Plant Physiol. (1998) 118: 125-135
Purification and Characterization of Peroxidases Correlated with
Lignification in Poplar Xylem1
Jørgen Holst Christensen,
Guy Bauw,
Karen Gjesing Welinder,
Marc Van Montagu*, and
Wout Boerjan
Laboratorium voor Genetica, Departement Genetica, Vlaams
Interuniversitair Instituut voor Biotechnologie, Universiteit Gent,
K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium (J.H.C., G.B., M.V.M.,
W.B.); and Department of Protein Chemistry, University of Copenhagen,
DK-1353 København K, Denmark (K.G.W.)
 |
ABSTRACT |
Lignin is an integral cell wall
component of all vascular plants. Peroxidases are widely believed to
catalyze the last enzymatic step in the biosynthesis of lignin, the
dehydrogenation of the p-coumaryl alcohols. As the first
stage in identifying lignin-specific peroxidase isoenzymes, the
classical anionic peroxidases found in the xylem of poplar
(Populus trichocarpa Trichobel) were purified and
characterized. Five different poplar xylem peroxidases (PXP 1, PXP 2, PXP 3-4, PXP 5, and PXP 6) were isolated. All five peroxidases were
strongly glycosylated (3.6% to 4.9% N-glucosamine),
with apparent molecular masses between 46 and 54 kD and pI values
between pH 3.1 and 3.8. Two of the five isolated peroxidases (PXP 3-4 and PXP 5) could oxidize the lignin monomer analog syringaldazine, an
activity previously correlated with lignification in poplar. Because
these isoenzymes were specifically or preferentially expressed in
xylem, PXP 3-4 and PXP 5 are suggested to be involved in lignin polymerization.
 |
INTRODUCTION |
Lignin is a polymeric constituent of the plant cell wall and,
second to cellulose, is the most abundant organic compound in the
biosphere. It is a complex aromatic polymer derived mainly from the
polymerization of three different hydroxycinnamyl alcohols: p-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol, and sinapyl alcohol.
Specific isoenzymes of cell wall-localized peroxidases are widely
believed to be responsible for the final enzymatic step in
lignification: the oxidative dehydrogenation of monolignols, which
leads to free radical polymerization (Higuchi, 1985
). Despite extensive
studies, however, no well-defined link between a single peroxidase and the developmentally regulated lignification process has been
established.
Classical secretory plant peroxidases (class III; EC 1.11.1.7; donor,
hydrogen peroxide oxidoreductase) are heme-containing enzymes of
approximately 300 amino acids. The majority are N-glycosylated and are
believed to be localized in the cell wall or the vacuole (Welinder,
1992
). Most peroxidases can oxidize a wide range of substrates at the
expense of H2O2, albeit at
somewhat different rates. Classical peroxidases have been implicated in
several primary and secondary metabolic processes, including
hormone catabolism (Kenten, 1955
), pathogen defense (Moerschbacher,
1992
), phenol oxidation (Lagrimini, 1991
), cross-linking of cell
wall-structural proteins and polysaccharides (Fry, 1986
; Lamport,
1986
), and particularly in lignin polymerization (Mäder 1992
;
McDougall, 1992
; Baier et al., 1993
).
The major reasons it has been difficult to assign a specific function
to any particular peroxidase have been the very high redundancy found
in peroxidase genes, the broad spectrum of substrates accepted by these
enzymes, and the very similar immunological properties of different
isoenzymes. It has now become evident that this complexity is even more
pronounced than previously anticipated; the Arabidopsis genome was
recently estimated to encode more than 40 different ER-targeted
peroxidases grouped in families of high homology (Welinder et al.,
1996
). Additionally, because the down-regulation of specific
peroxidases did not always lead to phenotypes, it was suggested that
other isoenzymes were compensating for the reduced expression levels
(Sherf et al., 1993
). This phenomenon complicates the determination of
physiological roles for peroxidases when using a molecular biology
approach. Therefore, it seems necessary to choose methods that allow
the study of these enzymes at different levels (e.g. transcription,
translation, enzymatic properties, spatio-temporal expression), without
interference from the gene redundancy.
To identify lignin-specific isoenzymes, we have focused on the anionic
peroxidases from poplar (Populus spp.) xylem for the following reasons: between 15% and 36% of the dry weight of wood consists of lignin (Higuchi, 1985
), so the lignification process is
extensive. Poplar xylem can be easily separated from other tissues,
resulting in a reduction of candidate peroxidases for this process.
