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Pyridine metabolism in tea plants: salvage, conjugate formation and catabolism

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Abstract

Pyridine compounds, including nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, are key metabolites of both the salvage pathway for NAD and the biosynthesis of related secondary compounds. We examined the in situ metabolic fate of [carbonyl-14C]nicotinamide, [2-14C]nicotinic acid and [carboxyl-14C]nicotinic acid riboside in tissue segments of tea (Camellia sinensis) plants, and determined the activity of enzymes involved in pyridine metabolism in protein extracts from young tea leaves. Exogenously supplied 14C-labelled nicotinamide was readily converted to nicotinic acid, and some nicotinic acid was salvaged to nicotinic acid mononucleotide and then utilized for the synthesis of NAD and NADP. The nicotinic acid riboside salvage pathway discovered recently in mungbean cotyledons is also operative in tea leaves. Nicotinic acid was converted to nicotinic acid N-glucoside, but not to trigonelline (N-methylnicotinic acid), in any part of tea seedlings. Active catabolism of nicotinic acid was observed in tea leaves. The fate of [2-14C]nicotinic acid indicates that glutaric acid is a major catabolite of nicotinic acid; it was further metabolised, and carbon atoms were finally released as CO2. The catabolic pathway observed in tea leaves appears to start with the nicotinic acid N-glucoside formation; this pathway differs from catabolic pathways observed in microorganisms. Profiles of pyridine metabolism in tea plants are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Junichi Tanaka (National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Japan) and Dr. Eduardo Diaz (Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas, Madrid, Spain) for their generous supply of plant materials and pyridine standards. The authors also wish to thank Professor Alan Crozier, University of Glasgow, U.K. for his critical evaluation of the text and linguistic advice during the preparation of the final version of the paper. This research was supported by a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 22510226).

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  1. Wei-Wei Deng

    Present address: Key Laboratory of Tea Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Agriculture, Anhui Agricultural University, 130 Changjiang West Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230036, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, 2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-8610, Japan

    Hiroshi Ashihara & Wei-Wei Deng

  2. 1-5-15 Minami-Kugahara, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 146-0084, Japan

    Hiroshi Ashihara

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  1. Hiroshi Ashihara
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Ashihara.

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Ashihara, H., Deng, WW. Pyridine metabolism in tea plants: salvage, conjugate formation and catabolism. J Plant Res 125, 781–791 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-012-0490-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-012-0490-x

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