Vitamin B6 biosynthesis in higher plants

Abstract

Vitamin B6 is an essential metabolite in all organisms. It can act as a coenzyme for numerous metabolic enzymes and has recently been shown to be a potent antioxidant. Plants and microorganisms have a de novo biosynthetic pathway for vitamin B6, but animals must obtain it from dietary sources. In Escherichia coli, it is known that the vitamin is derived from deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate (an intermediate in the nonmevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis) and 4-phosphohydroxy-L-threonine. It has been assumed that vitamin B6 is synthesized in the same way in plants, but this hypothesis has never been experimentally proven. Here, we show that, in plants, synthesis of the vitamin takes an entirely different route, which does not involve deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate but instead utilizes intermediates from the pentose phosphate pathway, i.e., ribose 5-phosphate or ribulose 5-phosphate, and from glycolysis, i.e., dihydroxyacetone phosphate or glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. The revelation is based on the recent discovery that, in bacteria and fungi, a novel pathway is in place that involves two genes (PDX1 and PDX2), neither of which is homologous to any of those involved in the previously doctrined E. coli pathway. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis thaliana has two functional homologs of PDX1 and a single homolog of PDX2. Furthermore, and contrary to what was inferred previously, we show that the pathway appears to be cytosolic and is not localized to the plastid. Last, we report that the single PDX2 homolog is essential for plant viability.Arabidopsis ͉ isoprenoid ͉ pyridoxine ͉ deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate V itamin B6 is well renowned in the medical field for being involved in more bodily functions than any other single nutrient. The vitamin exists in various forms, i.e., pyridoxal, pyridoxine, pyridoxamine, and their phosphorylated derivatives. As pyridoxal 5Ј-phosphate, it is an essential cofactor for numerous metabolic enzymes including amino acid metabolism and antibiotic biosynthesis. Most interestingly, it has recently been found that the vitamin is a potent antioxidant with a particular ability to quench reactive oxygen species such as superoxide and singlet oxygen (1, 2). The de novo biosynthesis of vitamin B6 takes place in microorganisms and plants, but this ability has been lost in animals, making it essential in the human diet.Despite the vitamin's obvious physiological and pharmaceutical importance, its biosynthesis has predominantly been studied in the Gram-negative bacterium, Escherichia coli, where it is derived from deoxyxylulose 5-phosphate (DXP, an intermediate in the nonmevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis) and 4-phosphohydroxy-L-threonine (refs. 3-7 and Scheme 1). Astonishingly, although plants are a major source of vitamin B6 in the human diet, our understanding of the pathway therein is very limited and has been assumed to be derived the same way as in E. coli. There is one preliminary study that reports on its biosynthesis in spinach (8), whereas other, more in-depth studies have addressed the...

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