Poplar is amenable to genetic engineering and can be considered a model
tree for molecular lignification studies (Boerjan et al., 1997
). Also,
in histochemical studies, anionic peroxidases with SYR-oxidizing
activity have been shown to correlate strictly with lignifying cells in
poplar (Populus × euramericana; Goldberg et
al., 1983
). It was shown that this SYR activity originates from
fast-migrating anionic peroxidases (Imberty et al., 1985
). Furthermore,
the specific SYR and the sinapyl alcohol-oxidizing activities
appear to be mediated by the same isoenzymes (Tsutsumi and Sakai, 1993
,
1994
; Tsutsumi et al., 1994
). These researchers used differences in the
kinetic constants for the oxidation of lignin monomers among poplar
(Populus alba L.) callus isoenzymes to assign monomer
specificity to different isoenzymes (Tsutsumi and Sakai, 1993
, 1994
;
Tsutsumi et al., 1994
). However, this kind of assignment has been
questioned lately by the data from Takahama and Oniki (1996)
and
Takahama et al. (1996)
, who have demonstrated that peroxidase-generated
radicals of hydroxycinnamic acids, coniferyl alcohol, and other cell
wall components can function as mediators for the oxidation of sinapyl
alcohol.
Here we present the purification and characterization of the five
classical anionic peroxidases detected in poplar xylem. Two of the five
isolated peroxidases were able to oxidize SYR, and because oxidation of
SYR has been correlated with lignification in a wide range of woody
species (Harkin and Obst, 1973
), we suggest that these peroxidases
represent lignifying isoenzymes.
 |
MATERIALS AND METHODS |
Unless stated otherwise, all chemicals, enzymes, and materials
were purchased from Sigma.
Peroxidase Assays
Peroxidase activity was measured spectrophotometrically at 25°C
by following the
H2O2-dependent oxidation of
DAB at 452 nm or of ABTS at 418 nm. The reaction mixture contained 20 mM sodium citrate, pH 5.5, 1% (v/v) protein sample, and 1 mM DAB and 0.03% (w/v)
H2O2, or 0.04% (w/v) ABTS
and 0.006% (w/v) H2O2.
For the SYR assay, peroxidase activity was measured
spectrophotometrically at 25°C by determining the initial rate of the H2O2-dependent oxidation of
SYR at 530 nm. The reaction mixture contained 5 mM
Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 1% (v/v) protein sample, 20 µM SYR,
and 0.03% (w/v) H2O2. The
method was adapted from that of Goldberg et al. (1983)
.
For peroxidase activity staining in polyacrylamide gels, protein
samples (minimum of 2 fmol per isoenzyme) were dissolved in loading
buffer without SDS and thiol-reducing agents and analyzed on
0.5-mm-thick SDS-polyacrylamide gels (10%) without prior boiling, according to the method of Laemmli (1970)
. Proteins were separated at
10 V cm
1. After separation, the gels were equilibrated
for 30 min in 50 mM sodium citrate, pH 5.5, prior to
incubation with 1 mM DAB and 0.03% (w/v)
H2O2 in fresh sodium
citrate buffer.
Plant material (poplar, Populus trichocarpa cv Trichobel)
for initial analysis was harvested and stored at
70°C. Stems and roots were separated into bark and xylem. The tissues were ground in
liquid nitrogen and extracted with 20 mM Tris adjusted to
pH 7.5 with L-ascorbic acid. The debris were removed by
centrifugation, and the extracts were analyzed by native PAGE as
described above.
Protein Extraction and Extract Conditioning
Stems from 2-year-old poplars grown in a nursery were harvested in
spring and stored at
70°C. The bark was peeled off and the xylem
(275 g) was ground to a very fine powder by pressing it against a
rotating sanding disc submerged in liquid nitrogen. The wood powder was
extracted twice with 20 mM Tris adjusted to pH 7.5 with
L-ascorbic acid (to minimize oxidation), and the extract was filtered twice through four layers of Miracloth (Calbiochem), once
through Whatman 3MM paper, twice through a glass microfiber filter
(GF/C, Whatman), and finally through a 0.45-µm Microsart module (SM
3021230601W, Sartorius, Göttingen, Germany) mounted in a Sartocon
mini-cross-flow system (Sartorius). Subsequently, the protein extract
was concentrated 5-fold using the mini-cross-flow system containing a
10-kD cutoff Ultrasart module (SM 3031453901E, Sartorius).
