Grass Roots Chemistry: Meta-tyrosine, an Herbicidal Nonprotein Amino Acid

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2007 Oct 18

PMID 17940026

Citations 54

Authors

Cecile Bertin

Leslie A Weston

Tengfang Huang

Georg Jander

Thomas Owens

Jerrold Meinwald

Frank C Schroeder

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Fine fescue grasses displace neighboring plants by depositing large quantities of an aqueous phytotoxic root exudate in the soil rhizosphere. Via activity-guided fractionation, we have isolated and identified the nonprotein amino acid m-tyrosine as the major active component. m-Tyrosine is significantly more phytotoxic than its structural isomers o- and p-tyrosine. We show that m-tyrosine exposure results in growth inhibition for a wide range of plant species and propose that the release of this nonprotein amino acid interferes with root development of competing plants. Acid hydrolysis of total root protein from Arabidopsis thaliana showed incorporation of m-tyrosine, suggesting this as a possible mechanism of phytotoxicity. m-Tyrosine inhibition of A. thaliana root growth is counteracted by exogenous addition of protein amino acids, with phenylalanine having the most significant effect. The discovery of m-tyrosine, as well as a further understanding of its mode(s) of action, could lead to the development of biorational approaches to weed control.

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