Abstract
UDP-glucose/galactose-4-epimerase (UGE) catalyzes the interconversion of UDP-glucose and UDP-galactose. Oryza sativa contains four UGEs. Expression of OsUGE3 was higher than other OsUGEs in all tissues except the stem. OsUGE1 expression was enhanced after drought, salt or UV-irradiation stress. Four rice UGEs (OsUGE1–4) were cloned by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. OsUGE1–4 were expressed in Escherichia coli with glutathione S-transferase fusion protein and purified. All four OsUGEs could covert UDP-glucose into UDP-galactose better than vice versa. Kinetic parameters of OsUGEs showed that OsUGE1 was most efficient. These OsUGEs could be used for biosynthesis of various UDP-sugars, which serve as a cosubstrates of UDP-dependent glycosyltransferase modification reactions of antibiotics or flavonoids.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- RT-PC:
-
reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction
- UGE:
-
UDP-glucose epimerase
- UGlcAE:
-
UDP-glucuronic acid 4-epimerase
- UXE:
-
UDP-xylose-epimerase
References
Barber C, Rösti J, Rawat A, Findlay K, Roberts K, and Seifert GJ (2006) Distinct properties of the five UDP-Dglucose/UDP-D-galactose 4-epimerase isoforms of Arabidopsis thaliana. J Biol Chem 281, 17276–17285.
Burget EG and Reiter W-D (1999) The mur4 mutant of Arabidopsis is partially defective in the de Novo synthesis of uridine diphospho L-arabinose. Plant Physiol 121, 383–389.
Burget EG, Verma R, MФlhФj M, and Reiter W-D (2003) The biosynthesis of L-arabinose in plants: Molecular cloning and characterization of a Golgi-localized UDP-D-xylose 4-epimerase encoded by the MUR4 gene of Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 15, 523–531.
Dörmann P and Benning C (1996) Functional expression of uridine 5′-diphospho-glucose 4-epimerase (EC 5.1.3.2) from Arabidopsis thaliana in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli. Arch Biochem Biophys 327, 27–34.
Dörmann P and Benning C (1998) The role of UDP-glucose epimerase in carbohydrate metabolism of Arabidopsis. Plant J 13, 641–652.
Egelund J, SkjФt M, Geshi N, Ulvakov P, and Peterson BL (2004) A complementary bioinformatics approach to identify potential plant cell wall glycosyltransferaseencoding genes. Plant Physiol 136, 2609–2620.
Endo N, Yoshida K, Akiyoshi M, Yoshida Y, and Hayashi N (2005) Putative UDP-galactose epimerase and metallothineine of Paspalum vaginatum enhanced the salt tolerance of rice, Oryza sativa L. from transplanting to harvest stages. Breeding Sci 55, 163–173.
Hollman P, Buysman M P, van Gameren Y, Cnossen E, de Vries J, and Katan M B (1999) The sugar moiety is a major determinant of the absorption of dietary flavonoid glycosides in man. Free Radic Re. 31, 569–73.
Gu X and Bar-Peled M (2004). The Biosynthesis of UDP-galacturonic acid in plants. Functional cloning and charaterizationn of Arabidopsis UDP-D-glucuronic acid 4-epimerase. Plant Physiol 136, 4256–4264.
Kim BG, Kim JH, Min SY, Shin KH, Kim JH, Kim HI, Ryu SN, Ahn J-H (2007) Anthocyanin content in rice is related to expression level of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes. J. Plant Biol 50, 156–160.
Kim BG, Kim NY, Kim JH, Akimitsu K, Chong Y, Ahn JH (2009) Flavonoid O-diglucosyltransferase from rice: Molecular cloning and characterization. J Plant Biol 52, 41–48.
Liu H, Da X, Xu Y, and Chong K (2007) Over-expression of OsUGE-1 altered raffinose level and tolerance to abiotic stress but not morphology in Arabidopsis. J Plant Physiol 164, 1384–1390.
Pridham JB and Hassid WZ (1965) Biosynthesis of Raffinose. Plant Physiol 40, 984–986.
Rabbani MA, Maruyama K, Abe H, Khan MA, Katsura K, Ito Y, Yoshiwara K, Seki M, Shinozaki K, and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K (2003) Monitoring expression profiles of rice genes under cold, drought, and high-salinity stresses and abscisic acid application using cDNA microarray and RNA gel-blot analyses. Plant Physiol 133, 1755–1767.
Reiter WD and Vanzin GF (2001) Molecular genetics of nucleotide sugar interconversion pathways in plants. Plant Mol Biol 47, 95–113.
Rösti J, Barton CJ, Albrecht S, Dupree P, Pauly M, Findly K, Roberts K, and Seifert GJ (2007) UDP-glucose 4-epimerase isoforms UGE2 and UGE4 cooperate in providing UDP-galactose for cell wall biosynthesis and growth of Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Cell 19, 1565–1579.
Seifert GJ (2004) Nucleotide sugar interconversionns and cell wall biosynthesis: how to bring the inside to the outside. Cur Opin in Plant Biol 7, 277–284.
Suzuki K, Suzuki Y, and Kitamura S (2003) Cloning and expression of a UDP-glucuronic acid decarboxylase gene in rice. J Exp Bot 54, 1997–1999.
Vogt T and Jones P (2005) Glycosyltransferases in plant natural product synthesis: characterization of a supergene family. Trends Plant Sci 5, 380–386.
Weirenga RK, Terpstra P, and Hol WGJ (1986) Prediction of the occurrence of the ADP-binding beta alpha betafold in proteins, using an amino acid sequence fingerprint. J Mol Biol 187, 101–107.
Zhang, Q, Hrmova, M, Shirley NJ, Lahnstein J, and Fincher GB (2006) Gene expression patterns and catalytic properties of UDP-D-glucose 4-epimerase from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Biochem J 394, 115–124.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, SK., Kim, D.H., Kim, BG. et al. Cloning and characterization of the UDP glucose/galactose epimerases of Oryza sativa . J. Korean Soc. Appl. Biol. Chem. 52, 315–320 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3839/jksabc.2009.056
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3839/jksabc.2009.056