An ecological implication of glandular trichome-sequestered artemisinin: as a sink of biotic/abiotic stress-triggered singlet oxygen

Tropical Medicine Institute, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.827v1
Subject Areas
Agricultural Science, Biotechnology, Plant Science
Keywords
Artemisinin, singlet oxygen, oxidative stress, signal transduction
Copyright
© 2015 He et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
He J, Gao Q, Liao T, Zeng Q. 2015. An ecological implication of glandular trichome-sequestered artemisinin: as a sink of biotic/abiotic stress-triggered singlet oxygen. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e827v1

Abstract

Artemisinin is accumulated in wormwood (Artemisia annua) with uncertain ecological implications. Here, we suggest that artemisinin is generated in response to biotic/abiotic stress, during which dihydroartemisinic acid, a direct artemisinin precursor, quenches singlet oxygen (1O2), one kind of reactive oxygen species. Evidence supporting artemisinin as a sink of 1O2 emerges from that volatile isoprenoids protect plants from biotic/abiotic stress; biotic/abiotic stress induces artemisinin biosynthesis; and stress signaling pathways are involved in the biosynthesis of volatile isoprenoids among plants as well as the biosynthesis of artemisinin in A. annua. In this review, we address the ecological implication of glandular trichome-sequestered artemisinin as a sink sink of biotic/abiotic stress-triggered 1O2 , and also summarize the cumulating data on the transcriptomic and metabolic profiling of stress-enhanced artemisinin production upon eliciting 1O2 omission from chloroplasts and initiating retrograde 1O2 signaling from chloroplasts to nuclei.

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