Polish Academy of Sciences, The Franciszek Górski Institute of Plant Physiology, Niezapominajek 21, 30-239 Kraków, Poland.
Laboratory of Growth Regulators, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Experimental Botany & Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, CZ-78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Mar 11;22(6):2855. doi: 10.3390/ijms22062855.
Ecdysteroids (ECs) are steroid hormones originally found in the animal kingdom where they function as insect molting hormones. Interestingly, a relatively high number of these substances can also be formed in plant cells. Moreover, ECs have certain regulatory effects on plant physiology, but their role in plants still requires further study. One of the main aims of the present study was to verify a hypothesis that fenarimol, an inhibitor of the biosynthesis of ECs in the animal kingdom, also affects the content of endogenous ECs in plants using winter wheat L. as a model plant. The levels of endogenous ECs in winter wheat, including the estimation of their changes during a course of different temperature treatments, have been determined using a sensitive analytical method based on UHPLC-MS/MS. Under our experimental conditions, four substances of EC character were detected in the tissue of interest in amounts ranging from less than 1 to over 200 pg·g FW: 20-hydroxyecdysone, polypodine B, turkesterone, and isovitexirone. Among them, turkesterone was observed to be the most abundant EC and accumulated mainly in the crowns and leaves of wheat. Importantly, the level of ECs was observed to be dependent on the age of the plants, as well as on growth conditions (especially temperature). Fenarimol, an inhibitor of a cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, was shown to significantly decrease the level of naturally occurring ECs in experimental plants, which may indicate its potential use in studies related to the biosynthesis and physiological function of these substances in plants.
蜕皮甾类（ECs）最初在动物王国中被发现，它们作为昆虫蜕皮激素发挥作用。有趣的是，植物细胞中也能形成相对数量较高的这些物质。此外，ECs 对植物生理学具有一定的调节作用，但它们在植物中的作用仍需要进一步研究。本研究的主要目的之一是验证一个假设，即动物王国中 EC 生物合成抑制剂 fenarimol 也会影响植物内源性 ECs 的含量，使用冬小麦 L. 作为模式植物来验证这一假设。使用基于 UHPLC-MS/MS 的灵敏分析方法，确定了冬小麦内源 ECs 的水平，包括在不同温度处理过程中它们变化的估计。在我们的实验条件下，在感兴趣的组织中检测到了四种具有 EC 特征的物质，其含量范围从不到 1 到超过 200 pg·g FW：20-羟基蜕皮酮、多足素 B、turkesterone 和异牡荆苷。其中，turkesterone 被观察到是最丰富的 EC，主要积累在小麦的冠层和叶片中。重要的是，ECs 的水平被观察到依赖于植物的年龄以及生长条件（特别是温度）。作为细胞色素 P450 单加氧酶抑制剂的 fenarimol 被证明可显著降低实验植物中天然存在的 ECs 水平，这可能表明其在与这些物质在植物中的生物合成和生理功能相关的研究中具有潜在用途。
