Molecular cloning and characterization of 12-oxophytodienoate reductase, an enzyme of the octadecanoid signaling pathway from Arabidopsis thaliana. Structural and functional relationship to yeast old yellow enzyme.

Using partial amino acid sequence information for 12-oxophytodienoate-10,11-reductase obtained from Corydalis sempervirens we have cloned the homologous enzyme from Arabidopsis thaliana. The open reading frame of the cDNA encodes a polypeptide of 372 amino acids (Mr = 41,165) with significant similarity to the sequence of Old Yellow Enzyme from Saccharomyces carlsbergensis (Saito, K., Thiele, D. J., Davio, M., Lockridge, O., and Massey, V. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 20720-20724), a flavin (FMN)-protein catalyzing the NADPH-dependent reduction of the olefinic bond of alpha,beta-unsaturated carbonyls. Specifically, all residues required for binding of FMN in Old Yellow Enzyme are conserved in the A. thaliana sequence, as are all residues associated with catalytic activity. The enzyme was functionally expressed from its cDNA in Escherichia coli and thus proven to encode OPDA reductase. Further similarities of OPDA reductase and yeast Old Yellow Enzyme include their binding to and elution by reductant from N-(4-hydroxybenzoyl)aminohexyl-Sepharose, the immunoreactivity of yeast Old Yellow Enzyme with an antiserum raised against plant OPDA reductase and the demonstration that Old Yellow Enzyme is an active OPDA reductase. It is thus conceivable that the physiological role of Old Yellow Enzymes now known from bacteria, yeasts, and higher plants, is in oxylipin metabolism.