Function of plant phospholipases
Dr. Johanna Mansfeld
Phospholipases A2 (PLA2) which catalyze the stereospecific cleavage of 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phospholipids occur ubiquitously in all living organisms, including plants. The cleavage products (lysophospholipids and fatty acids) have been shown to exert striking biological effects in plants, especially in senescence, wounding, elicitor and stress response processes, pathogen defense mechanisms as well as accumulation of secondary metabolites. The small, secreted forms of PLA2s in plants are in the focus of our studies because their concrete mechanisms of actions in plants are mostly not well understood even though recently considerable progress in the biochemical characterizationof these enzymes has been achieved.