title: UDP-glucose:solasodine glucosyltransferase from eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) leaves: partial purification and characterization.
abstract: Uridine 5'-diphosphoglucose-dependent glucosyltransferase which catalyzes the glycosylation of solasodine i.e. UDP-glucose:solasodine glucosyltransferase, is present in leaves, roots, unripe fruits and unripe seeds of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). The glucosylation product is chromatographically identical with authentic solasodine 3 beta-D-monoglucoside, a putative intermediate in the biosynthesis of solasodine-based glycoalkaloids characteristic of the eggplant. The enzyme was purified about 50-fold from crude cytosol fraction of eggplant leaves by ammonium sulphate precipitation and column chromatography on Q-Sepharose and Sephadex G-100. The native enzyme has a molecular mass of approx. 55 kDa and pH optimum of 8.5. Divalent metal ions are not required for its activity but the presence of free-SH groups is essential. Besides solasodine (Km = 0.04 microM), the enzyme effectively glucosylates tomatidine, another steroidal alkaloid of the spirosolane type, but it is virtually inactive towards the solanidane-type steroidal alkaloids such as solanidine or demissidine. The enzyme is specific for UDP-glucose (Km = 2.1 microM) since unlabelled ADP-, GDP-, CDP- or TDP-glucose could not effectively compete with UDP-[14C]glucose used as the sugar donor for solasodine glucosylation. Moreover, no synthesis of labelled solasodine galactoside was observed when UDP-[14C]glucose was replaced with UDP-[14C]galactose.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Warsaw University, Poland.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Paczkowski
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kalinowska
authors.forename: Z A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Wojciechowski
mesh_terms: D005964:Glucosyltransferases / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D006031:Glycosylation; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D010944:Plants / Q000201:enzymology*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D005964:Glucosyltransferases; C104470:UDP-glucose solasodine glucosyltransferase