BACKGROUND Plants, due to their immobility, have evolved mechanisms allowing them to adapt to multiple environmental and management conditions. Short-term undesirable conditions (e.g. moisture deficit, cold temperatures) generally reduce photosynthetic carbon supply while increasing soluble carbohydrate accumulation. It is not known, however, what strategies plants may use in the long-term to a...

In the present study we introduced a two-dimensional electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry-based proteomic workflow to identify proteins that show altered expression as a result of the addition of 2% of water extract of inulin-type fructans to the diet of growing piglets. This analysis allowed us to detect an average of 240 spots per ge...

In order to optimize the use of agaves for commercial applications, an understanding of fructan metabolism in these species at the molecular and genetic level is essential. Based on transcriptome data, this report describes the identification and molecular characterization of cDNAs and deduced amino acid sequences for genes encoding fructosyltransferases, invertases and fructan exohydrolases (F...

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) grain development follows a series of defined morphological and physiological stages and depends on the supply of assimilates (mainly sucrose) from the mother plant. Here, spatio-temporal patterns of sugar distributions were investigated by mass spectrometric imaging, targeted metabolite analyses, and transcript profiling of microdissected grain tissues. Distinct spatio...

Fructans are water-soluble fructose oligomers and polymers that are based on sucrose, and have been implicated in protecting plants against water stress. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is highly sensitive to chilling temperatures, and is not able to synthesize fructans. Two wheat fructan-synthesizing enzymes, sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase, encoded by wft2, or sucrose:fructan 6-fructosyltransfe...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies show inverse relationship between intake of wholegrain cereals and several chronic diseases. Components and mechanisms behind possible protective effects of wholegrain cereals are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE To characterise commercial rye bran preparations, compared to wheat bran, regarding structure and content of nutrients as well as a number of presumabl...

The levansucrase (sucrose:2,6-beta-D-fructan 6-beta-D-fructosyltransferase, EC 2.4.1.10) structural gene from a Bacillus subtilis mutant strain displaying a low polymerase activity was sequenced. Only one missense mutation changing Arg331 to His was responsible for this modified catalytic property. From this allele we created new mutations by directed mutagenesis, which modified the charge and ...

Plant cell wall invertases and fructan exohydrolases (FEHs) are very closely related enzymes at the molecular and structural level (family 32 of glycoside hydrolases) but they are functionally different and are believed to fulfill distinct roles in plants. Invertases preferentially hydrolyze the Glc-Fru linkage in sucrose while plant FEHs have no invertase activity and only split terminal Fru-F...