Evidence for the Accumulation of 3‐Hydroxypropionate and β‐Alanine in Arabidopsis thaliana Seedlings via Isoleucine Degradation

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Amino acids serve several cellular processes outside of proteinogenesis that influence the growth and development of the plant, as well as the generation of metabolic energy. Here, we examine the contribution of branched‐chain amino acid degradation to the production of β‐alanine in the model organism, Arabidopsis thaliana. β‐alanine is a key intermediate in the synthesis of the essential molecules vitamin B5 and coenzyme A (CoA). Despite the importance, the current knowledge surrounding β‐alanine lacks strong evidence for the primary biosynthetic pathways in higher plants. Previous studies found that polyamines, uracil, and propionate can all serve as sources for β‐alanine. Given that the catabolism of branched‐chain amino acids (BCAAs) valine and isoleucine result in the production of propionyl‐CoA (a derivative of propionate), we hypothesized that these BCAAs could also serve as a source of β‐alanine. Propionyl‐CoA is typically converted to acetyl‐CoA via β‐oxidation, however, one of the intermediates, malonate semialdehyde, can react to form β‐alanine. To trace the production of β‐alanine from propionyl‐CoA and the BCAA isoleucine, we treated wild‐type and transgenic seedlings with isotopically‐labeled precursors and analyzed extracts using 13C‐NMR and GC‐MS. We observed the production of both β‐alanine and a key intermediate, 3‐hydroxypropionate (3HP) in samples treated with propionate and isoleucine. Our data shows that the fed 13C‐isotopes were efficiently incorporated into and recycled through propionyl‐CoA metabolism, resulting in the production of 13C‐labeled β‐alanine. These findings suggest that while there is evidence for the production of β‐alanine via polyamines, uracil, and propionate in other plants; isoleucine, and possibly valine, can also serve as a precursor to this metabolically important molecule.Support or Funding InformationClare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Scholars program funded by the Henry Luce Foundation (Grant #9601)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.