Intact spinach chloroplasts scavenge hydrogen peroxide with a peroxidase that uses a photoreductant as the electron donor, but the activity of ruptured chloroplasts is very low [Nakano and Asada (1980) Plant & Cell Physiol. 21: 1295]. Ruptured spinach chloroplasts recovered their ability to photoreduce hydrogen peroxide with the concomitant evolution of oxygen after the addition of glutathione and dehydroascorbate (DHA). In ruptured chloroplasts, DHA was photoreduced to ascorbate and oxygen was evolved in the process in the presence of glutathione. DHA reductase (EC 1.8.5.1) and a peroxidase whose electron donor is specific to L-ascorbate are localized in chloroplast stroma. These observations confirm that the electron donor for the scavenging of hydrogen peroxide in chloroplasts is L-ascorbate and that the L-ascorbate is regenerated from DHA by the system: photosystem I-*ferredoxin-*NADP^>glutathione. A preliminary characterization of the chloroplast peroxidase is given.

Hydrogen Peroxide is Scavenged by Ascorbate-specific Peroxidase in Spinach Chloroplasts

Ascorbate peroxidase is a hydrogen peroxide-scavenging enzyme that is specific to plants and algae and is indispensable to protect chloroplasts and other cell constituents from damage by hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals produced from it. In this review, first, the participation of ascorbate peroxidase in the scavenging of hydrogen peroxide in chloroplasts is briefly described. Subsequently, the phylogenic distribution of ascorbate peroxidase in relation to other hydrogen peroxide-scavenging peroxidases using glutathione, NADH and cytochrome c is summarized. Chloroplastic and cytosolic isozymes of ascorbate peroxidase have been found, and show some differences in enzymatic properties. The basic properties of ascorbate peroxidases, however, are very different from those of the guaiacol peroxidases so far isolated from plant tissues. Amino acid sequence and other molecular properties indicate that ascorbate peroxidase resembles cytochrome c peroxidase from fungi rather than guaiacol peroxidase from plants, and it is proposed that the plant and yeast hydrogen peroxide-scavenging peroxidases have the same ancestor.

Ascorbate peroxidase – a hydrogen peroxide-scavenging enzyme in plants

Plants vary considerably in their physiological response to selenium (Se). Some plant species growing on seleniferous soils are Se tolerant and accumulate very high concentrations of Se (Se accumulators), but most plants are Se nonaccumulators and are Se-sensitive. This review summarizes knowledge of the physiology and biochemistry of both types of plants, particularly with regard to Se uptake and transport, biochemical pathways of assimilation, volatilization and incorporation into proteins, and mechanisms of toxicity and tolerance. Molecular approaches are providing new insights into the role of sulfate transporters and sulfur assimilation enzymes in selenate uptake and metabolism, as well as the question of Se essentiality in plants. Recent advances in our understanding of the plant's ability to metabolize Se into volatile Se forms (phytovolatilization) are discussed, along with the application of phytoremediation for the cleanup of Se contaminated environments.

Selenium in higher plants.

Even under optimal conditions, many metabolic processes, including the chloroplastic, mitochondrial, and plasma membrane-linked electron transport systems of higher plants, produce active oxygen species (AOS). Furthermore, the imposition of biotic and abiotic stress conditions can give rise to excess concentrations of AOS, resulting in oxidative damage at the cellular level. Therefore, antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes function to interrupt the cascades of uncontrolled oxidation in each organelle. Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) exists as isoenzymes and plays an important role in the metabolism of H(2)O(2) in higher plants. APX is also found in eukaryotic algae. The characterization of APX isoenzymes and the sequence analysis of their clones have led to a number of investigations that have yielded interesting and novel information on these enzymes. Interestingly, APX isoenzymes of chloroplasts in higher plants are encoded by only one gene, and their mRNAs are generated by alternative splicing of the gene's two 3'-terminal exons. Manipulation of the expression of the enzymes involved in the AOS-scavenging systems by gene-transfer technology has provided a powerful tool for increasing the present understanding of the potential of the defence network against oxidative damage caused by environmental stresses. Transgenic plants expressing E. coli catalase to chloroplasts with increased tolerance to oxidative stress indicate that AOS-scavenging enzymes, especially chloroplastic APX isoenzymes are sensitive under oxidative stress conditions. It is clear that a high level of endogenous ascorbate is essential effectively to maintain the antioxidant system that protects plants from oxidative damage due to biotic and abiotic stresses.

