Abstract
The ubiquitous glyoxalase enzymatic pathway is involved in the detoxification of methylglyoxal (MG), a cytotoxic byproduct of glycolysis. The glyoxalase system has been more extensively studied in animals versus plants. Plant glyoxalases have been primarily associated with stress responses and their overexpression is known to impart tolerance to various abiotic stresses. In plants, glyoxalases exist as multigene families, and new roles for glyoxalases in various developmental and signaling pathways have started to emerge. Glyoxalase-based MG detoxification has now been shown to be important for pollination responses. During self-incompatibility response in Brassicaceae, MG is required to target compatibility factors for proteasomal degradation, while accumulation of glyoxalase leads to MG detoxification and efficient pollination. In this review, we discuss the importance of glyoxalase systems and their emerging biological roles in plants.
Highlights
All living cells depend on the process of cellular respiration for their energy needs
Several new functional roles of glyoxalases in plants have emerged in recent years
Research on soybean glyoxalases revealed its involvement in the process of cell growth and organ differentiation [16]
Summary
All living cells depend on the process of cellular respiration for their energy needs. Glyoxalase I (GLYI) and glyoxalase II (GLYII), are the enzymes of the glyoxalase pathway that catalyze the detoxification of methylglyoxal to non-toxic D-lactate using reduced glutathione as cofactor [1,2]. The existence of glyoxalases as a multigene family in plants suggests the possibility of several undiscovered functional roles for these enzymes. We discuss the importance of the glyoxalase system in plants and their expanding functional roles with an emphasis on the newly discovered role in the regulation of plant reproduction and protein turnover. We discuss the roles of methylglyoxal in cellular signaling and present data on imaging of methylglyoxal in plant reproductive tissues, which may become a powerful tool for studies related to MG in plants
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