Protein Chromatography
The proteins were separated from low-molecular-mass substances by
Sephadex G-25 (Pharmacia) gel-filtration chromatography on a 5- × 30-cm column (4 mL min
1 flow), equilibrated in
5 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5 (200 mL of extract run
1). Detection was carried out at 280 nm. The eluting
proteins from each run were pooled and applied on a DEAE-Sepharose
column (2.6 × 25 cm, Pharmacia), equilibrated in 5 mM
Tris-Cl, pH 7.5. The column was washed with 5 bed volumes of
equilibration buffer and the proteins were eluted with a short linear
gradient (500 mL, 0-0.5 M NaCl in equilibration buffer) at
2 mL min
1. The peroxidase activity was
identified in the eluting fractions by assaying with DAB, ABTS, and
SYR. Peroxidase fractions were pooled, and ammonium sulfate was added
to a final concentration of 1.7 M, before loading onto a
Phenyl-Sepharose column (1.6 × 15 cm, Pharmacia), equilibrated in
20 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5, and 1.7 M ammonium
sulfate. The column was washed with 5 bed volumes of equilibration
buffer before the proteins were eluted with a 300-mL linear gradient
from equilibration buffer to 5 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5 (1 mL
min
1). Fractions containing peroxidase activity
were pooled and applied to a concanavalin A column (1 × 5 cm,
Pharmacia) equilibrated in 20 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5, 0.5 M ammonium sulfate. The column was washed with 5 bed
volumes of 20 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5, 0.5 M NaCl; after a buffer change to 5 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5, the proteins
were recovered with a 50-mL gradient of 0 to 100 mM Man in
5 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5 (0.5 mL min
1
flow). The fractions containing peroxidase activity were pooled. All
steps in the purification were performed at room temperature. Protein
samples were stored at 4°C.
Isoenzyme Separation
The protein sample resulting from the low-pressure purification
scheme was applied to a Mono-Q anion-exchange column (Pharmacia) equilibrated in 10 mM Tris-Cl, pH 7.5. The column was
washed with 10 bed volumes of equilibration buffer before the
isoenzymes were eluted with a gradient of 0 to 0.5 M NaCl
in equilibration buffer at 1 mL min
1. The
column eluate was monitored at 280 nm for proteins and at 404 nm for
peroxidases. The RZ values
(ASORETmax/A280)
were calculated from the chromatograms.
Protein Determination
Protein concentration was determined according to the method of
Bradford (1976)
using BSA as a standard. The molar concentration of the
purified isoenzymes was estimated spectrophotometrically at the Soret
maximum (404 nm), assuming an extinction coefficient of 100 mM
1 cm
1
(Welinder, 1992
).
Peptide and Sequence Analysis
The purified isoenzymes were reduced and the Cys residues
were blocked by a method adapted from that of Rüegg and Rudinger (1977)
. Essentially, protein samples were precipitated with 4 volumes
of ethanol and dissolved in 100 µL of 100 mM Tris-Cl, pH
8.2, and 8 M urea; subsequently, 50 µL 1-propanol was
added. Before the addition of 1 µL of tributylphosphine and
incubation in the dark for 2 h, the samples were flushed with
N2. After the proteins were reduced,
1 µL of 1 M iodoacetate was added. After another 5 min in
the dark, 1 µL of 2-mercaptoethanol was added and the proteins were
precipitated with 4 volumes of acetone. The precipitated proteins were
then separated by SDS-PAGE (10%; Laemmli, 1970
) and blotted onto PVDF
membranes (Millipore). The excised proteins were digested in situ with
trypsin and the generated peptides were subsequently separated by
reversed-phase HPLC, as previously described (Bauw et al., 1987
, 1989
).
Chemical fragmentation of the intact proteins was performed in 100 µL
of 70% (v/v) formic acid containing 0.16 mg of cyanogen bromide for
24 h in the dark at room temperature. After cleavage, the
reaction mixture was diluted with 10 volumes of water and lyophilized.
The peptides were dissolved in SDS sample buffer, separated by SDS-PAGE
(15%), transferred onto PVDF membranes, and subjected to
protein-sequencing analysis as described by Bauw et al. (1989)
.
Amino Acid Analysis
Amino acid analysis was performed essentially as described by
Barkholt and Jensen (1989)
. Protein samples (60 pmol) were hydrolyzed in 6 N HCl, 0.05% (v/v) phenol, 0.1% (w/v)
3,3
-dithiodipropanoic acid at 110°C, and the amino acids were then
separated by ion-exchange HPLC. The number of replicas was dependent on
the availability of the isoenzymes: for PXP 1, two for 6 h of
hydrolysis, four for 20 h, and two for 72 h; for PXP 2, PXP
3, and PXP 4, two for 20 h; for PXP 5, two for 6 h, three for
20 h, and two for 72 h; and for PXP 6, one for 20 h.
Deglycosylation
The deglycosylation protocol was adapted from that of Edge et al.
(1981)
as follows. The protein sample (200 pmol of peroxidase) was
lyophilized and dissolved in 200 µL of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid:anisole (2:1, v/v) in a glass tube with a Teflon-lined screw cap.
The reaction mixture was flushed with N2 and left
for 2 h at room temperature. Diethyl ether (400 µL) and 400 µL
of 50% (v/v) aqueous pyridine were added, and the solution was
extracted three times with diethyl ether. The pH of the aqueous phase
was adjusted by the addition of 0.1% (v/v) TFA and applied to a C2 reversed-phase column (Reversed-Phase kit, Alltech, Deerfield, IL),
previously equilibrated in 0.1% (v/v) TFA. The column was washed with
5 bed volumes of equilibration buffer and 5 bed volumes of 0.1% (v/v)
TFA and 5% (v/v) acetonitrile, before the proteins were eluted with
0.1% (v/v) TFA and 70% (v/v) acetonitrile. The eluted peroxidase was
lyophilized and analyzed by SDS-PAGE (10%; Laemmli, 1970
).
