Research on the substrate specificity of plant P450 and its regulatory function in plant metabolism.

植物p450是植物代谢过程中参与小分子生物活性化合物生物合成的一组氧化酶，对这些生物活性的诱导具有重要作用。虽然具有生物活性的化合物具有多种化学结构，但结构中的氧官能团对其活性几乎是必不可少的。因此，在化合物中引入这些氧的机制对了解植物代谢具有重要意义。例如，植物抗菌素，众所周知的抗微生物化合物，在受胁迫的植物中产生，在茄科物种中具有许多骨架，如螺维烷和芥菜烷。碳氢化合物骨架本身没有表现出任何显著的活性，但一旦被P450酶氧化，化合物就变得有活性。合成了氘标记的法尼醇，并将其投喂到青椒幼苗中，证实了标记的前体与代谢物的结合。此外，germacrene和spirovetivane碳氢化合物骨架的合成方式很容易引入氘或碳-13同位素。本研究为代谢实验探索这些P450酶的作用建立了工具。

The plant P450s are the group of oxidative enzymes in biosynthesis of the small molecule biologically active compounds in plant metabolism, and have important roles on the induction of those biological activities. Although the biologically active compounds have a diversity of chemical structures, the oxygen functionality in the structures is almost essential for the activity. Thus, the mechanisms to introduce those oxygens in the compounds are of quite interest to understand plant metabolism. For example, the phytoalexin, well-known antimicrobial compounds produced in the stressed plants, have a number of skeletons such as spirovetivanes and eremophilanes in Solanaceae species. The hydrocarbon skeleton itself does not show any remarkable activities, but once oxidized by P450 enzymes, the compounds become active. Deuterium labeled farnesol was synthesized and fed into green pepper seedlings, and the incorporation of the labeled precursor into the metabolites was confirmed. Furthermore, germacrene and spirovetivane hydrocarbon skeletons were synthesized in the way that deuterium or carbon-13 isotopes would be easily introduced. This research established the tools for metabolic experiments to explore the roles of these P450 enzymes.