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In this study we evaluated the biting deterrent effects of a series of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids against Aedes aegypti (L), yellow fever mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) using the K & Dbioassay module system. Saturated (C6:0 to C16:0 and C18:0) and unsaturated fatty acids (C11:1 to C14:1, C16:1, C18:1, and C18:2) showed biting deterrence index (BDI) values significantly greater than ethanol, the negative control. Among the saturated fatty acids, mid chain length acids (C10:0 to C13:0) showed higher biting deterrence than short (C6:0 to C9:0) and long chain length acids (C14:0 to C18:0), except for C8:0 and C16:0 that were more active than the other short and long chain acids. The BDI values of mid chain length acids (C10:0 to C13:0) were not significantly less than N, N-diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET), the positive control. Among the unsaturated fatty acids, C11:1 showed the highest activity (BDI = 1.05) and C18:2 had the lowest activity (BDI = 0.7). In C11:1, C12:1, and C14:1 BDI values were not significantly less than DEET. After the preliminary observations, residual activity bioassays were performed on C11:0, C12:0, C11:1, and C12:1 over a 24-h period. All the fatty acids (C11:0, C12:0, C11:1, and C12:1) and DEET showed significantly higher activity at all test intervals than the solvent control. At treatment and 1-h posttreatment, all fatty acids showed proportion not biting (PNB) values not significantly less than DEET. At 3-, 6-, and 12-h posttreatment, all fatty acids showed PNB values significantly greater than DEET. At 24-h posttreatment, only the PNB value for C12:0 was significantly higher than DEET. The dose-responses of C12:0 and DEET were determined at concentrations of 5-25 nmol/cm2. As in the residual activity bioassays, the PNB values for C12:0 and DEET at 25 nmol/cm(2) were not significantly different. However, at lower concentrations, the PNB values for C12:0 were significantly greater than DEET. These results clearly indicate that mid chain length fatty acids not only have levels of biting deterrence similar to DEET at 25 nmnol/cm(2) in our test system, but also appeared to be more persistent than DEET. In contrast, in vivo cloth patch assay system showed that the mid-chain length fatty acids, C11:0, C11:1, C12:0, and C12:1 had minimum effective dose (MED) values greater than DEET against Ae. aegypti and their relative repellency varied according to species tested. The MED values of 120 (C11:0), 145 (C12:0) and 116 (C11:1) nmol/cm(2) against Anopheles quadrimaculatus Say, indicated that these acids were not as potent as DEET with a MED of 54 nmol/cm(2). The MED ratio of the C11:0 and C11:1 for all three mosquito species indicated the C11 saturated and unsaturated acids as more repellent than their corresponding C12:0 and C12:1 homologues.

An investigation of the Indian folk remedy plant Jatropha curcas L., was performed to identify the constituents responsible for the mosquito biting deterrent activity of the oil. J. curcas seed oil is burned in oil lamps in India and parts of Africa to repel biting insects, primarily mosquitoes. The seed oil was thoroughly analyzed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, high-performance liquid chromatography-refractive index, and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection to identify the constituents in the oil. Identified constituents, both free fatty acids and triglycerides, were evaluated for activity in Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) biting deterrent assays. Furthermore, an oil condensation trap was used to demonstrate that free fatty acids or triglycerides are partially volatilized during the combustion process. These compounds were found to be responsible for the biting deterrency of the burned oil. Specifically, oleic, palmitic, linoleic, and stearic acids were all active at 25 nmol/cm2 above that of solvent control in Ae. aegypti biting deterrent assays. Oleic, palmitic, and linoleic acids were all more active than stearic acid in the same bioassay. Evaluation of the triglycerides containing each of these fatty acids revealed that tripalmitin, tristearin, trilinolein, and triolein all demonstrated significant activity above a solvent control at 10 microg/cm2, whereas tripalmitin was the most active. Due to literature reports suggesting larvicidal activity of the oil, J. curcas seed oil and its free fatty acid constituents also were evaluated against 1-d-old Ae. aegypti larvae up to 500 ppm. Oleic acid was the only fatty acid having larvicidal activity against 1-d-old Ae. aegypti larvae, with an LD50 of 47.9 ppm.

