A hypothesis on the capacity of plant odorant-binding proteins to bind volatile isoprenoids based on in silico evidences

eLife

Francesco Loreto¹  Deborah Giordano²  Angelo Facchiano²  Sabato D'Auria³ 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy;Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, CNR, Florence, Italy;Institute of Food Science, CNR, Avellino, Italy;Institute of Food Science, CNR, Avellino, Italy;Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, CNR, Rome, Italy;

关键词: volatile organic compounds;    odorant binding proteins;    isoprenoids;    plant-plant communication;    VOC transporters;    Other;   

DOI  :  10.7554/eLife.66741

来源: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd

【 摘 要 】

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from ‘emitting’ plants inform the ‘receiving’ (listening) plants of impending stresses or simply of their presence. However, the receptors that allow receivers to detect the volatile cue are elusive. Most likely, plants (as animals) have odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), and in fact, a few OBPs are known to bind ‘stress-induced’ plant VOCs. We investigated whether these and other putative OBPs may bind volatile constitutive and stress-induced isoprenoids, the most emitted plant VOCs, with well-established roles in plant communication and defense. Molecular docking simulation experiments suggest that structural features of a few plant proteins screened in databases could allow VOC binding. In particular, our results show that monoterpenes may bind the same plant proteins that were described to bind other stress-induced VOCs, while the constitutive hemiterpene isoprene is unlikely to bind any investigated putative OBP and may not have an info-chemical role. We conclude that, as for animal, there may be plant OBPs that bind multiple VOCs. Plant OBPs may play an important role in allowing plants to eavesdrop messages by neighboring plants, triggering defensive responses and communication with other organisms.

【 授权许可】

CC BY