Determination of Apparent Molecular Masses
The isoenzymes, together with molecular mass standards
(Pharmacia), were analyzed by SDS-PAGE (10%; Laemmli, 1970
) and
visualized with Coomassie blue staining. Apparent molecular masses
were determined according to the instructions in the calibration kit
booklet (Pharmacia).
IEF
IEF gels for the low-pH range (pH 2.5-5) were cast using
Pharmalytes according to the manufacturer's instructions
(Pharmacia). The gel was mounted onto a water-cooled (15°C) 2117 Multiphor II electrophoresis unit (Pharmacia) and 0.5 pmol of each
isoenzyme and 10 µL of pI standards (low range, Pharmacia) were
focused for 3500 V h
1, 5 W, 1500 V, 25 mA. The gel
was cut into parts, the peroxidases were visualized as for the DAB gel
assay, and the pI standards were visualized with PhastGel Blue R
(Pharmacia), following the manufacturer's instructions. The migration
of all activity bands and standards was measured and the pIs were
determined by interpolation.
 |
RESULTS |
Poplar Anionic Peroxidases
To identify putative lignin-specific peroxidases from poplar,
proteins from different tissues of P. trichocarpa were
extracted and the anionic peroxidases analyzed on activity gels (Fig.
1). The activity pattern obtained from
the xylem of roots and stems was similar, with minor variation in the
band intensities, suggesting that the same peroxidase isoenzymes were
active in both tissues. In the bark of roots and stems, the
slow-migrating activities were also similar, but the fast-migrating
activities showed a different pattern. The leaf extract contained only
poorly resolved, fast-migrating peroxidase activities. The xylem
peroxidase activity bands c and d seemed to be specifically or
preferentially expressed in the xylem, whereas the other activity bands
from the xylem seemed to be present in other tissues as well.

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| Figure 1.
Anionic peroxidase activities from poplar
(P. trichocarpa Trichobel). Extracts from root bark (1),
stem bark (2), leaf (3), root xylem (4), and stem xylem (5) were
analyzed on a native gel. Peroxidases were visualized with DAB and
H2O2 as described in ``Materials and Methods''. The letters a through f were chosen arbitrarily to
represent the xylem gel activities. SM, Slow migrating; FM, fast
migrating. The protein migration was from to +.
|
|
Peroxidases are often classified according to their extractability as
soluble, ionically bound, or covalently bound. To investigate whether
other anionic peroxidases were present in the stem xylem that had
escaped our extraction procedure, tissue that had been extracted four
times with low-salt buffers was treated further with the cell
wall-degrading enzyme mixture Driselase (Fluka) and reextracted with
buffer containing 1 M NaCl. Peroxidase activity was
released in this extract, but the activity pattern was identical to
that of the low-salt extract (data not shown).
The activity ratio between the fast- and the slow-migrating bands
varied within the season. In particular, the activity bands e and f
varied strongly. In the material used for the purification described
below, activity band f was not detected at all.
Isolation of Xylem Peroxidases
All anionic PXPs, detected by three different peroxidase
substrates (ABTS, DAB, and SYR), were copurified in three
chromatographic steps and subsequently separated and further purified
on a high-resolution anion-exchange column, yielding six peaks of pure
peroxidase isoenzymes.
The purification scheme is presented in Table
I. All fractions showing peroxidase
activity by using DAB, ABTS, or SYR as substrates were pooled after
each chromatographic step and applied to the next column. The activity
of all isoenzymes was apparently fully preserved throughout the
copurification procedure. This was judged visually from activity gels
in which 1 × 10
5 of the pooled fraction
from each chromatographic step was analyzed (data not shown). The three
low-pressure chromatographic separation steps (anion-exchange,
hydrophobic-interaction, and lectin-affinity chromatography) gave a 6-, 7-, and 4-fold purification, respectively, yielding 1.1 mg of protein
from 275 g of xylem material, and a final peroxidase-to-protein
enrichment of 232-fold (Table I). The peroxidase isoenzymes were
separated and further purified by Mono-Q chromatography, yielding six
peaks of pure peroxidase activity, designated PXP 1 to PXP 6. PXP 1 and
PXP 2 eluted first during an isocratic step and PXP 3 to PXP 6 eluted
during a linear gradient (Fig. 2).
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Table I.
Copurification of anionic xylem peroxidases
Xylem (275 g) from 2-year-old poplar trees was ground and
extracted.
|
|

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| Figure 2.
