Amino Acid Catabolism in Plants

authored by

Tatjana M. Hildebrandt, Adriano Nunes Nesi, Wagner L. Araújo, Hans Peter Braun

Abstract

Amino acids have various prominent functions in plants. Besides their usage during protein biosynthesis, they also represent building blocks for several other biosynthesis pathways and play pivotal roles during signaling processes as well as in plant stress response. In general, pool sizes of the 20 amino acids differ strongly and change dynamically depending on the developmental and physiological state of the plant cell. Besides amino acid biosynthesis, which has already been investigated in great detail, the catabolism of amino acids is of central importance for adjusting their pool sizes but so far has drawn much less attention. The degradation of amino acids can also contribute substantially to the energy state of plant cells under certain physiological conditions, e.g. carbon starvation. In this review, we discuss the biological role of amino acid catabolism and summarize current knowledge on amino acid degradation pathways and their regulation in the context of plant cell physiology.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Plant Genetics

External Organisation(s)

Universidade Federal de Vicosa

Type

Review article

Journal

Molecular plant

Volume

8

Pages

1563-1579

No. of pages

17

ISSN

1674-2052

Publication date

15.09.2015

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Molecular Biology, Plant Science

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molp.2015.09.005 (Access: Open)