TY - CHAP

T1 - Metabolons and bio-condensates

T2 - The essence of plant plasticity and the key elements in development of green production systems

AU - Møller, Birger Lindberg

AU - Laursen, Tomas

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - An insufficient vocabulary and lack of a proper molecular grammar tends to simplify the exquisite organization of the cellular environment in which plant metabolism is orchestrated. Chaos at the cellular level would not have enabled plants to evolve as the chemists par excellence in nature. Certain molecules such as sugars, amino acids and organic acids, are always present in considerable amounts in plant cells. In the proper stoichiometric ratios, they may form natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) and thereby provide a third intracellular phase in addition to oil and water. With a negligible vapor pressure and superior ability to solubilize natural products, they may fine tune the localization and activity of enzymes and guide storage of natural products in dense bio-condensates through liquid-liquid phase separation. In the absence of a stringent lipid bilayer border, such dynamic compartments may allow for swift mixing and demixing depending on metabolic demands. In plants, aromatic amino acids serve as precursors of an impressive diversity of bioactive natural compounds including alkaloids, cyanogenic glucosides and phenylpropanoids. This product diversity is largely achieved through combinatorial assembly of sequential enzymes into efficient enzyme complexes, metabolons, that facilitate substrate channeling and dependent on their configuration establish metabolic highways towards formation of specific end products. Based on specific experimental systems, we discuss how new technologies with improved spatial and temporal resolution are now making it possible to study the dynamics of plant metabolism based on metabolon and bio-condensate formation making these substantive words in the glossary.

AB - An insufficient vocabulary and lack of a proper molecular grammar tends to simplify the exquisite organization of the cellular environment in which plant metabolism is orchestrated. Chaos at the cellular level would not have enabled plants to evolve as the chemists par excellence in nature. Certain molecules such as sugars, amino acids and organic acids, are always present in considerable amounts in plant cells. In the proper stoichiometric ratios, they may form natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) and thereby provide a third intracellular phase in addition to oil and water. With a negligible vapor pressure and superior ability to solubilize natural products, they may fine tune the localization and activity of enzymes and guide storage of natural products in dense bio-condensates through liquid-liquid phase separation. In the absence of a stringent lipid bilayer border, such dynamic compartments may allow for swift mixing and demixing depending on metabolic demands. In plants, aromatic amino acids serve as precursors of an impressive diversity of bioactive natural compounds including alkaloids, cyanogenic glucosides and phenylpropanoids. This product diversity is largely achieved through combinatorial assembly of sequential enzymes into efficient enzyme complexes, metabolons, that facilitate substrate channeling and dependent on their configuration establish metabolic highways towards formation of specific end products. Based on specific experimental systems, we discuss how new technologies with improved spatial and temporal resolution are now making it possible to study the dynamics of plant metabolism based on metabolon and bio-condensate formation making these substantive words in the glossary.

KW - Bio-condensates

KW - Bioactive natural products

KW - Green production

KW - Liquid-liquid phase separation

KW - Metabolons

KW - NADES

KW - Plant plasticity

KW - Plant specialized metabolism

KW - Substrate channeling

U2 - 10.1016/bs.abr.2020.09.006

DO - 10.1016/bs.abr.2020.09.006

M3 - Book chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85092482867

SN - 978-0-12-821691-0

T3 - Advances in Botanical Research

SP - 185

EP - 223

BT - Advances in Botanical Research

PB - Academic Press

ER -