Mono-Q separation of the anionic peroxidase
isoenzymes. The elution of the Mono-Q column was recorded at 404 nm
(lower chromatogram, lower scale to the left) and at 280 nm (upper
chromatogram, scale to the right). The upper line represents the NaCl
concentration in the elution gradient (upper scale to the left). The
horizontal scale represents the elution volume. The eluting peaks are
designated PXP 1, PXP 2, PXP 3, PXP 4, PXP 5, and PXP 6.
|
|
The recovery of peroxidase activity after the Mono-Q separation was
typically between 60% and 70%. The purity of the peroxidase peaks was
reflected directly by the chromatograms in which the specific
peroxidase absorption (404 nm) corresponded perfectly to the protein
absorption (280 nm), except for a small 280-nm absorption peak
preceding the PXP 1 peak (Fig. 2). The RZ values ranged from 2.7 to 3.6 (Table II). The yield for each isoenzyme is indicated in Table II. To relate the purified isoenzymes with the
gel activities in Figure 1, the separated peroxidases were analyzed on
an activity gel (Fig. 3). A clear
separation in two activity bands was seen for PXP 5. The two bands for
PXP 5 were not due to tailing from PXP 4, because samples collected
from different positions within the PXP 5 peak showed the same two bands (data not shown). Comparison of Figures 1 and 3 revealed that PXP
1, PXP 2, PXP 3, PXP 4, PXP 5, and PXP 6 represented activity bands a,
b, c, d, c-d, and e, respectively.

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| Figure 3.
Native gel analysis of the separated isoenzymes.
The isoenzymes were separated in a native gel and visualized with DAB
and H2O2 as in Figure 1. The numbers above the
lanes correspond to the isoenzyme names given in Figure 2. The letters
a through e represent the xylem gel activities, as described in the
legend to Figure 1. The protein migration was from to +.
|
|

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| Figure 4.
Analysis of the purified isoenzymes on a
denaturing gel. SDS-PAGE (10%) analysis of the purified isoenzymes (50 pmol), stained with Coomassie blue. Apparent molecular mass markers (M)
are given with mass indications in kD. The numbers above the lanes
correspond to the isoenzyme names given in Figure 2.
|
|

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| Figure 5.
Analysis of the substrate specificity of the
peroxidase isoenzymes. The rate of oxidation for the three substrates
ABTS, DAB, and SYR was measured for the six purified isoenzymes as
described in ``Materials and Methods''. The activity of the most
active isoenzyme for each substrate was set to 100. The measurements
were repeated 10 times. The means ± SD values are
indicated. Enzyme activity measurements were performed using 10 pmol of
peroxidase isoenzyme in a 200-µL reaction volume. Gray bars, DAB;
black bars, ABTS; white bars, SYR.
|
|

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| Figure 6.
Analysis of the peroxidases by trypsin digestion.
Comparison of the reversed-phase HPLC separation chromatograms of the
trypsin-generated peptides from the four most abundant peroxidases.
mAU, Milli-absorbance unit.
|
|
Protein Characterization
To determine the apparent molecular masses, the purified,
denatured, and reduced isoenzymes were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. This revealed two polypeptide bands for each isoenzyme except PXP 6 (Fig.
4). The apparent molecular masses of the
polypeptide bands are listed in Table
III. The double-band pattern was also
observed on gel analysis performed without a thiol-reducing agent in
the sample buffer, excluding partial reduction of the disulfide bridges as an explanation for the doublets. The ratio between the two polypeptide bands did not change when the purification was performed at
4°C, indicating that degradation was not the cause. To further investigate the reason for these doublets in the SDS-PAGE experiment, two abundant isoenzymes (PXP 1 and PXP 5) were deglycosylated as
described in ``Materials and Methods''. After deglycosylation, the
proteins migrated as a single polypeptide band, with apparent molecular
masses of approximately 37 kD (data not shown), indicating that
heterogeneity in the glycan part was the reason for the two polypeptide
bands per isoenzyme.
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Table III.
Molecular data of the Mono-Q-separated isoenzymes
The estimation of the glycan number was calculated from the amino acid
hydrolysis assuming two residues of N-glucosamine per
glycan, a 50% loss in the 20-h hydrolysis, and peroxidases of 300 amino acids.
|
|
The pI values for the purified isoenzymes ranged between pH 3.1 and 3.8 (Table III). Two bands with similar intensities were observed for PXP 3 and PXP 4.
All isoenzymes could oxidize ABTS and DAB, albeit to a different
extent, whereas only PXP 3, PXP 4, and PXP 5 were able to oxidize SYR.
PXP 3 and PXP 4 showed identical rates of oxidation for the three
substrates tested (Fig. 5).