Sorghum bicolor is considered to be an allelopathic crop species, producing phytotoxins such as the lipid benzoquinone sorgoleone, which likely accounts for many of the allelopathic properties of Sorghum spp. Current evidence suggests that sorgoleone biosynthesis occurs exclusively in root hair cells and involves the production of an alkylresorcinolic intermediate (5-[(Z,Z)-8′,11′,14′-pentadecatrienyl]resorcinol) derived from an unusual 16:3Δ9,12,15 fatty acyl-CoA starter unit. This led to the suggestion of the involvement of one or more alkylresorcinol synthases (ARSs), type III polyketide synthases (PKSs) that produce 5-alkylresorcinols using medium to long-chain fatty acyl-CoA starter units via iterative condensations with malonyl-CoA. In an effort to characterize the enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of the pentadecyl resorcinol intermediate, a previously described expressed sequence tag database prepared from isolated S. bicolor (genotype BTx623) root hairs was first mined for all PKS-like sequences. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR analyses revealed that three of these sequences were preferentially expressed in root hairs, two of which (designated ARS1 and ARS2) were found to encode ARS enzymes capable of accepting a variety of fatty acyl-CoA starter units in recombinant enzyme studies. Furthermore, RNA interference experiments directed against ARS1 and ARS2 resulted in the generation of multiple independent transformant events exhibiting dramatically reduced sorgoleone levels. Thus, both ARS1 and ARS2 are likely to participate in the biosynthesis of sorgoleone in planta. The sequences of ARS1 and ARS2 were also used to identify several rice (Oryza sativa) genes encoding ARSs, which are likely involved in the production of defense-related alkylresorcinols.

Seven-day-old, etiolated barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var Post) leaves were fractionated into crude and purified etioplast, microsomal, and plasma membrane (PM) fractions. Protoporphyrinogen oxidase (Protox) specific activities of crude etioplast, purified etioplast, microsome, and PM fractions were approximately 29, 26, 23, and 12 nmol h-1 mg-1 of protein, respectively. The herbicide acifluorfen-methyl (AFM), at 1 [mu]M, inhibited Protox activity from crude etioplasts, purified etioplasts, microsomes, and PM by 58, 59, 23, and 0% in the absence of reductants. Reductants (ascorbate, glutathione [GSH], dithiothreitol [DTT], and NADPH) individually reduced the Protox activity of all fractions, except that microsomal Protox activity was slightly stimulated by NADPH. Ascorbate, GSH, or a combination of the two reductants enhanced Protox inhibition by AFM, and AFM inhibition of Protox was greatest in all fractions with DTT. NADPH enhanced AFM inhibition significantly only in etioplast fractions. Uroporphyrinogen I (Urogen I) and coproporphyrinogen I (Coprogen I) oxidase activities were found in all fractions; however, etioplast fractions had significantly more substrate specificity for protoporphyrinogen IX (Protogen IX) than the other fractions. Urogen I and Coprogen I oxidase activities were unaffected by AFM in all fractions, and 2 mM DTT almost completely inhibited these activities from all fractions. Diethyldithiocarbamate inhibited PM Protox activity by 62% but had less effect on microsome and little or no effect on etioplast Protox. Juglone and duroquinone stimulated microsomal and PM Protox activity, whereas the lesser effect of these quinones on etioplast Protox activity was judged to be due to PM and/or microsomal contaminants. These data indicate that there are microsomal and PM Protogen IX-oxidizing activities that are not the same as those associated with the etioplast and that these activities are not inhibited in vivo by AFM. In summary, these data support the view that the primary source of high protoporphyrin IX concentrations in AFM-treated plant tissues is from Protogen IX exported by plastids and oxidized by AFM-resistant extraorganellar oxidases.

