Abstract
Plants produce a variety of secondary metabolites to protect themselves from pathogens and herbivores and/or to influence the growth of neighbouring plants. Some of these metabolites are toxic to the producing cells when their target sites are present in the producing organisms. Therefore, a specific self-resistance mechanism must exist in these plants. Self-resistance mechanisms, including extracellular excretion, vacuolar sequestration, vesicle transport, extracellular biosynthesis, and accumulation of the metabolite in a non-toxic form, have been proposed thus far. Recently, a new mechanism involving mutation of the target protein of the toxic metabolite has been elucidated. We review here the mechanisms that plants use to prevent self-toxicity from the following representative compounds: cannabinoids, flavonoids, diterpene sclareol, alkaloids, benzoxazinones, phenylpropanoids, cyanogenic glycosides, and glucosinolates.
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Abbreviations
- ABC:
-
ATP-binding cassette
- BOA:
-
Benzoxazolin-2(3H)-one
- CBCA:
-
Cannabichromenic acid
- DIBOA:
-
2,4-Dihydroxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one
- DIMBOA:
-
2,4-Dihydroxy-7-methoxy-2H-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one
- GSH:
-
Glutathione
- GST:
-
Glutathione S-transferease
- PDR:
-
Pleiotropic drug resistance
- THC:
-
Tetrahydrocannabinol
- THCA:
-
Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid
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Acknowledgement
Research in the authors’ laboratory was supported, in part, by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and by CREST of the Japan Science and Technology. SS was recipient of a post-doctoral fellowship from the JSPS hosted by MY.
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Sirikantaramas, S., Yamazaki, M. & Saito, K. Mechanisms of resistance to self-produced toxic secondary metabolites in plants. Phytochem Rev 7, 467–477 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-007-9080-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11101-007-9080-2