Caffeic acid and glycerol are constituents of the suberin layers in green cotton fibres.

The fibres of the green-lint mutant (Lg) of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) are suberized and contain a large proportion of wax. The unidentified components of the wax were separated into a colourless fluorescent fraction and a yellow pigmented fraction. Using ultraviolet spectroscopy and nuclear-magneticresonance ((1)H-NMR) spectroscopy, esterified trans-caffeic acid was identified as the only phenolic component in the colourless fraction. This fraction was further purified and was shown to contain caffeic acid esterified to fatty acids (mainly ω-hydroxy fatty acids), and glycerol in molar ratios of 4∶5∶5. When 2-aminoindan-2-phosphonic acid (AIP), an inhibitor of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (EC 4. 3. 1. 5.) was added to ovules cultured in vitro, at the beginning of secondary wall formation, the fibres remained white and the colourless caffeic-acid derivative and the yellow compounds could no longer be detected by ultraviolet spectroscopy. Fibres grown in the presence of AIP were also examined in the electron microscope. Secondary cell walls were present in the treated fibres, but the electron-opaque suberin layers were replaced by apparently empty spaces. This result indicates that cinnamic-acid derivatives are covalently linked to suberin and have a structural role within the polymer or are involved in anchoring the polymer to the cellulosic secondary wall. Purified cell walls of green cotton fibres contained about 1% (of the dry weight) of bound glycerol, 0.9% of the glycerol being extractable with the wax fraction and 0.1% remaining in the cell-wall residue. The corresponding values for white fibres were 0.03% (total), 0.02% (wax), and 0.01% (cell-wall residue). Fibres synthesizing their secondary walls in the presence of AIP contained about normal amounts of bound glycerol in the wax fraction, but glycerol accumulation in the cell-wall residue was inhibited by about 95%. These observations indicate that glycerol is an important constituent of cotton-fibre suberin. Considerable amounts of bound glycerol could also be determined in exhaustively extracted cell walls of the cork layer of potato periderm (1.2%) and smaller amounts in the outer epidermal cell wall of Agave americana L. leaf (0.1%) indicating that the presence of glycerol in suberins and possibly also in cutins may be more widespread than previously thought.