Laboratory of Plant Science, Migal - Galilee Technology Center, Kiryat Shmona 12100, Israel; Tel-Hai College, Upper Galilee 11016, Israel.
Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.
Plant Sci. 2018 Oct;275:11-18. doi: 10.1016/j.plantsci.2018.06.011. Epub 2018 Jul 18.
Amino acids play vital roles in the central metabolism of seeds. They are primarily utilized for the synthesis of seed-storage proteins, but also serve as precursors for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites and as a source of energy. Here, we aimed at describing the knowledge accumulated in recent years describing the changes occurring in the contents of free amino acids (FAAs) during seed development. Since several essential amino acids are found in low levels in seeds (e.g., Lys, Met, Thr, Val, Leu, Ile and His), or play unique functional roles in seed development (e.g., Pro and the non-proteinogenic γ-aminobutyrate [GABA]), we also briefly describe studies carried out in order to alter their levels in seeds and determine the effects of the manipulation on seed biology. The lion share of these studies highlights strong positive correlations between the biosynthetic pathways of FAAs, meaning that when the levels of a certain amino acid change in seeds, the contents of other FAAs tend to elevate as well. These observations infer a tight regulatory network operating in the biosynthesis of FAAs during seed development.
氨基酸在种子的中心代谢中起着至关重要的作用。它们主要用于合成种子贮藏蛋白，但也可以作为次生代谢物生物合成的前体和能量的来源。在这里，我们旨在描述近年来积累的关于种子发育过程中游离氨基酸 (FAAs) 含量变化的知识。由于一些必需氨基酸在种子中的含量较低（例如 Lys、Met、Thr、Val、Leu、Ile 和 His），或者在种子发育中发挥独特的功能作用（例如 Pro 和非蛋白质性的 γ-氨基丁酸 [GABA]），我们还简要描述了为改变它们在种子中的水平而进行的研究，并确定了这种操纵对种子生物学的影响。这些研究中的大部分都强调了 FAAs 生物合成途径之间的强烈正相关，这意味着当种子中某种氨基酸的水平发生变化时，其他 FAAs 的含量也往往会升高。这些观察结果推断出在种子发育过程中 FAAs 生物合成中存在一个紧密的调控网络。