In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) root cells, activity for oxidizing protoporphyrinogen to protoporphyrin (protoporphyrinogen oxidase), a step in chlorophyll and heme synthesis, was found both in the crude mitochondrial fraction and in a plasma membrane enriched fraction separated by a sucrose gradient technique utilized for preparing plasma membranes. The specific activity (expressed as nanomoles of protoporphyrin formed per hour per milligram protein) in the mitochondrial fraction was 8 and in the plasma membrane enriched fraction was 4 to 6. The plasma membrane enriched fraction exhibited minimal cytochrome oxidase activity and no carotenoid content, indicating little contamination with mitochondrial or plastid membranes. Etioplasts from etiolated barley leaves exhibited a protoporphyrinogen oxidase specific activity of 7 to 12. Protoporphyrinogen oxidase activity in the barley root mitochondrial fraction and etioplast extracts was more than 90% inhibited by assay in the presence of the diphenyl ether herbicide acifluorfen methyl, but the activity in the plasma membrane enriched fraction exhibited much less inhibition by this herbicide (12 to 38% inhibition) under the same assay conditions. Acifluorfen-methyl inhibition of the organellar (mitochondrial or plastid) enzyme was maximal upon preincubation of the enzyme with 4 mm dithiothreitol, although a lesser degree of inhibition was noted if the organellar enzyme was preincubated in the presence of other reductants such as glutathione or ascorbate. Acifluorfen-methyl caused only 20% inhibition if the enzyme was preincubated in buffer without reductants. Incubation of barley etioplast extracts with the earlier tetrapyrrole precursor coproporphyrinogen and acifluorfen-methyl resulted in the accumulation of protoporphyrinogen, which could be converted to protoporphyrin even in the presence of the herbicide by the addition of the plasma membrane enriched fraction from barley roots. These findings have implications for the toxicity of diphenyl ether herbicides, whose light induced tissue damage is apparently caused by accumulation of the photoreactive porphyrin intermediate, protoporphyrin, when the organellar protoporphyrinogen oxidase enzyme is inhibited by herbicides. Our results suggest that the protoporphyrinogen that accumulates as a result of herbicide inhibition of the organellar enzyme can be oxidized to protoporphyrin by a protoporphyrinogen oxidizing activity that is located at sites such as the plasma membrane, which is much less sensitive to inhibition by diphenylether herbicides.

With a leaf disc assay, 11 species were tested for effects of the herbicide acifluorfen on porphyrin accumulation in darkness and subsequent electrolyte leakage and photobleaching of chlorophyll after exposure to light. Protoporphyrin IX (Proto IX) was the only porphyrin that was substantially increased by the herbicide in any of the species. However, there was a wide range in the amount of Proto IX accumulation caused by 0.1 millimolar acifluorfen between species. Within species, there was a reduced effect of the herbicide in older tissues. Therefore, direct quantitative comparisons between species are difficult. Nevertheless, when data from different species and from tissues of different age within a species were plotted, there was a curvilinear relationship between the amount of Proto IX caused to accumulate during 20 hours of darkness and the amount of electrolyte leakage or chlorophyll photobleaching caused after 6 and 24 hours of light, respectively, following the dark period. Herbicidal damage plateaued at about 10 nanomoles of Proto IX per gram of fresh weight. Little difference was found between in vitro acifluorfen inhibition of protoporphyrinogen oxidase (Protox) of plastid preparations of mustard, cucumber, and morning glory, three species with large differences in their susceptibility at the tissue level. Mustard, a highly tolerant species, produced little Proto IX in response to the herbicide, despite having a highly susceptible Protox. Acifluorfen blocked carbon flow from delta-aminolevulinic acid to protochlorophyllide in mustard, indicating that it inhibits Protox in vivo. Increasing delta-aminolevulinic acid concentrations (33-333 micromolar) supplied to mustard with 0.1 millimolar acifluorfen increased Proto IX accumulation and herbicidal activity, demonstrating that mustard sensitivity to Proto IX was similar to other species. Differential susceptibility to acifluorfen of the species examined in this study appears to be due in large part to differences in Proto IX accumulation in response to the herbicide. In some cases, differences in Proto IX accumulation appear to be due to differences in activity of the porphyrin pathway.

