BACKGROUND AND AIMS Boron (B) toxicity triggers the formation of reactive oxygen species in plant tissues. However, there is still a lack of knowledge as to how B toxicity affects the plant antioxidant defence system. It has been suggested that ascorbate could be important against B stress, although existing information is limited in this respect. The objective of this study was to analyse how ...

Ascorbate and glutathione are major antioxidants and redox buffers in plant cells but also play key functions in growth, development, and stress responses. We have studied the regulation of ascorbate and homoglutathione biosynthesis in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) nodules under stress conditions and during aging. The expression of five genes of the major ascorbate biosynthetic pathway was a...

Organisms using oxygen for aerobic respiration require antioxidants to balance the production of reactive oxygen species during metabolic processes. Various species--including humans and other primates--suffer mutations in the GULO gene encoding L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase; GULO is the rate-limiting enzyme in the biosynthesis of ascorbate, an important cellular antioxidant. Animals lacking the a...

The measurement of oxalate in urine and plasma continues to be difficult, particularly in the presence of ascorbate. We have modified and validated a colorimetric assay involving the use of oxalate oxidase (EC 1.2.3.4). Modification of an HPLC spectrophotometric detector improved sensitivity (to as much as 1000-fold that of conventional spectrophotometers) and allowed measurement of oxalate con...

In plant cells, antioxidants keep reactive oxygen species at low concentrations, avoiding oxidative damage while allowing them to play crucial functions in signal transduction. However, little is known about the role of antioxidants during fruit maturation, especially in legumes. Snap pea (Pisum sativum) plants, which have edible fruits, were grown under nodulating and non-nodulating conditions...

ATP-supported but not Site I or Site II respiratory chain-linked 45Ca2+ transport into isolated rat liver mitochondria is profoundly inhibited by a small molecule present in the cytosolic fraction. This inhibitor was purified and shown to be identical with ascorbic acid in a number of chemical properties, cytosolic abundance, susceptibility to ascorbate oxidase, and to agents that otherwise blo...

The production of the soluble cytochrome oxidase/nitrite reductase in the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa is favoured by anaerobic conditions and the presence of KNO3(20g/l) in the culture medium. Of three methods commonly used for the disruption of bacterial suspensions (ultrasonication, liquid-shear homogenization and glass-bead grinding), sonication proved the most efficient in releasing th...

Although many vertebrates can synthesize ascorbic acid (vitamin C), it is still unclear from the evolutionary perspective when the ability to synthesize the vitamin first appeared in the animal kingdom and how frequently the trait has been lost. We report here ascorbic acid biosynthesis ability in sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) which represent the most ancient vertebrate lineage examined thus...

Humans lack the ability to synthesize vitamin C (ascorbate) due to the absence of gulonolactone oxidase, the last enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway in most other mammals. The corresponding oxidoreductase in trypanosomes therefore represents a target that may be therapeutically exploitable. This is reinforced by our observation that Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, lac...