Abstracts now available online - Euro Fed Lipid

Oxylipin Database -
A tool for browsing the plant oxylipin pathway and downloading
profiling results
GÖBEL, Cornelia, SCHOMBURG, Adrian and FEUSSNER, Ivo
Georg-August-University, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute, Department of Plant
Biochemistry, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg, 11, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
Plant oxylipins are products of polyunsaturated fatty acid oxidation and comprise a wide
array of molecules (e.g. fatty acid hydroperoxides, divinyl ethers, jasmonic acid). The
formation of these metabolites may occur either by autoxidation or by the action of
enzymes. The enzymatic formation of hydroperoxy fatty acids represents the first step in
the synthesis of oxylipins. The hydroperoxides can be converted by enzymes within the
so-called oxylipin pathway which seems to be the most prominent pathway of enzymatic
lipid peroxidation in plants. The oxylipin pathway leads to the synthesis of a multitude of
oxylipins. In general these metabolites can be classified into α-DOX-, 9-LOX-derived
and 13-LOX-derived oxylipins with respect to the C18 fatty acids, linoleic acid and
linolenic acid, as well as to the C16 fatty acid, roughanic acid. In vivo oxylipins are
involved in abiotic and biotic stress responses. Some of them have direct antimicrobial
properties; others may act as regulators of plant defence gene expression.
To investigate the involvement of distinct oxylipins in plant stress responses in various
plant species, analytical methods have been developed to record oxylipin profiles. This
profiling consists of a set of HPLC, GC and GC/MS steps and allows the measurement
of more than 150 metabolites of the oxylipin pathway in parallel.
Due to the complexity of the oxylipin biosynthesis, a web-based interface has been set
up for browsing the plant oxylipin pathway. According to the involved enzymes and
converted substrates the pathway has been sub grouped into distinct schemes. In these
images, the formation of around 200 oxylipins can be displayed in detail interactively
together with spectral information. In addition, the interface is connected to a SQL
database and is capable of graphically representing data derived from oxylipin profiling
experiments. This database has been programmed for the calculation and management
of the profiling data. Moreover, detailed practical protocols are provided to follow the
underlying analytical procedures.
P19