Short-chain fatty acids as inhibitors of gibberellin-induced amylolysis in barley endosperm

Buller, David C.; Parker, W.; Reid, J. S. Grant

doi:10.1038/260169a0

Cited by 27 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9). We were interested in seeking a correlation between the content of fatty acid and physiological behavior in Steam distillation of the aqueous solution obtained from the common oat was adopted because of problems associated with subsequent partitioning against acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9 Ripe grains were stored at a constant temperature of 20 C in darkness until required for analysis.Single large batches of grain were collected. Prior to beginning the routine extractions, a model system employing replication at all levels was carried out for each acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

et al. 1979

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Species of Avena differ markedly in their levels of pre-and post-harvest dormancy. These species offer the opportunity of determining if dormancy is related to the endogenous level of growth inhibitor. Germinability in two species of differing levels of dormancy, common oat Avena sadva L., and wild oat Avena fatus L. was assessed as were the contents of abscisic acid and volatile fatty acids of chain length C6-ClO. In A. sativa which did not possess postharvest dormancy there was no correlation between germination and inhibitor levels but in A. fatua the relationship between the content of fatty acid and dormancy was good. The loss of these fatty acids in dry storage by evaporation could explain after ripening.In oats (A vena spp.) there is a considerable range of degrees of dormancy from the almost nondormant common oat (A. sativa L.) which at most shows a brief postharvest dormancy, through the appreciable dormancy of the wild oat (A.fatua L.) to the profound dormancy of the winter wild oat (A. ludoviciana Dur.), especially with respect to the upper grain of the dissemule. The level of dormancy in this last species during maturation is less than when fully ripe (17,21). However, Morgan and Berrie (17) showed that if immature grains were dried before testing these dried grains showed a degree of dormancy equivalent to the mature grain.Wright (25) showed that water-stressed plants had elevated levels of an ABA-containing complex, possibly produced to control stomatal aperture (12). It might be concluded that ABA would accumulate in plant tissues in which the water contents were reduced compared to average normal tissues. Inasmuch as ABA is a well known germination inhibitor, such accumulation could explain the pattern of emergence found in maturing A vena spp.With the possible exception of ABA, naturally occurring plant growth inhibitors are considered to be nonspecific (15). This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9 Ripe grains were stored at a constant temperature of 20 C in darkness until required for analysis.Single large batches of grain were collected. Prior to beginning the routine extractions, a model system employing replication at all levels was carried out for each acid. Isotope dilution was employed to estimate efficiency of extraction and recoveries were also estimated by "seeding" samples with known amounts of acid. From these experiments the coefficient of variation for each acid was determined. In the working analyses the final analysis was carried out in triplicate and the average of these was employed, using the appropriate coefficient of variation to estimate the standard deviation. It is this value which is reported in the tables.Extraction

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confidence: 99%

“…This includes the coumarins which can impose light sensitivity on lettuce seed (4). Fatty acids of chain length C6-C12 occur in many plants and influence seed germination and hydrolase production in a manner contrary to known promotive plant hormones (3,9 Ripe grains were stored at a constant temperature of 20 C in darkness until required for analysis.Single large batches of grain were collected. Prior to beginning the routine extractions, a model system employing replication at all levels was carried out for each acid.…”

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confidence: 99%

Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

et al. 1979

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“…In the only study reported previously on the effect of short chain acids on the amylolytic activity in barley endosperm, it was speculated that the inhibition could be due to a decrease in the catalytic activity of a-amylase, perhaps, by a decrease in the susceptibility of starch to the enzyme attack (9,34). Our study clearly shows that this is not so but that butyrate undoubtedly interferes reversibly with some event(s) related to the transcriptional process.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 47%

“…All of the studies cited above raise some very interesting questions concerning the cellular mechanisms for the perception of the hormonal signal and the triggering of specific gene expression. Prompted by an earlier report (9) suggesting an inhibitory effect by short chain fatty acidson .the GA-induced amylolytic activity of barley endosperm and other reports on the effects of butyrate on gene expression in animal cells in culture (29), we undertook a detailed investigation of the effect of sodium butyrate on the GA-induced formation of a-amylase as an extension of our previous studies. The results constituting the present communication establish clearly that butyrate inhibits the synthesis of a-amylase and other GA-induced proteins at the transcriptional level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of the expression of ?-amylase gene by sodium butyrate

