A novel integrated method for large-scale detection, identification, and quantification of widely targeted metabolites: application in the study of rice metabolomics.

The number of studies on melatonin in plants has increased significantly in recent years. This molecule, with a large set of functions in animals, has also shown great potential in plant physiology. This review outlines the main functions of melatonin in the physiology of higher plants. Its role as antistress agent against abiotic stressors, such as drought, salinity, low and high ambient temperatures, UV radiation and toxic chemicals, is analyzed. The latest data on their role in plant-pathogen interactions are also discussed. Both abiotic and biotic stresses produce a significant increase in endogenous melatonin levels, indicating its possible role as effector in these situations. The existence of endogenous circadian rhythms in melatonin levels has been demonstrated in some species, and the data, although limited, suggest a central role of this molecule in the day/night cycles in plants. Finally, another aspect that has led to a large volume of research is the involvement of melatonin in aspects of plant development regulation. Although its role as a plant hormone is still far of from being fully established, its involvement in processes such as growth, rhizogenesis, and photosynthesis seems evident. The multiple changes in gene expression caused by melatonin point to its role as a multiregulatory molecule capable of coordinating many aspects of plant development. This last aspect, together with its role as an alleviating-stressor agent, suggests that melatonin is an excellent prospect for crop improvement.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jpi.12253

Functions of melatonin in plants: a review

The introduction of molecular oxygen into the atmosphere was accompanied by the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as side products of many biochemical reactions. ROS are permanently generated in plastids, peroxisomes, mitochiondria, the cytosol and the apoplast. Imbalance between ROS generation and safe detoxification generates oxidative stress and the accumulating ROS are harmful for the plants. On the other hand, specific ROS function as signaling molecules and activate signal transduction processes in response to various stresses. Here, we summarize the generation of ROS in the different cellular compartments and the signaling processes which are induced by ROS.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.4161/psb.22455

Reactive oxygen species generation and signaling in plants

The presence of melatonin in plants is universal. Evidence has confirmed that a major portion of the melatonin is synthesized by plants themselves even though a homologue of the classic arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) has not been identified as yet in plants. Thus, the serotonin N-acetylating enzyme in plants may differ greatly from the animal AANAT with regard to sequence and structure. This would imply multiple evolutionary origins of enzymes with these catalytic properties. A primary function of melatonin in plants is to serve as the first line of defence against internal and environmental oxidative stressors. The much higher melatonin levels in plants compared with those found in animals are thought to be a compensatory response by plants which lack means of mobility, unlike animals, as a means of coping with harsh environments. Importantly, remarkably high melatonin concentrations have been measured in popular beverages (coffee, tea, wine, and beer) and crops (corn, rice, wheat, barley, and oats). Billions of people worldwide consume these products daily. The beneficial effects of melatonin on human health derived from the consumption of these products must be considered. Evidence also indicates that melatonin has an ability to increase the production of crops. The mechanisms may involve the roles of melatonin in preservation of chlorophyll, promotion of photosynthesis, and stimulation of root development. Transgenic plants with enhanced melatonin content could probably lead to breakthroughs to increase crop production in agriculture and to improve the general health of humans.

Functional roles of melatonin in plants, and perspectives in nutritional and agricultural science

The plant hormone auxin, which is predominantly represented by indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), is involved in the regulation of plant growth and development. Although IAA was the first plant hormone identified, the biosynthetic pathway at the genetic level has remained unclear. Two major pathways for IAA biosynthesis have been proposed: the tryptophan (Trp)-independent and Trp-dependent pathways. In Trp-dependent IAA biosynthesis, four pathways have been postulated in plants: (i) the indole-3-acetamide (IAM) pathway; (ii) the indole-3-pyruvic acid (IPA) pathway; (iii) the tryptamine (TAM) pathway; and (iv) the indole-3-acetaldoxime (IAOX) pathway. Although different plant species may have unique strategies and modifications to optimize their metabolic pathways, plants would be expected to share evolutionarily conserved core mechanisms for auxin biosynthesis because IAA is a fundamental substance in the plant life cycle. In this review, the genes now known to be involved in auxin biosynthesis are summarized and the major IAA biosynthetic pathway distributed widely in the plant kingdom is discussed on the basis of biochemical and molecular biological findings and bioinformatics studies. Based on evolutionarily conserved core mechanisms, it is thought that the pathway via IAM or IPA is the major route(s) to IAA in plants.

