Flavanone

About: Flavanone is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1965 publications have been published within this topic receiving 54729 citations. The topic is also known as: flavanones.

Enzymic synthesis of an aromatic ring from acetate units. Partial purification and some properties of flavanone synthase from cell-suspension cultures of Petroselinum hortense.

Abstract: Flavanone synthase was isolated and purified about 300-fold from fermenter-grown, light-induced cell suspension cultures of Petroselinum hortense. The enzyme catalyzed the formation of the flavanone naringenin from p-coumaroyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA. Trapping experiments with an enzyme preparation, which was free of chalcone isomerase activity, revealed that in fact the flavanone and not the isomeric chalcone was the immediate product of the synthase reaction. Thus the enzyme is not a chalcone synthase as previously assumed. No cofactors were required for flavanone synthase activity. The enzyme was strongly inhibited by the two reaction products naringenin and CoASH, by the antibiotic cerulenin, by acetyl-CoA, and by several compounds reacting with sulfhydryl groups. Optimal enzyme activity was found at pH 8.0, at 30°C, and at an ionic strength of 0.1–0.3 M potassium phosphate. EDTA, Mg2+, Ca2+, or Fe2+ at concentrations of about 0.7 μM did not affect the enzyme activity. Apparent molecular weights of approx. 120000, 50000, and 70000, respectively, were determined for flavanone synthase and two metabolically related enzymes, chalcone isomerase and malonyl-CoA : flavonoid glycoside malonyl transferase. The partially purified flavanone synthase efficiently catalyzed the formation of malonyl pantetheine from malonyl-CoA and pantetheine. This malonyl transferase activity, and a general similarity with the condensation steps involved in the mechanisms of fatty acid and 6-methyl-salicylic acid synthesis from “acetate units”, are the basis for a hypothetical scheme which is proposed for the sequence of reactions catalyzed by the multifunctional flavanone synthase.

Disruption of specific flavonoid genes enhances the accumulation of flavonoid enzymes and end-products in Arabidopsis seedlings.

Abstract: Polyclonal antibodies were developed against the flavonoid biosynthetic enzymes, CHS, CHI, F3H, FLS, and LDOX from Arabidopsis thaliana. These antibodies were used to perform the first detailed analysis of coordinate expression of flavonoid metabolism at the protein level. The pattern of flavonoid enzyme expression over the course of seedling development was consistent with previous studies indicating that chalcone synthase (CHS), chalcone isomerase (CHI), flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), and flavonol synthase (FLS) are encoded by ‘early’ genes while leucoanthocyanidin dioxygenase (LDOX) is encoded by a ‘late’ gene. This sequential expression may underlie the variations in flavonoid end-products produced during this developmental stage, as determined by HPLC analysis, which includes a shift in the ratio of the flavonols, quercetin and kaempferol. Moreover, immunoblot and HPLC analyses revealed that several transparent testa lines blocked at intermediate steps of the flavonoid pathway actually accumulated higher levels of specific flavonoid enzymes and end-products. These results suggest that specific intermediates may act as inducers of flavonoid metabolism.