We grew velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti Medic.) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. var. Stoneville 213) at three irradiances and determined the photosynthetic responses of single leaves to a range of six irradiances from 90 to 2000 μeinsteins m−2sec−1. In air containing 21% O2, velvetleaf and cotton grown at 750 μeinsteins m−2sec−1 had maximum photosynthetic rates of 18.4 and 21.9 mg of CO2 dm−2hr−1, respectively. Maximum rates for leaves grown at 320 and 90 μeinsteins m−2sec−1 were 15.3 and 10.3 mg of CO2 dm−2hr−1 in velvetleaf and 12 and 6.7 mg of CO2 dm−2hr−1 in cotton, respectively. In 1 O2, maximum photosynthetic rates were 1.5 to 2.3 times the rates in air containing 21% O2, and plants grown at medium and high irradiance did not differ in rate. In both species, stomatal conductance was not significantly affected by growth irradiance. The differences in maximum photosynthetic rates were associated with differences in mesophyll conductance. Mesophyll conductance increased with growth irradiance and correlated positively with mesophyll thickness or volume per unit leaf area, chlorophyll content per unit area, and photosynthetic unit density per unit area. Thus, quantitative changes in the photosynthetic apparatus help account for photosynthetic adaptation to irradiance in both species. Net assimilation rates calculated for whole plants by mathematical growth analysis were closely correlated with single-leaf photosynthetic rates.

The phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) inhibitor l-α-aminooxy-β-phenylpropionic acid (AOPP) was root-fed to light-exposed soybean seedlings alone or with glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] to test further the hypothesis that PAL activity is involved in the mode of action of glyphosate. Extractable PAL activity was increased by 0.01 and 0.1 millimolar AOPP. AOPP reduced total soluble hydroxyphenolic compound levels and increased phenylalanine and tyrosine levels, indicating that in vivo PAL activity was inhibited by AOPP. The increase in extractable PAL caused by AOPP may be a result of decreased feedback inhibition of PAL synthesis by cinnamic acid and/or its derivatives. AOPP alone had no effect on growth (fresh weight and elongation) at either concentration, but at 0.1 millimolar it slightly alleviated growth (fresh weight) inhibition caused by 0.5 millimolar glyphosate after 4 days. Reduction of the free pool of phenylalanine by glyphosate was reversed by AOPP. These results indicate that glyphosate exerts some of its effects through reduction of aromatic amino acid pools through increases in PAL activity and that not all growth effects of glyphosate are due to reductions of aromatic amino acids.

Soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) seeds were imbibed and germinated with or without NO3−, tungstate, and norflurazon (San 9789). Norflurazon is a herbicide which causes photobleaching of chlorophyll by inhibiting carotenoid synthesis and which impairs normal chloroplast development. After 3 days in the dark, seedlings were placed in white light to induce extractable nitrate reductase activity. The induction of maximal nitrate reductase activity in greening cotyledons did not require NO3− and was not inhibited by tungstate. Induction of nitrate reductase activity in norflurazon-treated cotyledons had an absolute requirement for NO3− and was completely inhibited by tungstate. Nitrate was not detected in seeds or seedlings which had not been treated with NO3−. The optimum pH for cotyledon nitrate reductase activity from norflurazon-treated seedlings was at pH 7.5, and near that for root nitrate reductase activity, whereas the optimum pH for nitrate reductase activity from greening cotyledons was pH 6.5. Induction of root nitrate reductase activity was also inhibited by tungstate and was dependent on the presence of NO3−, further indicating that the isoform of nitrate reductase induced in norflurazon-treated cotyledons is the same or similar to that found in roots. Nitrate reductases with and without a NO3− requirement for light induction appear to be present in developing leaves. In vivo kinetics (light induction and dark decay rates) and in vitro kinetics (Arrhenius energies of activation and NADH:NADPH specificities) of nitrate reductases with and without a NO3− requirement for induction were quite different. Km values for NO3− were identical for both nitrate reductases.

The herbicide acifluorfen (2-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy-2-nitrobenzoate) causes strong photooxidative destruction of pigments and lipids in sensitive plant species. Antioxidants and oxygen radical scavengers slow the bleaching action of the herbicide. The effect of acifluorfen on glutathione and ascorbate levels in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cotyledon discs was investigated to assess the relationship between herbicide activity and endogenous antioxidants. Acifluorfen decreased the levels of glutathione and ascorbate over 50% in discs exposed to less than 1.5 hours of white light (450 microeinsteins per square meter per second). Coincident increases in dehydroascorbate and glutathione disulfide were not observed. Acifluorfen also caused the rapid depletion of ascorbate in far-red light grown plants which were photosynthetically incompetent.Glutathione reductase, dehydroascorbate reductase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate oxidase, ascorbate free radical reductase, peroxidase, and catalase activities rapidly decreased in acifluorfen-treated tissue exposed to white light. None of the enzymes were inhibited in vitro by the herbicide. Acifluorfen causes irreversible photooxidative destruction of plant tissue, in part, by depleting endogenous antioxidants and inhibiting the activities of protective enzymes.

