-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-007-1579-2

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