et al. 1985

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Sodium butyrate exerts a pronounced inhibition on the gibberellic acid-induced synthesis and secretion of α-amylase by aleurone cells of barley seeds. This inhibition, which is reversible and non-competitive with cespect to gibberellic acid, is concentration dependent, with virtually total inhibition being accomplished between 4 and 5 mM sodium butyrate. The pattern of inhibition of α-amylase formation correlates well with a decrease in the accumulation of its messenger RNA. The addition of butyrate 12 h after the addition of gibberellic acid to half-seeds, has no effect on the formation and secretion of α-amylase. It has been shown in earlier studies that the synthesis of α-amylase mRNAs takes about 12 h for completion. The conclusion that butyrate interferes with some step in the transcriptional process is supported by a decrease observed in the RNAs that hybridize with a cloned α-amylase cDNA. The results of in vitro translation confirm the inhibition of the formation of several translatable mRNAs. Further, immunological probing detected only trace amounts of α-amylase proteins in the secretion of butyrate-treated seeds. Translation of functional mRNAs, post-translational modifications and the secretion α-amylase are not affected by sodium butyrate. It is concluded that butyrate selectively inhibits the transcription of several genes that are under the influence of gibberellic acid. This report is the first one documenting the inhibitory effect of sodium butyrate on a hormone-induced synthesis and accumulation of mRNAs in a plant system.

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“…While the growth-promoting activity of monocarboxylic acids in this study appears to be a surprising result based upon the inhibitory responses generally associated with short chain fatty acids (5,7,12,14,17,22,24,27,33,34), a significant number of previously identified, dormancy-breaking chemicals (6) are also weak acids as well as growth inhibitors in other biological systems. The diverse chemical structures of these compounds have made it difficult to arrive at a unified hypothesis as to how However, while these weak acids contain various anionic components, they all possess a dissociable proton.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Seed Dormancy in Red Rice

Cohn¹,

Chiles²,

Hughes³

et al. 1987

Plant Physiol.

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The weak acid character of many previously identified, but otherwise chemically dissimilar, dormancy-breaking compounds may contribute to their physiological activity. To test this idea, short chain monocarboxylic acids of one to six carbons, for which no previous reports of such activity exist, were incubated with dormant, dehulled red rice (Oryza sativa) seeds. Greater than 90% germination was observed after 24 hours of imbibition with 19 millimolar formic, 53 millimolar acetic, 20 millimolar propionic, 28 millimolar butyric, 20 millimolar valeric, or 16 millimolar caproic acid followed by 7 to 14 days incubation on water at 30°C. Dormancy-breaking activity was pH-dependent. Incubation medium pH values that favored formation of the protonated species resulted in the highest germination percentages. There was no promotive effect of medium pH itself in the range of 3 to 7. In contrast, germination of intact seeds was less than 40% in the presence of 55 millimolar monocarboxylic acids at pH 3, unless seeds were partially dry-afterripened. The pHdependent activity of these acids was maintained during afterripening of intact seeds. The results are consistent with the idea that the dissociable proton of weak acids is responsible for their dormancy-breaking activity. Many other weak acids may break seed dormancy but have been overlooked due to the rigid pH dependence necessary for activity.The pH of the incubation medium modulates the dormancybreaking activity ofgibberellic acid (8,13,21, 28,30,31), nitrite (9, 10), azide, cyanide, and hydroxylamine (11 ent with the concept that dormancy-breaking activity is due to the neutral form of each substance rather than a general effect of the acidity of the incubation medium, is provided. MATERIALS AND METHODSMature, awnless, strawhulled red rice seeds (Oryza sativa) were obtained at the South Farm, Rice Research Station, Crowley, LA in 1985. Harvesting, processing, and storage procedures used were those previously described (9). Air-dried seeds were stored at -I 5°C until use.Germination tests were performed using the system described by Cohn and Hughes (11). Seeds were incubated in buffered aqueous solutions of formic (pK=3.75), acetic (pK=4.76), propionic (pK=4.87), butyric (pK=4.82), valeric (pK=4.82), or caproic (pK=4.83) acid for 24 h. Germination was scored during a subsequent 7-or 14-d incubation on water. The pH of each test solution was recorded after incubation to check for sufficient buffering capacity during imbibition. All incubations were performed at 30°C in darkness. Each treatment consisted of five replications, and experiments were repeated at least three times. All chemicals employed were reagent grade and stored at room temperature. Monocarboxylic acid solutions were buffered with 25 mm citrate-phosphate and prepared fresh daily. Dilute HCI or NaOH were used to adjust the pH of test solutions. When required, intact seeds were dehulled by hand just prior to treatments. For experiments investigating the effect ofdry-afterripening at 30°C upon chemi...

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Short-chain fatty acids as inhibitors of gibberellin-induced amylolysis in barley endosperm

Cited by 27 publications

References 8 publications

Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

Possible Role of Volatile Fatty Acids and Abscisic Acid in the Dormancy of Oats

Regulation of the expression of ?-amylase gene by sodium butyrate

Seed Dormancy in Red Rice

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