How does a plant express its secondary metabolism in the special tissues?

在日本消费的药物、香料、色素、食品添加剂等有用的植物代谢物中，90%以上是从发展中的东南亚进口的。此外，这些植物代谢物大多是由野生植物产生的。因此，由于植物种植面积的减少，这些代谢物的稳定供应是令人担忧的。供应应通过替代方法进行，如植物细胞培养。然而，大多数有用的代谢物不能由未分化的培养细胞产生，植物次生代谢的调节机制还没有被发现，这些次生代谢只在植物特定的组织中形成和积累。萝卜在不同品种的组织或器官中产生花青素，这是一种红色的次生代谢产物。“Koshin”萝卜产生地下内部的红色色素；“Akamaru”萝卜将它们积聚在组织外部。表明该植物适合于研究植物次生代谢的调节机制。4天大的幼苗在黑暗中生长，在光照下24小时开始产生红色色素。光照通过未知的机制诱导花青素的形成。本研究利用双向凝胶电泳法(1：NEPHGE，2：SDS-PAGE)对完整幼苗的蛋白质进行了分析。在花色苷形成前12小时出现一种约20kDA的碱性蛋白，在色素积累后消失。该蛋白可能是花青素形成的酶，也可能是调节酶。没有检测到多肽序列，可能是由于N-末端的衍生化作用。

More than 90% of useful plant metabolites such as medicines, flavors, pigments, food additives etc consumed in Japan have been imported from developing Southeast Asia. In addition, most of these plant metabolites are produced by wild plants. So, stable supply of these metabolites are anxious owing to the decrease of the plant-growing field. The supply should be done by an alternative method such as plant cell cultures. However, most of the useful metabolites can not be produced by the undifferentiated cultured cells ; regulation mechanisms of the plant secondary metabolisms that are formed and accumulated only in a peculiar tissues of plant have not been uncovered yet.Raphanus sativus produces anthocyanins, a red-colored secondary metabolite, in tissues or organs different from cultivar to cultivar. "KOSHIN" radish produces the red pigments inside the underground ; "AKAMARU" radish accumulates them in the outside of the tissue. indicating that this plant is appropriate for studying the regulation mechanism of plant secondary metabolism.The 4 days-old seedlings grown inthe dark start to produce the red pigments 24hr after being moved into the light. The illumination induces anthocyanin formation through yet unknown mechanism. In this study, proteins in the intact seedlings were investigated by 2-D electrophoresis (1 : NEpHGE,2 : SDS-PAGE). An alkaline protein of about 20kDA was found to appear 12hrs before formation of anthocyanin and disappear after the pigment accumulation. This protein might be an enzyme of anthocyanin formation or a regulating enzyme. The peptide sequence was not detected due probably to the derivatization of the N-terminal.