No abstract

Multiple-herbicide resistance (MHR) in black-grass ( Alopecurus myosuroides ) and annual rye-grass ( Lolium rigidum ) is a global problem leading to a loss of chemical weed control in cereal crops. Although poorly understood, in common with multiple-drug resistance (MDR) in tumors, MHR is associated with an enhanced ability to detoxify xenobiotics. In humans, MDR is linked to the overexpression of a pi class glutathione transferase (GSTP1), which has both detoxification and signaling functions in promoting drug resistance. In both annual rye-grass and black-grass, MHR was also associated with the increased expression of an evolutionarily distinct plant phi (F) GSTF1 that had a restricted ability to detoxify herbicides. When the black-grass A. myosuroides ( Am ) Am GSTF1 was expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana, the transgenic plants acquired resistance to multiple herbicides and showed similar changes in their secondary, xenobiotic, and antioxidant metabolism to those determined in MHR weeds. Transcriptome array experiments showed that these changes in biochemistry were not due to changes in gene expression. Rather, Am GSTF1 exerted a direct regulatory control on metabolism that led to an accumulation of protective flavonoids. Further evidence for a key role for this protein in MHR was obtained by showing that the GSTP1- and MDR-inhibiting pharmacophore 4-chloro-7-nitro-benzoxadiazole was also active toward Am GSTF1 and helped restore herbicide control in MHR black-grass. These studies demonstrate a central role for specific GSTFs in MHR in weeds that has parallels with similar roles for unrelated GSTs in MDR in humans and shows their potential as targets for chemical intervention in resistant weed management.

SummaryBlack-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides) is a major weed of wheat in Europe, with several populations having acquired resistance to multiple herbicides of differing modes of action. As compared with herbicide-susceptible blackgrass, populations showing herbicide cross-resistance contained greatly elevated levels of a specific type I glutathione transferase (GST), termed AmGST2, but similar levels of a type III GST termed AmGST1. Following cloning and expression of the respective cDNAs, AmGST2 differed from AmGST1 in showing limited activity in detoxifying herbicides but high activities as a glutathione peroxidase (GPOX) capable of reducing organic hydroperoxides. In contrast to AmGST2, other GPOXs were not enhanced in the herbicide-resistant populations. Treatment with a range of herbicides used to control grass weeds in wheat resulted in increased levels of hydroperoxides in herbicidesusceptible populations but not in herbicide-resistant plants, consistent with AmGST2 functioning to prevent oxidative injury caused as a primary or secondary effect of herbicide action. Increased AmGST2 expression in blackgrass was associated with partial tolerance to the peroxidizing herbicide paraquat. The selective enhancement of AmGST2 expression resulted from a constitutively high expression of the respective gene, which was activated in herbicide-susceptible black-grass in response to herbicide safeners, dehydration and chemical treatments imposing oxidative stress. Our results provide strong evidence that GSTs can contribute to resistance to multiple herbicides by playing a role in oxidative stress tolerance in addition to detoxifying herbicides by catalysing their conjugation with glutathione.

The glucosylation of pollutant and pesticide metabolites in plants controls their bioactivity and the formation of subsequent chemical residues. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana contains >100 glycosyltransferases (GTs) dedicated to small-molecule conjugation and, whereas 44 of these enzymes catalyze the O-glucosylation of chlorinated phenols, only one, UGT72B1, shows appreciable Nglucosylating activity toward chloroanilines. UGT72B1 is a bifunctional O-glucosyltransferase (OGT) and N-glucosyltransferase (NGT). To investigate this unique dual activity, the structure of the protein was solved, at resolutions up to 1.45 Å, in various forms including the Michaelis complex with intact donor analog and trichlorophenol acceptor. The catalytic mechanism and basis for O/N specificity was probed by mutagenesis and domain shuffling with an orthologous enzyme from Brassica napus (BnUGT), which possesses only OGT activity. Mutation of BnUGT at just two positions (D312N and F315Y) installed high levels of NGT activity. Molecular modeling revealed the connectivity of these residues to H19 on UGT72B1, with its mutagenesis exclusively defining NGT activity in the Arabidopsis enzyme. These results shed light on the conjugation of nonnatural substrates by plant GTs, highlighting the catalytic plasticity of this enzyme class and the ability to engineer unusual and desirable transfer to nitrogen-based acceptors.enzymology ͉ glycosyltransferase ͉ xenobiotic ͉ glycosides ͉ domain-swapping P lants are constantly exposed to synthetic compounds, such as pollutants and crop protection agents, and are able to transform these xenobiotics by using a four-phase detoxification system that has immediate parallels with drug metabolism in animals (Fig. 1A). Absorbed xenobiotics are first metabolically activated by ''phase 1'' enzymes, which then facilitates their subsequent bioconjugation with polar natural products (amino acids, sugars, peptides) in phase 2 metabolism. In crops and weeds, the most commonly observed phase 2 reaction is glycosylation (1), a reaction catalyzed by family GT1 glycosyltransferases (2), which are more normally engaged in secondary metabolism (3). A diverse range of xenobiotics are known to undergo conjugation as O-, S-, and N-acceptors, with UDP-glucose (UDP-glc) being the most commonly observed sugar donor (1). Once synthesized, conjugates accumulate transiently in the cytosol before being transported (phase 3) to either the vacuole or apoplast (Fig. 1 A).Despite their central importance in the metabolism of herbicides, pesticides, and organic pollutants, the identity of the enzymes catalyzing the glycosylation of xenobiotics has only recently been determined through studying their activity in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (4,5). Arabidopsis plants rapidly metabolize persistent pollutants such as 2,4,5-trichlorophenol (TCP) and 3,4-dichloroaniline (DCA) by O-and N-glucosylation, respectively (4-7) (Fig. 1B). Several UDP-glc-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) in Arabidopsis have been shown to have O-gluco...