/pdf/the-pathway-of-auxin-biosynthesis-in-plants-612sz1wtup.pdf

The pathway of auxin biosynthesis in plants

l-Tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) and l-tyrosine decarboxylase (TYDC) belong to a family of aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylases and catalyze the conversion of tryptophan and tyrosine into tryptamine and tyramine, respectively. The rice genome has been shown to contain seven TDC or TYDC-like genes. Three of these genes for which cDNA clones were available were characterized to assign their functions using heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and rice (Oryza sativa cv. Dongjin). The purified products of two of the genes were expressed in E. coli and exhibited TDC activity, whereas the remaining gene could not be expressed in E. coli. The recombinant TDC protein with the greatest TDC activity showed a K
 m of 0.69 mM for tryptophan, and its activity was not inhibited by phenylalanine or tyrosine, indicating a high level of substrate specificity toward tryptophan. The ectopic expression of the three cDNA clones in rice led to the abundant production of the products of the encoded enzymes, tyramine and tryptamine. The overproduction of TYDC resulted in stunted growth and a lack of seed production due to tyramine accumulation, which increased as the plant aged. In contrast, transgenic plants that produced TDC showed a normal phenotype and contained 25-fold and 11-fold higher serotonin in the leaves and seeds, respectively, than the wild-type plants. The overproduction of either tyramine or serotonin was not strongly related to the enhanced synthesis of tyramine or serotonin derivatives, such as feruloyltyramine and feruloylserotonin, which are secondary metabolites that act as phytoalexins in plants.

Characterization of rice tryptophan decarboxylases and their direct involvement in serotonin biosynthesis in transgenic rice.

Serotonin N-acetyltransferase (SNA), a rate-limiting enzyme in melatonin biosynthesis in vertebrates, is responsible for the production of N-acetylserotonin; this molecule is then converted to melatonin by hydroxyindole-O-methyltransferase. We generated transgenic rice plants via expression of the human SNA gene under the constitutive ubiquitin promoter using Agrobacterium-mediated gene transformation. We investigated the role of SNA in the biosynthesis of melatonin and the physiological role of melatonin in rice plants. The integration and expression of the transgene were confirmed in T(1) transgenic rice seedlings by Southern, Northern, and RT-PCR analyses. High SNA-specific enzyme activities were observed in the transgenic rice plants, whereas the wild type revealed a trace level of SNA enzyme activity. The functional expression of SNA protein was closely associated with the elevated synthesis of N-acetylserotonin and melatonin in the transgenic rice plants. Experiments using both exogenous treatment of serotonin and senescent detached leaves, which contain a pool of serotonin, significantly enhanced melatonin biosynthesis, indicating that endogenous serotonin levels play a bottleneck role in the pathway of melatonin biosynthesis. Finally, the transgenic rice seedlings with high levels of melatonin showed elevated chlorophyll synthesis during cold stress, suggesting a role for melatonin in cold-stress resistance.

Enhanced production of melatonin by ectopic overexpression of human serotonin N-acetyltransferase plays a role in cold resistance in transgenic rice seedlings

