Isolation and Heterologous Expression of Putative Tomato Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) are derived from a minor membrane lipid constituent N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine and are hydrolyzed by fatty acid amide hydrolases (FAAH) into free fatty acid (FFA) and ethanolamine in both plants and animals. In Arabidopsis, NAE plays an important physiological role in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tiwari, Vijay
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2016
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Online Access:https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3138
https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4539&context=etd
Description
Summary:N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) are derived from a minor membrane lipid constituent N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine and are hydrolyzed by fatty acid amide hydrolases (FAAH) into free fatty acid (FFA) and ethanolamine in both plants and animals. In Arabidopsis, NAE plays an important physiological role in growth/development and response to stress. Although NAEs are reported in tomato, their metabolic pathway remains undiscovered. It is hypothesized that there is a functional FAAH in tomato that hydrolyzes NAEs. To this extent, a putative gene that likely encodes for putative SlFAAH1 protein was identified, cloned, and heterologously expressed. Amidase activity was tested using radiolabeled NAE substrates. Furthermore, expression of putative SlFAAH1 transcripts and protein activity was quantified at different developmental stages to demonstrate endogenous amidase activity in tomato seedlings. In future, molecular and biochemical characterization of tomato FAAH will further test the conserved nature of NAE metabolic pathway in plants.