The Arabidopsis thaliana transparent testa10 (tt10) mutant exhibits a delay in developmentally determined browning of the seed coat, also called the testa. Seed coat browning is caused by the oxidation of flavonoids, particularly proanthocyanidins, which are polymers of flavan-3-ol subunits such as epicatechin and catechin. The tt10 mutant seeds accumulate more epicatechin monomers and more soluble proanthocyanidins than wild-type seeds. Moreover, intact testa cells of tt10 cannot trigger H 2 O 2 -independent browning in the presence of epicatechin and catechin, in contrast with wild-type cells. UVvisible light detection and mass spectrometry revealed that the major oxidation products obtained with epicatechin alone are yellow dimers called dehydrodiepicatechin A. These products differ from proanthocyanidins in the nature and position of their interflavan linkages. Flavonol composition was also affected in tt10 seeds, which exhibited a higher ratio of quercetin rhamnoside monomers versus dimers than wild-type seeds. We identified the TT10 gene by a candidate gene approach. TT10 encodes a protein with strong similarity to laccase-like polyphenol oxidases. It is expressed essentially in developing testa, where it colocalizes with the flavonoid end products proanthocyanidins and flavonols. Together, these data establish that TT10 is involved in the oxidative polymerization of flavonoids and functions as a laccase-type flavonoid oxidase.

Functional characterization of genes involved in the flavonoid metabolism and its regulation requires in-depth analysis of flavonoid structure and composition of seed from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Here, we report an analysis of the diverse and specific flavonoids that accumulate during seed development and maturation in wild types and mutants. Wild type seed contained more than 26 different flavonoids belonging to flavonols (mono and diglycosylated quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin derivatives) and flavan-3-ols (epicatechin monomers and soluble procyanidin polymers with degrees of polymerization up to 9). Most of them are described for the first time in Arabidopsis. Interestingly, a novel group of four biflavonols that are dimers of quercetin-rhamnoside was also detected. Quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside (the major flavonoid), biflavonols, epicatechin and procyanidins accumulated in the seed coat in contrast to diglycosylated flavonols that were essentially observed in the embryo. Epicatechin, procyanidins and an additional quercetin-rhamnoside-hexoside derivative were synthesized in large quantities during seed development, whereas quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside displayed two peaks of accumulation. Finally, 11 mutants affected in known structural or regulatory functions of the pathway and their three corresponding wild types were also studied. Flavonoid profiles of the mutants were consistent with previous predictions based on genetic and molecular data. In addition, they also revealed the presence of new products in seed and underlined the plasticity of this metabolic pathway in the mutants.

The rms4 mutant of pea (Pisum sativum L.) was used in grafting studies and cytokinin analyses of the root xylem sap to provide evidence that, at least for pea, the shoot can modify the import of cytokinins from the root. The rms4 mutation, which confers a phenotype with increased branching in the shoot, causes a very substantial decrease (down to 40‐fold less) in the concentration of zeatin riboside (ZR) in the xylem sap of the roots. Results from grafts between wild‐type (WT) and rms4 plants indicate that the concentration of cytokinins in the xylem sap of the roots is determined almost entirely by the genotype of the shoot. WT scions normalize the cytokinin concentration in the sap of rms4 mutant roots, whereas mutant scions cause WT roots to behave like those of self‐grafted mutant plants. The mechanism whereby rms4 shoots of pea cause a down‐regulation in the export of cytokinins from the roots is unknown at this time. However, our data provide evidence that the shoot transmits a signal to the roots and thereby controls processes involved in the regulation of cytokinin biosynthesis in the root.

In fall, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Homoptera: Aphididae) may exhibit population resurgence in winter oilseed rape in France. This resurgence may arise from pyrethroid treatments against Coleoptera (Psylliodes chrysocephala L.) that either kill parasitoids present during treatment or prevent recolonization by off-crop parasitoids. We studied the impact of Diaeretiella rapae (M'Intosh) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on populations of M. persicae when parasitoids were introduced on deltamethrin-treated plants at increasing intervals after treatment. Parasitoids were introduced 1, 2, 7, or 14 d posttreatment on individually caged plants infested with established populations of M. persicae. Aphids were counted 7, 14 and 21 d after parasitoid introduction. First, we observed that both the pesticide and the parasitoid reduced aphid population growth and that their effects were additive. Second, there was no mortality of parasitoids exposed to treated leaves in a device with a refuge area, and only 20% of mortality without the refuge area. Furthermore, deltamethrin residues had no effect on the reproduction of D. rapae females. Compared with the known toxicity of deltamethrin to D. rapae on glass, this low mortality may have been due to both the high liposolubility of deltamethrin (leading to a rapid diffusion of residues in the oilseed rape leaf cuticle) and to the existence of a refuge area. This work suggests that D. rapae could limit populations of M. persicae in the fall, even after pyrethroid treatment, because the presence of deltamethrin residues had little impact on the parasitoid.

