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Tocotrienols in Vellozia gigantea leaves: occurrence and modulation by seasonal and plant size effects

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Abstract

Vitamin E occurs in all photosynthetic organisms examined to date. Tocopherols predominate in photosynthetic tissues (α-tocopherol being the major form), while either tocopherols or tocotrienols (or both) are present in seeds. Tocotrienols have not been described in photosynthetic tissues thus far. Here, we report on the presence of tocotrienols in leaves of higher plants. Both tocopherols and tocotrienols accumulated in leaves of Vellozia gigantea, an endemic plant found in the rupestrian fields of Serra do Cipó, Brazil. Increased plant size had a remarkable effect on the vitamin E composition of leaves, α-tocopherol and β-tocotrienol levels being highest in the largest individuals, but only during the dry season. Vitamin E levels positively correlated with lipid hydroxyperoxide levels, which also increased in the largest individuals during the dry season. However, the maximum efficiency of PSII photochemistry (F v/F m ratio) kept above 0.75 throughout the experiment, thus indicating absence of photoinhibitory damage to the photosynthetic apparatus. It is concluded that higher plants, such as V. gigantea, can accumulate tocotrienols in leaves, aside from tocopherols, and that the levels of both tocopherols and tocotrienols in the leaves of this species are strongly modulated by seasonal and plant size effects.

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Abbreviations

F v/F m ratio:

Maximum efficiency of photosystem II photochemistry

HPLC:

High performance liquid chromatography

LC:

Liquid chromatography

LMA:

Leaf mass per area ratio

MS:

Mass spectrometry

PSII:

Photosystem II

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

RWC:

Relative water content

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Acknowledgments

Support for the research was received through grants BFU2012-32057, BFU2009-07294, BFU2009-06045 and CSD2008-00040 from the Spanish Government, and the ICREA Academia prize to S.M.-B., which is funded by the Catalan Government. We thank Fábio Vieira for help in preparing Figure 1, and Leilane Barreto, Ana Laura Lamounier Magalhães and Daniela Moreira Duarte for help in samplings. We are also very grateful to Maren Müller for her help with LC–MS/MS analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Biologia Vegetal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Avinguda Diagonal 643, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Melanie Morales & Sergi Munné-Bosch

  2. Laboratório de Fisiologia Vegetal, Departamento de Botânica, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), CP 486, Belo Horizonte, CEP 31270-970, MG, Brazil

    Queila S. Garcia, Advanio I. Siqueira-Silva & Mayara C. Silva

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  1. Melanie Morales
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  2. Queila S. Garcia
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  3. Advanio I. Siqueira-Silva
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  5. Sergi Munné-Bosch
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Correspondence to Sergi Munné-Bosch.

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Morales, M., Garcia, Q.S., Siqueira-Silva, A.I. et al. Tocotrienols in Vellozia gigantea leaves: occurrence and modulation by seasonal and plant size effects. Planta 240, 437–446 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-014-2104-4

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