Cell wall polysaccharide biosynthesis and related metabolism in elicitor-stressed cells of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.).

Enzyme activities involved in quantitative and qualitative flux of sugars into cell wall polysaccharides were determined following elicitor treatment of suspension cultured cells of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Two subsets of activities were examined: the first were involved in synthesis and metabolism of UDP-glucose and the provision of the pool of UDP-sugars, and the second a selection of membrane-bound glycosyltransferases involved in the synthesis of pectins, hemicelluloses and glucans of the primary cell wall. Of the first group, only UDP-glucose dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.22) showed any significant induction in response to elicitor treatment, sucrose synthase (EC 2.4.1.13), UDP-glucuronate decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.35), UDP-glucose and UDP-xylose 4-epimerases (EC 5.1.3.2 and EC 5.1.3.5 respectively) did not change in activity significantly over the time course. In contrast, enzymes of the second group showed a more complex response. Callose synthase (glucan synthase II, EC 2.4.1.12) increased in activity, as has been shown in other systems, while arabinan synthase (EC 2.4.1.-), xylan synthase (EC 2.4.1.72), xyloglucan synthase (EC 2.4.1.72) and glucan synthase I (EC 2.4.1.12) activities were rapidly depleted from membranes within 3 h following elicitor action. This rapid turnover of activity was striking, indicating that the half-life of such enzymes can be short and that elicitor action causes substantial perturbation of some membrane activities. Glucan synthase I activity appears to increase in the later stages over the time period measured, indicating some recovery of this metabolism.