Molecular Analysis
The purified isoenzymes were subjected to protein hydrolysis. The
subsequent amino acid analysis revealed that all isoenzymes were
different except PXP 3 and PXP 4 (Table
IV). The amino acid analysis also
detected N-glucosamine and demonstrated that all isoenzymes
were heavily glycosylated (Table IV). Assuming a 50% loss of
N-glucosamine for a 20-h hydrolysis (K.G. Welinder,
unpublished results), a protein size of 300 amino acids, and N-linked
glycans containing two GlcNAc residues (Welinder, 1992
), we can
estimate the isoenzymes to have 11 to 15 glycan side chains attached
(Table III). The hyperglycosylated state of these peroxidases explains the relatively high apparent molecular masses and could explain their
high stability during the purification process.
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Table IV.
Amino acid composition of the purified isoenzymes
All isoenzymes were hydrolyzed and analyzed as described in
``Materials and Methods'' (60 pmol sample 1).
N-Glucosamine (GlcN) content was derived from the 20-h
hydrolysates. Corrections for degradation of Ser (10%) and Thr (5%)
for the 20-h hydrolyses were performed.
|
|
To obtain sequence information, the isolated isoenzymes were subjected
to tryptic digestion, followed by peptide separation and sequencing.
Before the samples were digested, it was necessary to perform an
extensive reduction and modification of the disulfide bridges. The high
level of glycosylation and the compact structure of plant peroxidases
are probably the causes for this fragmentation problem. The HPLC
chromatograms of the peptide separations showed only minor differences
between PXP 3 and PXP 4, whereas the chromatograms for PXP 1 and PXP 5 were clearly unique (Fig. 6). For PXP 2 and PXP 6, no comparable chromatograms were obtained because of the limited amount of protein. Several tryptic peptides were selected for
amino acid-sequencing analysis. These amino acid sequences, as well as
the sequences obtained after cyanogen bromide fragmentation, are
presented in Figure 7. The alignment of
the amino acid sequences revealed that PXP 1 and PXP 2 were clearly
distinct from PXP 3, PXP 4, and PXP 5, whereas the amino acid sequences
of PXP 3, PXP 4, and PXP 5 showed that these three were very similar,
with only one amino acid difference found in the 68 amino acids of the
homologous peptides obtained (PXP 4, MGNISPLTGTEGE; PXP 5, MGNLSPLTGTEGEIR). PXP 1 was 68% identical to the group PXP
3, PXP 4, and PXP 5 in the homologous regions. The amino acid sequences
also demonstrated the hyperglycosylated state of these proteins with 10 putative glycosylation sites 0XS/T (0 indicating that no amino acid was identified during that particular step in the sequencing) in the 22 peptides sequenced. In addition, two NXS/T sequences were identified, which apparently were either not glycosylated or only partially glycosylated (Fig. 7). All peptide sequences obtained showed homology to known peroxidases.

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| Figure 7.
Amino acid sequences of the trypsin- and cyanogen
bromide-generated peptides. Underlined sequences are putative
glycosylation sites (NXT/S or 0XT/S, where X represents any amino acid
except P). If N was linked to a glycan, it was not detected during
sequencing (indicated by 0). Sequences placed at the end (double
underlined) showed no homology to other peptide sequences obtained.
|
|
 |
DISCUSSION |
It has often been suggested that anionic peroxidases are involved
in the formation of lignin in poplar (Imberty et al., 1985
; Tsutsumi et
al., 1994
) and in tobacco (Mäder et al., 1977
; Lagrimini, 1992
).
To identify putative lignin-specific peroxidases we have purified and
characterized the anionic peroxidases from the poplar stem xylem and
identified SYR-specific isoenzymes. In this article we present the
first example, to our knowledge, of an almost complete set of anionic
peroxidases from a single tissue; the peroxidases were purified,
separated, and characterized, and thus, we present a unique starting
point to unravel the function of individual anionic peroxidases and
their presumed involvement in lignification.
Six Anionic Peroxidase Fractions Purified from Poplar Xylem
A fairly standard procedure exploiting methods often used to
purify plant peroxidases (ion-exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and
lectin binding) allowed us to isolate six anionic peroxidase fractions
from the xylem of poplar stems. We are confident that all of the major
anionic peroxidases were detected and isolated by this purification,
because all fractions after each chromatographic step were assayed with
three different peroxidase substrates and no additional peroxidase
activities were detected. In addition, extractions with high-salt
buffers after digestion with cell wall-degrading enzymes did not reveal
other anionic activities on activity gels. The minor gel activity (Fig.
1, f) was not detected in the material used for the present
purification but was detected from purifications with material
harvested at other periods of the year; it was demonstrated to coelute
with PXP 6 from the Mono-Q column (data not shown). Whether band f
corresponds to another gene product is currently unclear. Lignification
is one of the major processes taking place during xylogenesis; thus, if
anionic peroxidases are involved in this process, they should be among
the peroxidases isolated here.
