Purificação da enzima polifenoloxidase do cafeeiro, sua relação com resistencia a pragas e o controle da sintese de seu principal substrato, o acido clorogenico / Coffee polyphenoloxidase purification, its relation with plague resistance and synthesis control of its maim substrate, chlorogenic acid

Geraldo Aclecio Melo

Polyphenoloxidase - PPO (EC 1.14.18.1 ou EC 1.10.3.2) is an enzyme with broad distribution among plants and catalyzes the hydroxylation of monophenols to o-diphenols and the oxidation of these to o-diquinones. Its function on plants has been related to defense mechanisms against pathogens and plagues. 5-Caffeoylquinic acid, also known as chlorogenic acid (CGA), is the main PPO substrate in coffee tissues and both, enzyme and substrate are present on substantial quantities in fruits and leaves. CGA is also referred to having connection with plants defense mechanisms and it is also an important substrate on oxidation reactions, mainly those mediated by PPO. Therefore, in order to increase our knowledge on the coffee PPO characteristics, to verify its role in defense mechanisms and also to understand the factors connected to the synthesis of CGA, coffee leaf PPO was purified and characterized regarding kinetic parameters and its activity in leaves of several coffee species exposed or not to pest (leaf miner) and disease (leaf rust). Also studies on the expression of the enzymes of CGA synthesis were carried out. By using ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by chromatographic steps on ionic exchange, hydrophobic interaction and molecular exclusion resins it was possible to purify PPO to homogeneity. The enzyme presented a molecular mass of 40,5 Kda and used 5-cafeoylquinic acid as the preferred substrate. Peptide sequences obtained after digestion of the purified PPO and analysis through mass spectrometry were homologous to PPO sequences of several other plants. The constitutive level of PPO activity observed for 15 coffee genotypes varied from 3,8 to 88,0 units of activity/mg of protein, but did not have a direct relationship with resistance to plagues in this plant. Resistance to leaf miner was significantly related to the level of phenolic compounds. However, 5-caffeoylquínic acid, the main substrate of PPO on coffee, was not related with resistance, suggesting the importance of other phenolic compounds as PPO substrates. Mechanical damage, treatment with methyljasmonic acid, inoculation with spores from Hemileia vastatrix and the infestation with the insect Perileucoptera coffeella led to varied results of the PPO activity in the evaluated genotypes. Based on these results, we conclude that the PPO role in the coffee resistance to plagues and diseases might be related to the oxidative potential of the tissue and not only on the PPO activity; that the kind and quantity of PPO substrate found in the tissue might be important for the resistance of the coffee tree and that there may be specific mechanisms of resistance involving PPO action among the genotypes. RT-PCR studies of the expression of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), cinnamate 4-hyroxylase (C4H), coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H), hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA ligase (4CL) and hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA:D-quinate hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (CQT), which code for enzymes of the CGA biosynthetic pathway, showed that the expression of these enzymes decrease with tissue aging. In the endosperm, an evident decrease on the expression was observed in the end of the fruit ripening. Etiolated seedlings obtained by germination of coffee seeds in the dark and transferred into light showed significant increasing on the CGA content after 24 hours. The increase was transient and followed the expression pattern of PAL, C4H, C3H, 4CL and CQT. The results indicate that CGA biosynthesis is coordinately regulated by the expression of the five enzymes

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