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Review
. 2020 Jul 30;21(15):5421.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21155421.

D-amino Acids in Plants: Sources, Metabolism, and Functions

Üner Kolukisaoglu  1
Affiliations
Review

D-amino Acids in Plants: Sources, Metabolism, and Functions

Üner Kolukisaoglu. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Although plants are permanently exposed to D-amino acids (D-AAs) in the rhizosphere, these compounds were for a long time regarded as generally detrimental, due to their inhibitory effects on plant growth. Recent studies showed that this statement needs a critical revision. There were several reports of active uptake by and transport of D-AAs in plants, leading to the question whether these processes happened just as side reactions or even on purpose. The identification and characterization of various transporter proteins and enzymes in plants with considerable affinities or specificities for D-AAs also pointed in the direction of their targeted uptake and utilization. This attracted more interest, as D-AAs were shown to be involved in different physiological processes in plants. Especially, the recent characterization of D-AA stimulated ethylene production in Arabidopsis thaliana revealed for the first time a physiological function for a specific D-AA and its metabolizing enzyme in plants. This finding opened the question regarding the physiological or developmental contexts in which D-AA stimulated ethylene synthesis are involved in. This question and the ones about the transport characteristics of D-AAs, their metabolism, and their different physiological effects, are the focus of this review.

Keywords: D-Met stimulated ethylene synthesis; D-amino acids; amino acid metabolism; amino acid transport in plants; peptidoglycan in chloroplasts.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ways of d-AA allocation in the root.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Major metabolic pathways of d-Met and ACC in Arabidopsis, according to [41]. Green and red colored arrows indicate the decrease and increase of both educts and their products, respectively, in the course of d-Met accumulation, as it happens in plants with loss of DAT1 activity. The ACO reaction was according to [70]. ACO—ACC oxidase; NMT—N-malonyl-transferase.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Proven and putative physiological functions of particular d-AAs in plants. The question mark (?) stands for yet unknown functions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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