The active medicinal constituents in and their IgG fractions were isolated. as well as skin irritations and infected wounds (Linde et al. 2008 W?lfle et al. 2014 Due to the additive and synergistic effects of the ingredients the entire extract is commonly used for therapy. The major active constituents involve hyperforins hypericins flavonoids and xanthones (Beerhues 2011 All these four classes of compounds are polyketide derivatives. Crucial actions of their biosynthetic pathways are catalyzed by polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes. Herb PKSs (type III) are homodimers. Either subunit has an impartial active site which accommodates the starter and extender substrates (Austin and Noel 2003 Variations in the starter molecule the number of extender models and the mode of cyclization result in the formation of an amazing array of PKS products. The PKSs that are involved in hyperforin hypericin flavonoid and xanthone biosyntheses are isobutyrophenone octaketide chalcone and benzophenone synthases respectively (Beerhues 2011 cDNAs encoding benzophenone synthase (BPS) and chalcone synthase (CHS) were cloned Rabbit Polyclonal to ABCC3. from elicitor-treated cell cultures and greenhouse-grown plants and were functionally expressed in (Liu et al. 2003 Huang et al. 2012 BPS and CHS catalyze decarboxylative condensations of benzoyl-CoA and 4-coumaroyl-CoA respectively with three molecules of malonyl-CoA. While benzoyl-CoA is also favored by BPS from uses 3-hydroxybenzoyl-CoA (Beerhues 1996 Nualkaew et al. 2012 The products of the BPS and CHS reactions are benzophenones and chalcones which are metabolized to xanthones and flavonoids respectively CHR-6494 (Winkel-Shirley 2001 El-Awaad et al. 2016 Upon mutation in a single active site position BPS formed phenylpyrones (Klundt et al. 2009 Xanthones and flavonoids contribute CHR-6494 to the medicinal effects CHR-6494 of extracts. Understanding their biosynthetic pathways in requires in addition to the knowledge of the individual biochemical reactions information about the spatial and temporal regulation which underlies the metabolic routes. Here immunofluorescence localization of BPS and CHS in leaves of is usually reported. The two other PKSs isobutyrophenone and octaketide synthases were not included in this study. No cDNA encoding isobutyrophenone synthase the key enzyme of hyperforin biosynthesis has so far been isolated. For octaketide synthase cDNAs were cloned from various species including (Abe et al. 2005 Karppinen CHR-6494 et al. 2008 Mizuuchi et al. 2009 However all the recombinant proteins form an incorrectly cyclized octaketide derivative. Correct cyclization leading to formation of emodin anthrone has recently been observed in elicitor-treated cell cultures (Abdel-Rahman et al. 2013 Octaketide synthase transcripts in leaves were localized by hybridization indicating their unique presence in hypericin-containing dark nodules (Karppinen et al. 2008 Therefore octaketide synthase was not considered here. In the present study we focus on the localization of BPS and CHS. Antibodies were raised tested for their specificities and used for immunofluorescence detection of the PKSs in the mesophyll of leaves. Furthermore biosynthetic products were histochemically localized. While a specific stain for xanthones was not available flavonoids were detected in the mesophyll. CHR-6494 Materials and Methods Plants L. (Hypericaceae) was produced in the medicinal plants garden of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology Technische Universit?t Braunschweig Germany. Chemicals and Materials Solvents and chemicals were of either analytical or high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade. Polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) blotting membranes (Immobilon P) were purchased from Millipore (Bedford USA). Enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) Western blotting detection reagents were ordered from GE Healthcare (Freiburg Germany). Peroxidase-conjugated AffinPure goat anti-rabbit IgG (H + L) and Alexa Fluor 488-goat anti-rabbit IgG (H + L) were obtained from Dianova (Hamburg Germany) and Invitrogen (Karlsruhe Germany) respectively. Cryo-embedding material and poly-L-lysine-coated slides were purchased from Plano (Marburg Germany) and Roth (Karlsruhe Germany) respectively..