Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology at Jena and the University of Münster, Germany described how plants can produce protective toxins without harming themselves.
Their study showed the biosynthesis and true mechanism of action of a group of protective substances, called diterpene glycoside, in tobacco plants. These toxins attack specific parts of the plant’s cell membrane but plants store these toxins in a non-toxic form to protect themselves.
Science Daily reported that autotoxicity and its defense play an important role in the evolution of plant immunity.
Chemical protection
According to Lumen, when a plant’s mechanical defenses do not work, they go to the second level of protection which is its protective toxins and enzymes. It can be very toxic and deadly to animals that eat them. But it is not toxic to the plants that release the protective toxins against mushrooms.
For example, tobacco plants produce diterpene glycosides that are as toxic to extract. Researchers said that this protective poison is found at very high concentrations in tobacco plants but they do not know why they have such protection and why they may be toxic for production.
But it differs from the case of nicotine, which is also abundant in tobacco in that these plants do not have nerves and muscles and therefore nicotine has no target.
To the surprise of the researchers, they found that transformed tobacco plants were unable to produce the proteins required in the biosynthesis of diterpene glycosides the protective substances stored in many of the leaves.
In the case of self-poisoning in plants that produce protective toxins, the symptoms may include illness, inability to grow normally, and they could no longer reproduce.
Tests have also shown that these toxins can invade certain parts of the cell membrane, called sphingolipids.
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Immune toxins that target the cell branch
While plants may protect themselves from the toxins by storing them in a non-toxic form, part of the non-toxic molecule is cleansed and activated when insects eat the plant.
“Interestingly, in all cases, in plants with incomplete dcospene glycoside biosynthesis and in feeding caterpillars, the target of the toxins is sphingolipid metabolism,” said Jiancai Li, the first author of the study.
Spingolipids act as mediators in several physiological processes, and the influence of diterpene glycosides on them influenced the scientists. Shuqing Xu from the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity at the University of Münster and one of the lead authors of the study said that diterpene glycosides have broad protective actions and their results against pathogenic herbs and fungi.
But it also has the same effect on human diseases, such as some cancers, diabetes, and some neurodegenerative disorders that are also associated with elevated sphingolipid metabolisms, Science Daily reported.
Doctors have been looking for treatments for these diseases by inhibiting sphingolipid metabolism. The study of diterpene glycosides could be a candidate for further studies.
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