title: Plant fructan exohydrolases: a role in signaling and defense?
abstract: Fructans are fructose oligomers and polymers synthesized by a small number of plant and bacterial species and mainly function as reserve carbohydrates. The terminal fructosyl-fructose linkages can be degraded by fructan exohydrolases (FEHs), occurring in bacteria, fungi and fructan plants. Unexpectedly, it was found that FEHs also occur in non-fructan plants such as Beta vulgaris and Arabidopsis thaliana that apparently lack endogenous fructan substrates. FEHs might have defense-related roles acting on bacterial fructan-containing slimes or might act on minute (up to now undetected) amounts of fructans acting as signals in plants.
authors.affiliation: KU Leuven, Institute of Botany and Microbiology, Laboratory of Molecular Plant Physiology, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. wim.vandenende@bio.kuleuven.ac.be
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Van den Ende
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Coninck
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Laere
mesh_terms: D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005630:Fructans / Q000378:metabolism*; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010944:Plants / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D005630:Fructans; D006026:Glycoside Hydrolases; C044118:fructan beta-fructosidase