/pdf/regulation-and-function-of-ascorbate-peroxidase-isoenzymes-5fgj02sckc.pdf

Regulation and function of ascorbate peroxidase isoenzymes

The cornerstone of autotrophy, the CO2-fixing enzyme, d-ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), is hamstrung by slow catalysis and confusion between CO2 and O2 as substrates, an “abominably perplexing” puzzle, in Darwin's parlance. Here we argue that these characteristics stem from difficulty in binding the featureless CO2 molecule, which forces specificity for the gaseous substrate to be determined largely or completely in the transition state. We hypothesize that natural selection for greater CO2/O2 specificity, in response to reducing atmospheric CO2:O2 ratios, has resulted in a transition state for CO2 addition in which the CO2 moiety closely resembles a carboxylate group. This maximizes the structural difference between the transition states for carboxylation and the competing oxygenation, allowing better differentiation between them. However, increasing structural similarity between the carboxylation transition state and its carboxyketone product exposes the carboxyketone to the strong binding required to stabilize the transition state and causes the carboxyketone intermediate to bind so tightly that its cleavage to products is slowed. We assert that all Rubiscos may be nearly perfectly adapted to the differing CO2, O2, and thermal conditions in their subcellular environments, optimizing this compromise between CO2/O2 specificity and the maximum rate of catalytic turnover. Our hypothesis explains the feeble rate enhancement displayed by Rubisco in processing the exogenously supplied carboxyketone intermediate, compared with its nonenzymatic hydrolysis, and the positive correlation between CO2/O2 specificity and 12C/13C fractionation. It further predicts that, because a more product-like transition state is more ordered (decreased entropy), the effectiveness of this strategy will deteriorate with increasing temperature. 

enzyme mechanisms
isotope fractionation
transition states

/pdf/despite-slow-catalysis-and-confused-substrate-specificity-5a4ckp5wts.pdf

Despite slow catalysis and confused substrate specificity, all ribulose bisphosphate carboxylases may be nearly perfectly optimized.

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1016/0014-5793%2882%2981310-0

Wax ester fermentation in Euglena gracilis

A malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthetic system, different from the systems in other subcellular fractions, occurred in mitochondria of Euglena gracilis. The system had ability to synthesize fatty acids directly from acetyl-CoA as both primer and C2 donor using NADH as an electron donor. Fatty acids were synthesized by reversal of β-oxidation with the exception that enoyl-CoA reductase functioned instead of acyl-CoA dehydrogenase in degradation system. A fairly high activity of enoyl-CoA reductase was found on various enoyl-CoA substrates (C4–C12) with NADH or NADPH. Three species of enoyl-CoA reductase, distinct from each other by their chain-length specificity, were found in Euglena mitochondria, and one of them was highly specific for crotonyl-CoA. It is also discussed that the mitochondrial fatty-acid synthetic system contributes to wax ester fermentation, the anaerobic energy-generating system found in the organism.

Fatty acid synthesis in mitochondria of Euglena gracilis

Culture of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in the medium containing sodium selenite caused the activity of ascorbate peroxidase to disappear and the appearance of glutathione peroxidase. The induced maximum activity of glutathione peroxidase reached 350 micromole (milligram chlorophyll hour)−1 under assay conditions used. The enzymic properties of the selenite-induced glutathione peroxidase closely resembled those of animal glutathione peroxidase that contains selenium.

Selenium as Inducer of Glutathione Peroxidase in low-CO2-Grown Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Purification and some properties of L-ascorbic-acid-specific peroxidase in Euglena gracilis Z.

Correct pK values for dissociation constant of carbonic acid lower the reported Km values of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase to half. Presentation of a nomograph and an equation for determining the pK values.

Shozaburo Kitaoka

Papers

Wax ester fermentation in Euglena gracilis

Fatty acid synthesis in mitochondria of Euglena gracilis

Selenium as Inducer of Glutathione Peroxidase in low-CO2-Grown Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Purification and some properties of L-ascorbic-acid-specific peroxidase in Euglena gracilis Z.

Correct pK values for dissociation constant of carbonic acid lower the reported Km values of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase to half. Presentation of a nomograph and an equation for determining the pK values.