The purity of the isolated peroxidases was confirmed directly by the
Mono-Q chromatography: the protein and the peroxidase peaks (280 nm and
404 nm) had identical elution times and peak shapes, indicating that
the peaks contained exclusively peroxidases. The high RZ values
(between 2.7 and 3.6; Table II) are also indicative of relatively pure
peroxidase fractions. Furthermore, the purity was supported by
SDS-PAGE, with which all isoenzymes appeared as one or two polypeptide
bands (Fig. 4). Finally, all amino acid sequences obtained match very
well with known peroxidase sequences. When analyzed on activity gels,
all isoenzymes behaved homogeneously, except for PXP 5 for which two
activity bands were observed (Fig. 3). The separation of one gene
product into different apparent molecular masses and pIs has previously
been shown for peroxidases and was suggested to arise from
heterogeneity in posttranslational modifications (Lagrimini et al.,
1987
, 1990
). The doublets seen by SDS-PAGE (Fig. 4) are probably caused
by heterogeneity in the glycans, because they disappeared after
deglycosylation for PXP 1 and PXP 5.
Five Closely Related Peroxidases
We have shown that all of the isoenzymes characterized here were
closely related at the biochemical level. This was to be expected from
their similar behavior on low-pressure chromatographic columns, on
which all of the isoenzymes eluted as closely overlapping peaks: they
had pI values between pH 3.1 and pH 3.8 (Table II), they had relatively
high apparent molecular masses between 46.9 and 54.3 kD (Table II), and
the amino acid compositions were similar (Table III). The peptide
sequences obtained and the amino acid analysis strongly indicated that
PXP 3 and PXP 4 are identical and that PXP 5 is closely related to
these two isoenzymes. This conclusion was supported by the fact that
both PXP 3 and PXP 4 generated very similar chromatograms of the
tryptic peptides (Fig. 6) and, within the experimental error, had
identical apparent molecular masses, pI values (Table II), and
enzymatic properties (Fig. 5). PXP 3 and PXP 4 differed only in their
migration in native gels and in the elution time from the Mono-Q
column. These small differences were probably due to heterogeneity in
the glycan part or other posttranslational modifications. Therefore, we
conclude that the peroxidase fractions PXP 3 and PXP 4 are derived from one peroxidase gene. For convenience, we designated this peroxidase PXP
3-4.
By comparing the activity pattern of xylem extracts (Fig. 1), the
chromatogram from the Mono-Q separation (Fig. 2), and the native PAGE
gel (Fig. 3), we concluded that PXP 1, PXP 2, PXP 3-4, PXP 5, and PXP
6 correspond to gel activities a, b, c-d, c-d, and e, respectively
(Fig. 8). The kind of heterogeneity seen within these peroxidase fractions, i.e. polypeptide bands with different apparent molecular masses (Fig. 4), the two pI values for PXP
3-4 (Table III), and the double-activity band of PXP 5 in native gels
(Fig. 3), is rather common for plant peroxidases and is probably caused
by heterogeneity in the glycan part. We therefore consider PXP 1, PXP
2, PXP 3-4, PXP 5, and PXP 6 to be single gene products.

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| Figure 8.
Correlation of peroxidase isoenzymes, gel
activities, and SYR oxidation. The top panel represents a stem xylem
lane from Figure 1. The bottom panel represents the 404-nm chromatogram
from Figure 2. The dashed lines indicate the relation between gel
activities and the Mono-Q-separated peroxidase isoenzymes. PXP 1 to PXP
6 represent the gene products determined from the molecular
characterization. The SYR-oxidizing isoenzymes are indicated.
|
|
PXP 3-4 and PXP 5 Are Homologous to Lignifying Peroxidases
Among the tobacco peroxidases, the fast-migrating,
low-salt-extractable anionic isoenzymes (GI) are
believed to be responsible for the polymerization of lignin
(Mäder et al., 1975
, 1977
). This function was suggested
based on their cell wall localization (Mäder et al., 1975
), their
high expression levels in stems (Lagrimini et al., 1987
), and their
high rate of oxidation of the lignin monomer coniferyl alcohol
(Mäder et al., 1977
). The role of the major fast-migrating
anionic isoenzyme from tobacco has been investigated with sense and
antisense technologies and seems to be responsible for lignification
and/or phenol oxidation in relation to pathogen defense and physical
damage but not for the developmentally regulated lignification process
(Lagrimini et al., 1997
). The peroxidase-dependent oxidation of
SYR has been shown to be specific for lignifying cells in tobacco (Pang
et al., 1989
), but until now no correlation of this activity with a
specific group of tobacco isoenzymes has been reported. In poplar
xylem, fast-migrating anionic peroxidases (AII)
are believed to polymerize lignin as in tobacco. Goldberg et al. (1981
,
1983)
showed a strict histochemical correlation between
peroxidase-dependent SYR oxidase activity and the lignification process
in P. × euramericana. SYR oxidase activity was
observed in the primary cell walls at the onset of secondary cell wall deposition and in the secondary cell walls. This activity decreased as
the xylem matured and no staining was seen in mature tissues. Additionally, it was reported that the SYR-oxidizing activity increased
slightly during the growing season in young xylem.
