The demand for natural food colourants is increasing because of public awareness of their health benefits. Betalains are nitrogen-containing plant pigments whose colours range from red-violet ...betacyanins to yellow betaxanthins. They are used for colouring dairy products, meat and frozen desserts. Betalains have attracted additional interest because of their antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties. The main source of commercially produced betalains is red beet root, but alternative sources are found in plants from the Amaranthaceae and Cactaceae families. Another alternative source is plant cell culture in bioreactors, although optimization of pigment production seems necessary. In this paper we synthesize the results of recent studies on betalain biosynthesis, chemical properties, sources, biotechnology and applications.
We aim to demonstrate that a complex plant tissue protein mixture can be reliably "fingerprinted" by running conventional 1-D SDS-PAGE in bulk and analyzing gel banding patterns using machine ...learning methods. An unsupervised approach to filter noise and systemic biases (principal component analysis) was coupled to state-of-the-art supervised methods for classification (support vector machines) and attribute ranking (ReliefF) to improve tissue discrimination, visualization, and recognition of important gel regions.
Protein glycosylation is a co- and post-translational modification that influences protein function, stability and localization. Changes in glycoprotein pattern during ...differentiation/dedifferentiation events exist in animal cells and DNA methylation status is closely related to the changes. However, in plant cells this relationship is not yet established. In order to verify whether such a relation exists, hypermethylating drugs 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and hydroxyurea, or hypomethylating drug 5-azacytozine were applied to sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cells during 14 days of in vitro subculture, and the glycoprotein patterns of the cells were compared. The applied drugs were not toxic, as observed from cell phenotype and by measuring growth of the control and treated cells. Hyper and hypomethylating treatments influenced the activity of enzymes related to differentiation state of the cells: peroxidases and esterases, and their isoform patterns. Electrophoretic patterns of soluble and membrane proteins were similar between control and treatments, but the treatments modified N- and O-linked glycoprotein patterns as visible from GNA and PNA lectin blots. This suggested that hypermethylation and hypomethylation of genomic DNA in sugar beet cells affect protein glycosylation patterns and cellular metabolism, possibly in a mechanism similar to that existing in animal cells.
In this study cellular proteins of in vitro grown horseradish (Armoracia lapathifolia Gilib.) tissues of different morphologies, leaves (L), teratoma (TM) and tumor (TN), were separated by ...one-dimensional (1-DE) and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-DE) in order to reveal developmentally specific proteins. Moreover, proteins were subjected to analyses by lectin assays to reveal whether the morphological differences were reflected in protein glycosylation. 1-DE glycoprotein pattern showed substantial distinctions between horseradish tissues of different morphologies, which was in contrast to silver stained protein profiles, where only slightly qualitative changes were observed. 2-DE revealed more differences in expression of cellular proteins between examined tissues in comparison to 1-DE, while 2-DE blots confirmed quantitative difference in expression of 43 kDa glycoprotein between investigated tissues. Mass spectrometry analysis identified this protein as a typical horseradish peroxidase. Obtained results imply that the oligosaccharide structures could be important determinants of specificities of horseradish tissue morphology. (doi: 10.5562/cca2078) Keywords: morphogenesis, horseradish, glycoproteins, lectine assay, tissue culture, 2-DE
Plant development is influenced by changes in the levels and types of sugars produced metabolically. The normal (N), habituated organogenic (HO) and habituated nonorganogenic (HNO) sugar beet cell ...lines originate from the same mother plant but exhibit distinct levels of morphogenesis and differentiation, and contain different levels of simple carbohydrates. We aim to elucidate whether differences in the abundance and activity of enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism and sugar sensing/signalling help explain the different carbohydrate profiles and differentiation states of the cell lines. Using sup.13C NMR spectroscopy to analyze cultures of the cell lines over 28 days, we found that N cells accumulated sucrose; HO cells sucrose, glucose and fructose; and HNO cells glucose and fructose. Of three invertase isoforms, the activity of cell wall invertase (CWI) was highest in all the cell lines, and CWI activity was greatest in HNO line. The specific accumulation of intracellular carbohydrates during subculture correlated strongly with CWI activity but less so with the vacuolar and cytoplasmic invertase isoforms, or with sucrose synthase activity. Cell lines showed differences in how sugars regulated invertase and sucrose synthase activity. The role of sugar sensing in the regulation of CWI activity was investigated in the cell lines using glucose and sucrose, as well as carbohydrate analogues such as mannitol, 2-O-deoxyglucose and 3-O-methylglucose. Differences in the regulation of CWI activity by carbohydrates across the three cell lines suggest that CWI can be fine-tuned according to the specific carbohydrate requirements of each line during growth. Differences in sugar signalling pathways across the cell lines were explored using glucose and sucrose in the presence of inhibitors of protein kinases or phosphatases. Taken together, our findings suggest that specific regulation of CWI activity plays an important role in determining the intracellular carbohydrate levels of sugar beet cell lines, and possibly their differentiation state as well. Key words: carbohydrate metabolism, differentiation, invertases, NMR, sucrose synthase
