Article abstract


Nature Chemical Biology 5, 344 - 350 (2009)
Published online: 6 April 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchembio.161

(+)-7-iso-Jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine is the endogenous bioactive jasmonate

Sandra Fonseca1, Andrea Chini1, Mats Hamberg2, Bruce Adie1, Andrea Porzel3, Robert Kramell4, Otto Miersch4, Claus Wasternack4 & Roberto Solano1


Hormone-triggered activation of the jasmonate signaling pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana requires SCFCOI1-mediated proteasome degradation of JAZ repressors. (-)-JA-L-Ile is the proposed bioactive hormone, and SCFCOI1 is its likely receptor. We found that the biological activity of (-)-JA-L-Ile is unexpectedly low compared to coronatine and the synthetic isomer (+)-JA-L-Ile, which suggests that the stereochemical orientation of the cyclopentanone-ring side chains greatly affects receptor binding. Detailed GC-MS and HPLC analyses showed that the (-)-JA-L-Ile preparations currently used in ligand binding studies contain small amounts of the C7 epimer (+)-7-iso-JA-L-Ile. Purification of each of these molecules demonstrated that pure (-)-JA-L-Ile is inactive and that the active hormone is (+)-7-iso-JA-L-Ile, which is also structurally more similar to coronatine. In addition, we show that pH changes promote conversion of (+)-7-iso-JA-L-Ile to the inactive (-)-JA-L-Ile form, thus providing a simple mechanism that can regulate hormone activity through epimerization.

Top
  1. Departamento de Genética Molecular de Plantas, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Campus Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain.
  2. Division of Physiological Chemistry II, Department of Medical Biochemistry & Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
  3. Department of Bioorganic Chemistry, Leibniz-Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle, Germany.
  4. Department of Natural Product Biotechnology, Leibniz-Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Halle, Germany.

Correspondence to: Roberto Solano1 e-mail: rsolano@cnb.csic.es



MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

The devil (and an active jasmonate hormone) is in the details

Nature Chemical Biology News and Views (01 May 2009)

Plant biology Jasmonate perception machines

Nature News and Views (09 Aug 2007)


Extra navigation

Subscribe to Nature Chemical Biology

Subscribe

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs