Skip to main content

Determination of Arginine and Ornithine Decarboxylase Activities in Plants

  • Protocol
  • First Online:
Book cover Polyamines

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1694))

Abstract

In plants, putrescine is synthesized directly from the decarboxylation of ornithine and/or by the alternative arginine decarboxylase pathway. The prevalence of one or the other depends on the tissue and stress conditions. In both amino acid decarboxylation reactions, the corresponding enzymes use pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) as co-factor. PLP combines with the α-amino acid to form a Schiff base, which acts as substrate in the carboxyl group removal and CO2 formation. We describe the methodology employed for the determination of ODC and ADC activities in plant tissues by detecting the release of (C14) CO2 using (C14) labelled substrates (ornithine or arginine).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Pegg AE, Casero RA Jr (2011) Current status of the polyamine research field. Methods Mol Biol 720:3–35

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Fuell C, Elliott KA, Hanfrey CC, Franceschetti M, Michael AJ (2010) Polyamine biosynthetic diversity in plants and algae. Plant Physiol Biochem 48:513–520

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Tiburcio AF, Altabella T, Bitrián M, Alcázar R (2014) The roles of polyamines during the lifespan of plants: from development to stress. Planta 240:1–18

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hanfrey C, Sommer S, Mayer MJ, Burtin D, Michael AJ (2001) Arabidopsis polyamine biosynthesis: absence of ornithine decarboxylase and the mechanism of arginine decarboxylase activity. Plant J 27:551–560

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Carbonell J, Blázquez MA (2009) Regulatory mechanisms of polyamine biosynthesis in plants. Genes Genomics 31:107–118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Alcázar R, Altabella T, Marco F, Bortolotti C, Reymond M, Koncz C, Carrasco P, Tiburcio AF (2010) Polyamines: molecules with regulatory functions in plant abiotic stress tolerance. Planta 231:1237–1249

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bitrián M, Zarza X, Altabella T, Tiburcio AF, Alcázar R (2012) Polyamines under abiotic stress: metabolic crossroads and hormonal crosstalks in plants. Meta 2:516–528

    Google Scholar 

  8. Slocum RD (1991) Tissue and subcellular localization of polyamines and enzymes of polyamine metabolism. In: Slocum RD, Flores HE (eds) Biochemistry and Physiology of Polyamines in Plants. CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, FL, pp 93–103

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bortolotti C, Cordeiro A, Alcázar R, Borrell A, Culiañez-Macià FA, Tiburcio AF, Altabella T (2004) Localization of arginine decarboxylase in tobacco plants. Physiol Plant 120:84–92

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Borrell A, Culiañez-Macia FA, Altabella T, Besford RT, Flores D, Tiburcio AF (1995) Arginine decarboxylase is localized in chloroplasts. Plant Physiol 109:771–776

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Lee J, Michael AJ, Martynowski D, Goldsmith EJ, Phillips MA (2007) Phylogenetic diversity and the structural basis of substrate specificity in the beta/alpha-barrel fold basic amino acid decarboxylases. J Biol Chem 282:27115–27125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Jordan F, Patel H (2013) Catalysis in enzymatic Decarboxylations: comparison of selected cofactor-dependent and cofactor-independent examples. ACS Catal 3:1601–1617

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Metcalf BW, Bey P, Danzin C, Jung MJ, Casara P, Ververt JP (1978) Catalytic irreversible inhibition of mammalian ornithine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.17) by substrate and product analogs. J Am Chem Soc 100:2551–2553

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Bitonti AJ, Casara PJ, McCann PP, Bey P (1987) Catalytic irreversible inhibition of bacterial and plant arginine decarboxylase activities by novel substrate and product analogues. Biochem J 242:69–74

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. McCann PP, Pegg AE, Sjodersma A (eds) (1987) Inhibition of polyamine metabolism. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rubén Alcázar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

About this protocol

Cite this protocol

Alcázar, R., Tiburcio, A.F. (2018). Determination of Arginine and Ornithine Decarboxylase Activities in Plants. In: Alcázar, R., Tiburcio, A. (eds) Polyamines. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1694. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7398-9_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7398-9_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-7397-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-7398-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

Publish with us

Policies and ethics