In a previous study it was reported that transformed tissue of horseradish (Armoracia lapathifolia Gilib.), obtained by infection of leaf explants with A tumefaciens, developed two tumour lines with ...different morphology. One line grew as a completely unorganized tissue (TN--tumour tissue), while the other line grew as a partially organized teratogenous tumour with malformed hyperhydric shoots (TM--teratoma tissue), but did not regenerate the whole plant of normal morphology. The factor responsible for this problem could be the increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, in this study a possible involvement of activated oxygen metabolism in dedifferentiation and hyperhydricity in TM and TN tissues is investigated. Elevated values of malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl contents found in TM and TN, in comparison with plantlet leaf, confirm the presence of oxidative stress. However, lower H.sub.2O.sub.2 content was measured in TM and TN. Lipoxygenase (LOX) activity was more pronounced in TM and especially in TN compared to leaf, which suggests that the LOX-dependent peroxidation of fatty acids might be one of the causes of oxidative damage. Moreover, significantly higher peroxidase (PRX) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity as well as the increased number of their isoforms was found in transformed TM and TN in comparison with leaf. On the other hand, significantly lower superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was found in TM and TN, which correlates with lower H.sub.2O.sub.2 content. High catalase (CAT) activity measured in leaf and partially organized TM is consistent with the role of CAT in growth and differentiation. In conclusion, in horseradish transformed tissues that underwent dedifferentiation and hyperhydricity, prominent oxidative damage was found. This result suggests that oxidative stress could be associated with the inability of partially organized teratogenous TM to regenerate plantlets with normal morphology. Key words: antioxidative enzymes, horseradish, isoenzyme pattern, oxidative stress, tissue culture, tumour tissue
The objective of this work is to transform sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L. var. altissima) cells using Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a wild octopine strain B6S3, and to study metabolic changes associated ...with the transformation. From the primary tumours on leaf fragments, two tumour lines were established: one pale green and the other red-violet in colour. The red-violet pigment was identified by means of high-performance liquid chromatography as betanin. Betanin production is strongly light-dependent. To enhance the betanin yield, nutrient media with different carbohydrates like sucrose, a combination of glucose and fructose, or only glucose or only fructose were tested. The selection of carbohydrate affected betanin production and yield. It was observed that the production of betanin per g of dry mass was 20-40 % higher on simple carbohydrates, especially fructose, than on sucrose or the combination of glucose and fructose. However, due to higher biomass production on the medium with sucrose, the highest total yield of betanin was obtained in the presence of sucrose. The most suitable time for possible betanin extraction was between days 7 and 14 for tissue grown on sucrose. The tumour line seems to be promising as an alternative source of betanin as well as a model to study sugar-regulated genes involved in tissue morphology control. Key words: Agrobacterium tumefaciens, betacyanins, carbohydrates, in vitro tissue culture, pigment, secondary metabolites
Transgenic plants have recently emerged as a promising system for low-cost and large-scale production of therapeutic proteins. Despite many advantages plants offer as hosts for expression of ...recombinant proteins, there are certain limitations caused by major structural differences between plant and mammalian N-linked glycans. Thus, efforts are being made in order to eliminate, or at least minimize, plant-specific N-glycosylation as well as to supplement the plant endogenous system with human glycosyltransferases to obtain »humanized« non-immunogenic N-glycans on plant-made pharmaceuticals aimed for human therapy.
The extracellular proteins in three distinctly induced embryogenic lines of pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.) cultivated in four MS media modified regarding the nitrogen composition or auxin ...presence/absence have been analyzed. Extracellular glycoproteins containing α-D-mannose were specifically detected by the lectine concavalin A. During the cultivation of embryogenic tissue in the medium supplemented with reduced nitrogen, the embryos were mostly arrested at preglobular and globular developmental stages, which coincide with the absence of protein secretion. Secreted glycoproteins of 76, 68, 37 and 34 kDa were detected only if any of the three lines were cultivated in the medium that stimulates embryo development, irrespectively of the addition of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid or tunicamycin. The glycoprotein of 64 kDa was detected in all lines cultivated in hormone-free MS medium with conventional nitrogen sources and it appears to be associated with embryo maturation. Tunicamycin treatment did not influence embryogenesis, although it specifically affected glycosylation of proteins in the investigated lines. Our results show that besides auxin, the source of nitrate is of great importance for proper protein glycosylation, excretion and developmental transition of pumpkin somatic embryos. Key words: Cucurbita pepo L., extracellular glycoproteins, hormone-free medium, nitrogen sources, pumpkin, somatic embryogenesis
Sve je veća potražnja za prirodnim bojilima zbog njihovih zdravstvenih pogodnosti. Betalaini su biljni pigmenti koji sadrže dušik, s rasponom boja od crveno-ljubičastih betacijana do žutih ...betaksantina. Koriste se za bojanje mliječnih proizvoda, mesa i smrznutih deserta. Zanimljivi su i zbog svoga antioksidativog, protuupalnog i antikancerogenog djelovanja. Glavni komercijalni izvor betalaina je korijen cikle, a alternativni izvori pigmenta nalaze se u biljkama iz porodica Amaranthaceae i Cactaceae. Biljne stanice uzgajane u bioreaktorima također su izvor pigmenata iako je potrebno daljnje optimiranje njihove proizvodnje. U ovom su radu sažeti rezultati nedavnih istraživanja biosinteze betalaina, njihovih kemijskih svojstava, izvora, biotehnologije i uporabe.
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