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Nitrogen Metabolism in Plants pp 71–78Cite as

Enzymatic Conversions of Glutamate and γ-Aminobutyric Acid as Indicators of Plant Stress Response

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2057))

Abstract

Glutamate plays a central role in amino acid metabolism, in particular, in aminotransferase reactions leading to formation of many other proteinogenic and nonproteinogenic amino acids. In stress conditions, glutamate can be either metabolized to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by glutamate decarboxylase which initiates a GABA shunt bypassing several reactions of the tricarboxylic acid cycle or converted to 2-oxoglutarate by glutamate dehydrogenase. Both reactions direct protein carbon to respiration but also link glutamate metabolism to other cellular pathways, resulting in the regulation of redox level and pH balance. Assays for determination of activities of glutamate dehydrogenase and of the GABA shunt enzymes as the markers of stress response is described in this chapter. These assays are important in the studies of the strategy of biochemical adaptation of plants to changing environmental conditions including elevated CO2, temperature increase, flooding, and other stresses.

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Acknowledgments

Funding: This work was supported by the grant 19-14-00150 of the Russian Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Cell Physiology, Voronezh State University, Voronezh, Russia

    Alexander T. Eprintsev & Natalia V. Selivanova

  2. Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada

    Abir U. Igamberdiev

Authors
  1. Alexander T. Eprintsev
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  2. Natalia V. Selivanova
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  3. Abir U. Igamberdiev
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abir U. Igamberdiev .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India

    Kapuganti Jagadis Gupta

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Eprintsev, A.T., Selivanova, N.V., Igamberdiev, A.U. (2020). Enzymatic Conversions of Glutamate and γ-Aminobutyric Acid as Indicators of Plant Stress Response. In: Gupta, K. (eds) Nitrogen Metabolism in Plants. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2057. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9790-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9790-9_7

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9789-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9790-9

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