Organic Chemistry Research on the Mechanistic Elucidation of Iron Acquisition in Barley

Abstract

An organic chemistry approach to the mechanistic elucidation of iron acquisition in graminaceous plants is introduced here. To elucidate this detailed mechanism using phytosiderophores, the efficient synthesis of 2′-deoxymugineic acid (DMA), a phytosiderophore of rice, was established. The synthetic DMA was confirmed to have similar iron transport activity to that of natural mugineic acid (MA). It was also revealed that the addition of synthetic DMA, along with iron, to a rice hydroponic solution enabled the rice to grow well even under an alkaline condition, and DMA clearly showed its high potential as a fertilizer to improve food production. On the other hand, the 2′-hydroxy group of MA was confirmed to serve as a point of introduction for labeling, allowing the synthesis of various mugineic acid derivatives as molecular probes. The incorporation of fluorescent mugineic acid into cells allowed them to be clearly observed by fluorescence confocal analysis, and this provided the first direct experimental evidence of transporter-mediated internalization of mugineic acid into cells.

Catechol-Loading Nanofibrous Membranes for Eco-Friendly Iron Nutrition of Plants

“…In the so called Strategy I (nongraminaceous) plants, additional to the acidification of the surrounding environment, the species also uses several classes of compounds, from organic acids (OAs) to phenolic compounds (PCs), that are released as part of exudates from roots outwards to chelate iron with different capacities [11,12,13]. Differently, in Strategy II (graminaceous) plants, highly efficient organic compounds called phytosiderophores (PSs) (siderophores, in the case of microbes (MSs)) are extruded from roots to act as scavengers for Fe 3+ [14,15,16]. Therefore, the employment of bioactive and biological agents capable of chelating iron (OAs, PCs, or PSs/MSs) could be useful in creating a novel type of iron-supplying products for plants to be applied in agriculture, plant nurseries, and gardening, aimed at being more efficient, effective, and environmentally friendly.…”