Abstract
The 14C-labelled cyanogenic glucosides linustatin (diglucoside of acetone cyanohydrin) and linamarin (monoglucoside of acetone cyanohydrin), prepared by feeding [14C]valine to plants of Linum usitatissimum L., were applied to cotyledons of Hevea brasiliensis Muell.-Arg. in order to study their transport. Both [14C]-linustatin and [14C]linamarin were efficiently taken up by the cotyledons. Whereas 14C was recovered completely when [14C]linustatin was applied to the seedling, only about one-half of the radioactivity fed as [14C]linamarin could be accounted for after incubation. This observation is in agreement with the finding that apoplasmic linamarase hydrolyzes linamarin but not the related diglucoside linustatin. These data prove that, in vivo, linamarin does not occur apoplasmically and that linustatin, which is exuded from the endosperm, is taken up by the cotyledons very efficiently. Thus, these findings confirm the linustatin pathway (Selmar et al. 1988, Plant Physiol. 86, 711–716), which describes mobilization and transport of the cyanogenic glucoside linamarin, initiated by the glucosylation of linamarin to yield linustatin. When linustatin is metabolized to non-cyanogenic compounds, in Hevea this cyanogenic diglucoside is hydrolyzed by a diglucosidase which splits off both glucose molecules simultaneously as one gentiobiose moiety (Selmar et al. 1988). In contrast, [14C]linustatin, which is taken up by the cotyledon, is not metabolized but is reconverted in high amounts to the monoglucosidic [14C]linamarin, which then is temporarily stored in the cotyledons. These data demonstrate that in Hevea, besides the simultaneous diglucosidase, there must be present a further diglucosidase which is able to hydrolyze cyanogenic diglucosides sequentially by splitting off only the terminal glucose moiety from linustatin to yield linamarin. From this, it is deduced that the metabolic fate of linustatin, which is transported into the source tissues, depends on the activities of the different diglucosidases. Whereas sequential cleavage — producing linamarin — is purely a part of the process of linamarin translocation (using linustatin as the transport vehicle), simultaneous cleavage, producing acetone cyanohydrin, is part of the process of linamarin metabolization in which the nitrogen from cyanogenic glucosides is used to synthesize non-cyanogenic compounds.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aldridge, W. N. (1944) A new method for the estimation of microquantities of cyanide and thiocyanide. Analyst 69, 262–265
Butler, G. W. (1965) The distribution of the cyanoglucosides linamarin and lotaustralin in higher plants. Phytochemistry 4, 127–131
Clegg, D. O., Conn, E. E., Janzen, D. H. (1979) Developmental fate of the cyanogenic glucoside linamarin in Costa Rica wild lima bean seeds. Nature 278, 343–344
Conn, E. E. (1980) Cyanogenic compounds. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. 31, 433–451
Cutler, A. J., Conn, E. E. (1981) The biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides in Linum usitatissimum (Linen Flax) in vitro. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 212, 468–474
Delrot, S. (1987) Phloem loading: apoplastic or symplastic? Plant Physiol. Biochem. 25, 667–676
Erickson, R. O. (1986) Symplastic growth and symplasmic transport. Plant Physiol. 82, 1153
Fan, T. W.-M., Conn, E. E. (1985) Isolation and characterization of two β-glucosidases from flax seeds. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 243, 361–373
Frehner, M., Conn, E. E. (1987) The linamarin β-glucosidase in Costa Rica wild bean (Phaseolus lunatus) is apoplastic. Plant Physiol. 84, 1296–1300
Frehner, M., Scalet, M., Conn, E. E. (1990) Pattern of the cyanidepotential in developing fruits. Plant Physiol. 94, 28–34
Frey-Wyssling, A., Häusermann, L. (1960) Deutung der gestaltlosen Nektarien. Ber. Schweiz. Bot. Ges. 70, 150–162
Jones, D. A. (1972) Cyanogenic glycosides and their function. In: Phytochemical ecology, pp. 103–124, Harborne, J. B., ed. Academic Press, London
Kakes, P. (1985) Linamarase and other β-glucosidases are present in the cell walls of Trifolium repens leaves. Planta 166, 156–160
Kakes, P. (1990) Properties and functions of the cyanogenic system in higher plants. Euphytica 48, 25–43
Kuroki, G., Lizotte, P. A., Poulton, J. E. (1984) Catabolism of (R)-amygdalin and (R)-vicianin by partually purified β-glucosidases from Prunus serotina Ehrh. and Davallia trichomanoides. Z. Naturforsch. 39c, 232–239
Kurzhals, Ch., Grützmacher, H., Selmar, D., Biehl, B. (1989) Linustatin, the linamarin-glucoside protected against cleavage by apoplastic linamarase. Planta Med. 55, 673
Lieberei, R., Selmar, D., Biehl, B. (1985) Metabolization of cyanogenic glycosides in Hevea brasiliensis. Plant Syst. Evol. 105, 49–63
Mkpong, O. E., Yan, H., Chism, G., Sayre, R. T. (1990) Purification, characterization and localization of linamarase in Cassava. Plant Physiol. 93, 176–181
Münch, E. (1930) Die Stoffbewegungen in der Pflanze. Fischer Verlag, Jena
Nahrstedt, A. (1985) Cyanogenic compounds as protecting agents for organisms. Plant Syst. Evol. 105, 35–47
Robinson, M. E. (1930) Cyanogenesis in plants. Biochem. Rev. Univ. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 5, 126–141
Schilcher, H., Wilkens-Sauter, M. (1986) Quantitative Bestimmung cyanogener Glycoside in Linum usitatissimum mit Hilfe der HPLC. Fette-Seifen-Anstr. 88, 287–290
Selmar, D. (1993) Apoplastic occurrence of cyanogenic glucosidases and consequences for the metabolism of cyanogenic glucosides. In: Biochemistry and molecular biology of β-glucosidases, Esens, ed. ASC Press, Washington, in press
Selmar, D., Lieberei, R., Biehl, B., Voigt, J. (1987a) Linamarase in Hevea — a nonspecific β-glycosidase. Plant Physiol. 83, 557–563
Selmar, D., Lieberei, R., Biehl, B., Nahrstedt, A., Schmidtmann, V., Wray, V. (1987b) Occurrence of linustatin in Hevea brasiliensis. Phytochemistry 26, 2400–2401
Selmar, D., Lieberei, R., Biehl, B. (1988) Mobilization and utilization of cyanogenic glycosides: the linustatin pathway. Plant Physiol. 86, 711–716
Selmar, D., Grocholewski, S., Seigler, D. S. (1990) Cyanogenic lipids: Utilization during seedling development of Ungnadia speciosa Plant Physiol. 93, 631–636
Selmar, D., Lieberei, R., Junqueira, N., Biehl, B. (1991) Changes in the cyanogenic glucoside content in seeds and seedlings of Hevea species. Phytochemistry 30, 2135–2140
Van Bel, A.J.E. (1989) The challenge of symplastic phloem loading. Bot. Acta 102, 183–185
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Dedicated to Professor Böle Biehl on the occasion of his 65th birthday
I wish to thank Dr. Luadir Gasparotto, (EMBRAPA, Manaus, Bazil) for providing the Hevea seeds and Prof. Dr. E. E. Conn (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, Davis, USA) for critical reading of the manuscript. I express my gratitude to Sabine Grocholewski for skillful technical assistance. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This article contains parts of my Habilitationsschrift (Technical University Braunschweig, FRG)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Selmar, D. Transport of cyanogenic glucosides: linustatin uptake by Hevea cotyledons. Planta 191, 191–199 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00199749
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00199749