Our data and the plant material used here, i.e. xylem from 2-year-old
field-grown trees from P. trichocarpa, are comparable with
the previous data obtained from P. × euramericana (2-year-old branches; Goldberg et al., 1983
).
Extraction of the anionic peroxidases could in both cases be performed
with low-salt buffers, and subsequent reextraction after digestion with
cell wall-degrading enzymes released activities with identical native
gel mobilities, as for the low-salt extracts (Imberty et al., 1985
).
The fact that the activities released after treatment with cell
wall-degrading enzymes are identical to the soluble activities was
supported by Goldberg et al. (1983)
, who observed identical
Km values for the SYR-oxidizing activities
in both the cytoplasmic (soluble) and the cell wall (bound) fractions.
Finally, the SYR-oxidizing activities correspond in both cases to the
fast-migrating anionic peroxidases and were shown to be very stable
(Goldberg et al., 1983
; Imberty et al., 1985
).
A comparison of the results obtained in P. trichocarpa with
those from P. × euramericana suggests that PXP
3-4 and PXP 5 from P. trichocarpa (Fig. 1, c-d) are
homologous to the fast-migrating peroxidase group
AII from P. × euramericana
and that PXP 1 and PXP 2 (Fig. 1, a-b) are homologous to the
slow-migrating anionic group (AI; Imberty et al.,
1985
). The activity corresponding to PXP 6 (activity e and f) was not
described for P. × euramericana, possibly
because of the low abundance of these isoenzymes. A functional correlation between AII from P. × euramericana and GI from tobacco has
previously been suggested (Imberty et al., 1985
) and was based mainly
on their similar electrophoretic behaviors.
The data obtained for PXP 3-4 and PXP 5 and the parallel observations
in both poplar and tobacco (fast-migrating anionic enzymes, SYR-oxidizing, low-salt extractable, and stable enzymes) suggest that
these isoenzymes are functionally and/or genetically homologous to the
peroxidase isoenzymes believed to be involved in lignification in
poplar and tobacco. This conclusion is further supported by the
xylem-specific expression of PXP 3-4 and PXP 5 (Fig. 1, c and d).
Conclusion and Perspectives
Because peptide sequence information has been obtained from
individual peroxidase isoenzymes, it is now possible to identify and
isolate the cDNAs and genes corresponding to the SYR-oxidizing isoenzymes and to study their involvement in the lignification process.
Two partial cDNAs and four genes encoding peroxidases have already been
cloned from Populus kitakamiensis (Kawai et al., 1993
;
Osakabe et al., 1994
, 1995
), and experiments to overexpress the
anionic peroxidase prxA1 have been initiated (Kajita et al., 1994
). However, no information is available concerning the catalytic activities of the corresponding isoenzymes and none of the clones corresponds fully to the SYR-oxidizing isoenzymes that were identified here. To obtain further insight into the role of the SYR-oxidizing isoenzymes, it will be necessary to prove their colocalization with
lignifying cells. For this purpose, immunolocalization using peptide
tag-fused peroxidases or isoenzyme-specific antibodies can be
considered. cDNAs and genes for a number of the purified peroxidases
have been obtained for this purpose (J.H. Christensen, unpublished
data). Finally, our data provide the possibility for a molecular
study of individual peroxidases within an isoenzyme group. Previous
studies of peroxidases in planta have been limited to the study of
isoenzyme groups or single isolated isoenzymes. It has often been
suggested that isoenzymes within groups (classified following gel
mobility [pI] and extractability) should have similar functions, but,
to our knowledge, this has never been demonstrated.
 |
FOOTNOTES |
1
This research was supported by funds from the
Danish Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council, the
European Commission (AIR2-CT93-1661), and Novo Nordisk
(Denmark).
*
Corresponding author; e-mail mamon{at}gengenp.rug.ac.be; fax
32-9-264-5349.
Received April 6, 1998;
accepted June 1, 1998.
 |
ABBREVIATIONS |
Abbreviations:
ABTS, 2,2
-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid).
DAB, 3,3
-diaminobenzidine.
PXP, poplar xylem peroxidase.
RZ, Reinheitszahl.
SYR, syringaldazine.
TFA, trifluoroacetic acid.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
The authors thank Martine De Cock, Rebecca Verbanck, Christiane
Germonprez, Karel Spruyt, Antje Rohde, Jens Østergaard, and Mark Davey
for helping with the figures and the manuscript, and Geert Persiau,
Arne Jensen, and Yvonne Berger for technical assistance.
 |
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