Abstract
Tetrahydrofolate and its derivatives, commonly known as folates, are essential for almost all living organisms. Besides acting as one-carbon donors and acceptors in reactions producing various important biomolecules such as nucleic and amino acids, as well as pantothenate, they also supply one-carbon units for methylation reactions. Plants along with bacteria, yeast and fungi synthesize folates de novo and therefore constitute a very important dietary source of folates for animals. All the major steps of folate biosynthesis and metabolism have been identified but only few have been genetically characterized in a handful of model plant species. The possible differences in the folate pathway between various plant and algal species have never been explored. In this study we present a comprehensive comparative study of folate biosynthesis and metabolism of all major land plant lineages as well as green and red algae. The study identifies new features of plant folate metabolism that might open new directions to folate research in plants.
Highlights
Tetrahydrofolate (THF) and its derivatives, known as folates or B9 vitamins, are essential elements in the metabolism of all living organisms, except methanogenic and sulfate-reducing Archaea that use tetrahydromethanopterin (H4MPT) or its derivative tetrahydrosarcinapterin (H4SPT) in their C1 metabolism[1]
Folate biosynthesis and metabolism in higher plants have been studied for almost two decades
Our comparative study encompasses all steps of folate biosynthesis and interconversion of folate species in land plants, as well as green and red algae and reveals novel aspects of folate metabolism that can support further experimental studies in the field and help to design effective biofortification strategies
Summary
Tetrahydrofolate (THF) and its derivatives, known as folates or B9 vitamins, are essential elements in the metabolism of all living organisms, except methanogenic and sulfate-reducing Archaea that use tetrahydromethanopterin (H4MPT) or its derivative tetrahydrosarcinapterin (H4SPT) in their C1 metabolism[1]. The THF molecule is composed of a pterin moiety, para-aminobenzoic acid (pABA) and a glutamate tail. Like other folate-producing organisms, plants synthesize p-ABA in two steps. The first step is catalysed by aminodeoxychorismate synthase (ADCS) (Fig. 1B). Similar to their fungal[2,3] and protozoan[4] counterparts, Arabidopsis and tomato ADCSs exist as a bifunctional protein with two functional domains: the glutamine amidotransferase domain (GAT) homologous to E. coli PabA and the chorismate binding domain homologous to E. coli PabB5,6. Synthesis of the pterin moiety starts with the conversion of GTP into dihydroneopterin triphosphate and formate, catalysed by GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTPCHI) (Fig. 1B). The first step is the removal of pyrophosphate by www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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