Skip to main content
PMC home page
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1985 Apr;77(4):978–983. doi: 10.1104/pp.77.4.978

Anaerobic Stress in Germinating Castor Bean, Ethanol Metabolism, and Effects on Subcellular Organelles

Robert P Donaldson 1, Patricia Soochan 1, Alexander Zaras 1
PMCID: PMC1064644  PMID: 16664175

Abstract

Endosperms from castor beans (Ricinus communis) germinated for 0 to 6 days were exposed to anoxia for 0 to 15 hours. Ethanol, the only alcohol detected by gas chromatography in the tissue, accumulates to a concentration of 15 millimolar during the first 2 to 4 hours of anoxia and subsequently decreases. The absolute amount of ethanol varies from 10 micromoles per 5-day endosperm after 4 hours anoxia to less than 1 micromole in 2-day endosperm after 4 hours. Lactate content is 2 micromoles or less per endosperm. Alcohol dehydrogenase and pyruvate decarboxylase activities, which are localized in cytosolic fractions, are not greatly affected by anoxia. The recoveries of the marker enzymes and protein in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondrial fractions decrease during anoxia. After 15 hours, the recovery of NADPH cytochrome c reductase is 15% of that in controls, fumarase is 50%, and catalase is 75%.

Glyoxysomes and ER are capable of converting ethanol to acetaldehyde which was measured using the fluorogenic reagent, 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione. The glyoxysomal activity is dependent on a hydrogen peroxide-generating substrate and the ER is dependent on NADPH. However, these activities are less than 3% of the alcohol dehydrogenase activity.

Full text

PDF
978

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alpi A., Beevers H. Effects of o(2) concentration on rice seedlings. Plant Physiol. 1983 Jan;71(1):30–34. doi: 10.1104/pp.71.1.30. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Andrews C. J., Pomeroy M. K. Toxicity of Anaerobic Metabolites Accumulating in Winter Wheat Seedlings during Ice Encasement. Plant Physiol. 1979 Jul;64(1):120–125. doi: 10.1104/pp.64.1.120. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cooper J. D. Determination of blood ethanol by gas chromatography. Clin Chim Acta. 1971 Jul;33(2):483–485. doi: 10.1016/0009-8981(71)90516-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Cooper T. G., Beevers H. Mitochondria and glyoxysomes from castor bean endosperm. Enzyme constitutents and catalytic capacity. J Biol Chem. 1969 Jul 10;244(13):3507–3513. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Donaldson R. P. Nicotinamide cofactors (NAD and NADP) in glyoxysomes, mitochondria, and plastids isolated from castor bean endosperm. Arch Biochem Biophys. 1982 Apr 15;215(1):274–279. doi: 10.1016/0003-9861(82)90305-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kimmerer T. W., Kozlowski T. T. Ethylene, Ethane, Acetaldehyde, and Ethanol Production By Plants under Stress. Plant Physiol. 1982 Apr;69(4):840–847. doi: 10.1104/pp.69.4.840. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kobr M. J., Beevers H. Gluconeogenesis in the castor bean endosperm: I. Changes in glycolytic intermediates. Plant Physiol. 1971 Jan;47(1):48–52. doi: 10.1104/pp.47.1.48. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Langston P. J., Pace C. N., Hart G. E. Wheat Alcohol Dehydrogenase Isozymes: PURIFICATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND GENE EXPRESSION. Plant Physiol. 1980 Mar;65(3):518–522. doi: 10.1104/pp.65.3.518. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Lieber C. S., DeCarli L. M., Matsuzaki S., Ohnishi K., Teschke R. The microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS). Methods Enzymol. 1978;52:355–367. doi: 10.1016/s0076-6879(78)52039-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nishimura M., Beevers H. Subcellular distribution of gluconeogenetic enzymes in germinating castor bean endosperm. Plant Physiol. 1979 Jul;64(1):31–37. doi: 10.1104/pp.64.1.31. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Oshino N., Jamieson D., Sugano T., Chance B. Optical measurement of the catalase-hydrogen peroxide intermediate (Compound I) in the liver of anaesthetized rats and its implication to hydrogen peroxide production in situ. Biochem J. 1975 Jan;146(1):67–77. doi: 10.1042/bj1460067. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Peterson C. A., Cossins E. A. Participation of the glyoxylate cycle in the metabolism of ethanol by castor bean endosperm tissues. Can J Biochem. 1966 Apr;44(4):423–432. doi: 10.1139/o66-052. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Pomeroy M. K., Andrews C. J. Metabolic and ultrastructural changes associated with flooding at low temperature in winter wheat and barley. Plant Physiol. 1979 Oct;64(4):635–639. doi: 10.1104/pp.64.4.635. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Tajima S., Larue T. A. Enzymes for acetaldehyde and ethanol formation in legume nodules. Plant Physiol. 1982 Aug;70(2):388–392. doi: 10.1104/pp.70.2.388. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES