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Metabolism and Enzymology

Alcohol Dehydrogenase and Ethanol in the Stems of Trees ¹

Evidence for Anaerobic Metabolism in the Vascular Cambium

Department of Forestry and Plant Physiology Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0073

Anaerobic fermentation in plants is usually thought to be a transient phenomenon, brought about by environmental limitations to oxygen availability, or by structural constraints to oxygen transport. The vascular cambium of trees is separated from the air by the outer bark and secondary phloem, and we hypothesized that the cambium may experience sufficient hypoxia to induce anaerobic fermentation. We found high alcohol dehydrogenase activity in the cambium of several tree species. Mean activity of alcohol dehydrogenase in Populus deltoides was 165 micromoles NADH oxidized per minute per gram fresh weight in May. Pyruvate decarboxylase activity was also present in the cambium of P. deltoides, with mean activity of 26 micromoles NADH oxidized per minute per gram fresh weight in May. Lactate dehydrogenase activity was not present in any tree species we examined. Contrary to our expectation, alcohol dehydrogenase activity was inversely related to bark thickness in Acer saccharum and unrelated to bark thickness in two Populus species. Bark thickness may be less important in limiting oxygen availability to the cambium than is oxygen consumption by rapidly respiring phloem and cambium in actively growing trees. Ethanol was present in the vascular cambium of all species examined, with mean concentrations of 35 to 143 nanomoles per gram fresh weight, depending on species. Ethanol was also present in xylem sap and may have been released from the cambium into the transpiration stream. The presence in the cambium of the enzymes necessary for fermentation as well as the products of fermentation is evidence that respiration in the vascular cambium of trees may be oxygen-limited, but other biosynthetic origins of ethanol have not been ruled out.

¹ Research supported by grant R-810853-01-0 from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This is a publication of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station and is published with the approval of the director.

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