Flavonoid conjugates constitute several classes of plant phenolic secondary metabolites including many isomeric compounds differing in the hydroxylation pattern and substitution of their rings with different groups such as alkyls, acyls or sugars. These compounds occur in plant tissues mainly as glycosides and in many cases it is necessary to have reliable and detailed information concerning the structure of these natural products. Our results were obtained using leaf extracts of Arabidopsis thaliana and Lupinus angustifolius in which different glycosides of flavones, flavonols and isoflavones are present. Analysis of collision-induced dissociation (CID)/MS/MS spectra of protonated [M + H](+), sodiated [M + Na](+) or deprotonated [M - H](-) molecules recorded during HPLC runs may bring needed information in this respect. However, registration of mass spectra of [M + Na](+) ions with a good efficiency is possible only after post-column addition of a sodium acetate solution to the LC column eluate. The retention of sodium cation on the saccharidic parts of the molecule is observed after the CID fragmentation. In many cases, the location of this cation on the glycan attached to C-3 hydroxyl group of flavonol led to assignment of its structure. Additionally, the determination of the structure of the aglycone and of the sequence of the glycan part was made possible through the CID data obtained from the [M + H](+) and [M - H](-) ions. CID spectra show a different order of sugar elimination from hydroxyl groups at C-3 and C-7 in flavonol glycosides isolated from A. thaliana leaves and give sufficient information to discriminate flavonoid O-diglycosides from flavonoid di-O-glycosides.

Information gains from the seed of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae) have greatly contributed to a better understanding of flavonoid synthesis and may be used for crop improvement. However, exhaustive identification of the flavonoid accumulated in Arabidopsis seed was still lacking. Complementary investigations of seed flavonoids by LC-ESI-MS, LC-ESI-MS-MS, and NMR spectroscopy in Arabidopsis led to full characterization of monoglycosides, namely, quercetin 3-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside and kaempferol 3-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside, and diglycosides, namely, quercetin and kaempferol 3-O-beta-glucopyranoside-7-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside and quercetin and kaempferol 3,7-di-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside. Interestingly, the tt7 mutant that lacks flavonoid-3'-hydroxylase and consequently accumulates only kaempferol derivatives was shown to contain three additional products, kaempferol 3-O-beta-glucopyranoside, kaempferol 3-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside-7-O-beta-glucopyranoside, and the triglycoside kaempferol 3-O-beta-[alpha-rhamnopyranosyl(1-->2)-glucopyranoside]-7-O-alpha-rhamnopyranoside. Taken together these results allow a scheme for flavonol glycosylation to be proposed.

Profiling of plant secondary metabolites is still a very difficult task. Liquid chromatography (LC) or capillary electrophoresis hyphenated with different kinds of detectors are methods of choice for analysis of polar, thermo labile compounds with high molecular masses. We demonstrate the applicability of LC combined with UV diode array or/and mass spectrometric detectors for the unambiguous identification and quantification of flavonoid conjugates isolated from Arabidopsis thaliana leaves of different genotypes and grown in different environmental conditions. During LC/UV/MS/MS analyses we were able to identify tetra-, tri-, and di-glycosides of kaempferol, quercetin and isorhamnetin. Based on our results we can conclude that due to the co-elution of different chemical compounds in reversed phase HPLC systems the application of UV detectors does not allow to precisely profile all flavonoid conjugates existing in A. thaliana genotypes. Using MS detection it was possible to unambiguously recognize the glycosylation patterns of the aglycones. However, from the mass spectra we could not conclude neither the anomeric form of the C-1 carbon atoms of sugar moieties in glycosidic bonds between sugars or sugar and aglycone nor the position of the second carbon involved in disaccharides. The applicability of collision induced dissociation techniques (CID MS/MS) for structural analyses of the studied group of plant secondary metabolites with two types of analyzers (triple quadrupole or ion trap) was demonstrated.

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