title: Amino Acid Catabolism in Plants.
abstract: Amino acids have various prominent functions in plants. Besides their usage during protein biosynthesis, they also represent building blocks for several other biosynthesis pathways and play pivotal roles during signaling processes as well as in plant stress response. In general, pool sizes of the 20 amino acids differ strongly and change dynamically depending on the developmental and physiological state of the plant cell. Besides amino acid biosynthesis, which has already been investigated in great detail, the catabolism of amino acids is of central importance for adjusting their pool sizes but so far has drawn much less attention. The degradation of amino acids can also contribute substantially to the energy state of plant cells under certain physiological conditions, e.g. carbon starvation. In this review, we discuss the biological role of amino acid catabolism and summarize current knowledge on amino acid degradation pathways and their regulation in the context of plant cell physiology.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Pflanzengenetik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Straße 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany. Electronic address: hildebrandt@genetik.uni-hannover.de.
authors.forename: Tatjana M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Hildebrandt
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nunes Nesi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil. Electronic address: wlaraujo@ufv.br.
authors.forename: Wagner L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.affiliation: Institut für Pflanzengenetik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Straße 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Braun
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids
keywords: adenosine triphosphate; amino acid catabolism; carbon starvation; energy metabolism; enzyme regulation