Serotonin, which is well known as a pineal hormone in mammals, plays a key role in conditions such as mood, eating disorders, and alcoholism. In plants, although serotonin has been suggested to be involved in several physiological roles, including flowering, morphogenesis, and adaptation to environmental changes, its regulation and functional roles are as yet not characterized at the molecular level. In this study, we found that serotonin is greatly accumulated in rice (Oryza sativa) leaves undergoing senescence induced by either nutrient deprivation or detachment, and its synthesis is closely coupled with transcriptional and enzymatic induction of the tryptophan biosynthetic genes as well as tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC). Transgenic rice plants that overexpressed TDC accumulated higher levels of serotonin than the wild type and showed delayed senescence of rice leaves. However, transgenic rice plants, in which expression of TDC was suppressed through an RNA interference (RNAi) system, produced less serotonin and senesced faster than the wild type, suggesting that serotonin is involved in attenuating leaf senescence. The senescence-retarding activity of serotonin is associated with its high antioxidant activity compared to either tryptophan or chlorogenic acid. Results of TDC overexpression and TDC RNAi plants suggest that TDC plays a rate-limiting role for serotonin accumulation, but the synthesis of serotonin depends on an absolute amount of tryptophan accumulation by the coordinate induction of the tryptophan biosynthetic genes. In addition, immunolocalization analysis revealed that serotonin was abundant in the vascular parenchyma cells, including companion cells and xylem-parenchyma cells, suggestive of its involvement in maintaining the cellular integrity of these cells for facilitating efficient nutrient recycling from senescing leaves to sink tissues during senescence.

Senescence-Induced Serotonin Biosynthesis and Its Role in Delaying Senescence in Rice Leaves

Because of the absence of an arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT) homolog in the plant genome, the proposal was made that a GCN5-related N-acetyltransferase superfamily gene (GNAT) could be substituted for AANAT. To clone rice serotonin N-acetyltransferase (SNAT), we expressed 31 rice GNAT cDNAs in Escherichia coli and screened SNAT activity by measuring N-acetyltryptamine after application with 1 mm tryptamine. GNAT5 was shown to produce high levels of N-acetyltryptamine in E. coli, suggesting a possible rice SNAT. To confirm SNAT activity, the GNAT5 protein was purified through affinity purification from E. coli culture. The purified recombinant GNAT5 showed high SNAT enzyme activity catalyzing serotonin into N-acetylserotonin. The values for Km and Vmax were 385 μm and 282 pmol/min/mg protein, respectively. An in vitro enzyme assay of purified SNAT showed N-acetylserotonin formation to be proportional to enzyme concentration and time, with peak activity at pH 8.8. High substrate concentrations above 1 mm serotonin inhibited SNAT activity. Finally, the mRNA level of SNAT was higher in shoots than in roots, but it was expressed constitutively, unlike N-acetylserotonin methyltransferase (ASMT), the terminal enzyme in melatonin synthesis. These results suggest that ASMT rather than SNAT is the rate-limiting enzyme of melatonin biosynthesis in plants.

Molecular cloning of rice serotonin N-acetyltransferase, the penultimate gene in plant melatonin biosynthesis

N-acetylserotonin methyltransferase (ASMT), the last enzyme in the synthesis of melatonin, catalyzes N-acetylserotonin into melatonin. For the first time, we cloned ASMT from rice through the analysis of recombinant Escherichia coli harboring putative rice O-methyltransferase (OMT) cDNAs. In total, 18 full-length cDNAs, which show homology to wheat caffeic acid 3-O-methyltransferase, were expressed in E. coli and induced in the presence of N-acetylserotonin; we then analyzed the production of melatonin. Only recombinant E. coli line 15 showed melatonin synthesis; no other recombinant lines produced melatonin with the addition of N-acetylserotonin in E. coli culture. Line 15 clearly exhibited in vitro ASMT enzyme activity with 0.27 pkat/mg protein. ASMT enzyme activity was inhibited by various related compounds such as N-acetyltryptamine and N-acetyltyrosine. The open reading frame of ASMT consists of 364 amino acids possessing well-conserved motifs found in plant OMT such as S-adenosyl-L-methionine-binding and catalytic sites. Induction patterns of ASMT mRNA were well matched with the production of melatonin in rice leaves during senescence, as well as several stressors.

Kiyoon Kang

Papers

Characterization of rice tryptophan decarboxylases and their direct involvement in serotonin biosynthesis in transgenic rice.

Enhanced production of melatonin by ectopic overexpression of human serotonin N-acetyltransferase plays a role in cold resistance in transgenic rice seedlings

Senescence-Induced Serotonin Biosynthesis and Its Role in Delaying Senescence in Rice Leaves

Molecular cloning of rice serotonin N-acetyltransferase, the penultimate gene in plant melatonin biosynthesis

Molecular cloning of a plant N‐acetylserotonin methyltransferase and its expression characteristics in rice