Zhihong Zhang, Tristan J Smart, Hwanho Choi, Florence Hardy, Christopher T Lohans, Martine I Abboud, Melodie S W Richardson, Robert S Paton, Michael A McDonough, Christopher J Schofield
Ethylene is important in industry and biological signaling. In plants, ethylene is produced by oxidation of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid, as catalyzed by 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid oxidase. Bacteria catalyze ethylene production, but via the four-electron oxidation of 2-oxoglutarate to give ethylene in an arginine-dependent reaction. Crystallographic and biochemical studies on the Pseudomonas syringae ethylene-forming enzyme reveal a branched mechanism. In one branch, an apparently typical 2-oxoglutarate oxygenase reaction to give succinate, carbon dioxide, and sometimes pyrroline-5-carboxylate occurs...
May 2, 2017: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America