Abstract
Coumarins are secondary metabolites accumulated after various stresses in many plants. We have recently detected the coumarins, scopoletin and its glucoside, scopolin, in Arabidopsis thaliana. Details of coumarin biosynthesis pathway in plants are unclear, although the coumarins are biosynthesized via phenylpropanoid pathway. We analyzed the profiles of the coumarins in the T-DNA insertion mutants of p-coumaroylshikimate/quinate 3'-hydroxylase (C3'H) of A. thaliana to collect informations about the coumarin biosynthesis in plants.
Analysis of the coumarins in the T-DNA insertion mutants was performed by HPLC and LC-ESI/MS/MS. Mutation of C3'H resulted in change of the profiles of the coumarins. The level of skimmin, the glucoside of umbelliferone, rose to be detected in the mutant plants. The content of scopoletin and scopolin in the mutant plants were ~5% of those in wild type, suggesting that they were biosynthesized via C3'H in A. thaliana.