The possible role of photosynthesis in the mechanism of action of the herbicide acifluorfen (2-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)phenoxy-2-nitrobenzoate; AF) was examined. The sensitivity to AF of cotyledons of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) which had been grown under far red light (FR) and white light were compared. FR grown tissues which were photosynthetically imcompetent were hypersensitive to AF under white light and had approximately the same relative response to AF under blue and red light as green, white-light-grown tissues. Ultrastructural damage was apparent in FR-grown, AF-treated tissues within an hour after exposure to white light, with cytoplasmic and plastidic disorganization occurring simultaneously. In cucumber cotyledon tissue which had been greening for various time periods, there was no correlation between photosynthetic capacity and herbicidal efficacy of AF. PSII inhibitors (atrazine and DCMU) and the photophosphorylation inhibitor, tentoxin, had no effect on AF activity. Atrazine did not reduce AF activity at any concentration or light intensity tested, indicating that there is no second, photosynthetic-dependent mechanism of action operating at low AF concentrations or low fluence rates. Carbon dioxide-dependent O(2) evolution of intact chloroplasts of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) had an AF I(50) of 125 micromolar compared to 1000 micromolar for cucumber, whereas AF was much more herbicidally active in tissues of cucumber than of spinach. Differences in activity could not be accounted for by differences in uptake of AF. Our results indicate that there is no photosynthetic involvement in the mechanism of action of AF in cucumber.

Cytochemical and immunocytochemical methods were used to localize photosystems I and II in barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Himalaya) chloroplasts. PSI activity, monitored by diaminobenzidine oxidation, was associated with the lumen side of the thylakoids of both grana and stroma lamellae. The P700 chlorophyll a protein, the reaction center of PSI, was localized on thin sections of barley chloroplasts using monospecific antibodies to this protein and the peroxidase-antiperoxidase procedure. Results obtained by immunocytochemistry were similar to those of the diaminobenzidine oxidation: both grana and stroma lamellae contained immunocytochemically reactive material. Both the grana and stroma lamellae were also labeled when isolated thylakoids were reacted with the P700 chlorophyll a protein antiserum and then processed by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase procedure. PSII activity was localized cytochemically by monitoring the photoreduction of thiocarbamyl nitroblue tetrazolium, a reaction sensitive to the PSII inhibitor, DCMU. PSII reactions occurred primarily on the grana lamellae, with weaker reactions on the stroma lamellae.

The new selective acylanilide herbicide, MT-5950 [N-(3-chloro-4-isopropylphenyl)-2-methylpentanamide], was found to be a potent inhibitor of photosystem II (PS II) in photosynthesis. It was not as effective as atrazine in increasing variable fluorescence of wheat leaves dipped in herbicide solutions. However, in assays in which absorption across the leaf cuticle did not play a role, MT-5950 was about 10-fold more effective than atrazine in inhibiting the PSII activity of all the species tested. For example, the I50 values of MT-5950 and atrazine for inhibiting linear electron transport in broken chloroplasts of spinach were 0.08 and 0.8 μM, respectively. Atrazineresistant biotypes of Brassica napus and Solanum nigrum were about 10-fold and < 2-fold less susceptible, respectively, to MT-5950 than were susceptible biotypes of the same species as measured by DCPIP photoreduction and CO2-dependent oxygen evolution. However, MT-5950 was equally as effective as atrazine in competing for 14C-labeled atrazine from thylakoid proteins. We conclude that MT-5950 inhibits PS II by binding the quinone-binding 32 kD protein at a site that overlaps the binding site of atrazine, but does not significantly overlap that portion of the atrazine binding site that, when modified, confers atrazine resistance.