Spermidine distribution

Figure 8.2 Fluorescence microscopic images at different concentrations of spermidine (spd), indicating elongated coil (left), coexistence of coil and compact DNAs (middle), and the folded compact state (right) in pig DNA (ca. 60kbp). Corresponding quasi-three-dimensional representations of the light intensity distribution are also shown (middle column). Distribution of the long-axis length is given in the bottom column, where the open and closed bars indicate the...

According to the recent study on DNA condensation with titration calorimetry, it was indicated that condensations are entropically driven both by cobalt hexamine and spermidine (Matulis et al., 2000). This result corresponds well to the temperature dependence on the bimodal distribution between coil and compact states obtained with single chain observation (Murayama and Yoshikawa, 1999). 

Spermidines substituted with cinnamic acid derivatives seem to be widely distributed in the plant kingdom. Cinnamic acid (alkaloid maytenine), caffeic acid (caffeoylspermidine, dicaffeoylspermidine), 4-coumaric acid (coumaroylspermidine, dicoumaroylspermidine, tricoumaroylspermidine), ferulic acid (feruloylspermidine, diferuloylspermidine), and sinapic acid (sinapoylspermidine, disinapoylspermidine) are known as aromatic amide substituents of spermidine. Occurrence, structure elucidation, and syntheses are summarized in Section V. 

Two macrocyclic spermidine alkaloids have been isolated from whole plants of Clerodendrum myricoides (Verbenaceae). Myricoidine (104) is accompanied by its reduced derivative dihydromyricoidine (105). These two bases are present in C. myricoides in minute amounts (ca. 10 ppm from the dried plant) and were isolated as homogeneous compounds by repeated countercurrent distribution (97). 

Incorporations, similar to that for putrescine, were observed for spermine (46) and spermidine (47) (also measured against arginine C-labels on asterisked carbons), and there was a similar distribution of the label. These amines can, like putrescine, then be converted into pyrrolizidine alkaloids via the hypothetical (44) both polyamines are known to be degraded to pyrrolines, resembling (44), plus 1,3-diaminopropane on oxidation with plant polyamine oxidases. 

The number of alkaloids that contain spermine as a partial structure (spermine alkaloids) is less than the number of alkaloids that contain spermidine in their structure (spermidine alkaloHds). Even so, these alkaloids are distributed in eleven plant famihes (i.e., Acanthaceae, Amaranthaceae, Bromeliaceae,... 

Several polyamines are widely distributed in plants. In plants and in Escherichia coli, spermine (15) and spermidine (16) are synthesized by aminopropyltransferases that use de-... 

Amides of the polyamine spermidine bearing aliphatic or hydroxycinnamic acyl residues are widely distributed in the plant kingdom (Bienz et al. 2002). In most cases the acyl moieties represent the latter residnes. For snch conjugates see Sect 6.6.4.3. A novel metabolite with an aUphatic acyl residue, A/ A/ -ditigloylspermi-dine, has been isolated from the seeds of Ipomoea nil (L.) Choisy collected on Zanzibar/Tanzania (Schimming et al. 2005). It turned out to dominate to an unusual extent in the alkaloid fraction beside seven minor congeners. Most of them were isomers of the main metabolite. All these metabolites were also present in unripe fruits and stems. However, they were not detectable in snch parts from another provenance (Ecnador) of this species (seeds not checked). 

Polyamines, such as spermine, spermidine, putrescine, cadaverine, are natural substances widely distributed in vegetable, animal and bacterial cells. They enter in the composition of bacterial viruses. They have a wide range of effects, but they are difficult to localize within the cell and their physiological significance is not understood very well. In animal cells and sera there exists a diamineoxidase which converts spermine into highly cytotoxic compounds, and many effects seen in tissue cultures are attributed to these substances. 

Gambacorta, Polyamine distribution in eukaryotes occurrence of sym-nor-spermidine and sym-nor-spermine in arthropods,... 

Polyamine distribution Putrescine (mM) Spermidine (mM) Spermidine (mM) Spermine (mM)... 

Apart from aminoacids, peptides and proteins, many other metalbinding substances play essential roles in all living cells. Firstly, there are the pteridines (including folic acid) and purines, whose stability constants have been determined (Albert, 1953 Albert and Serjeant, 1960).Riboflavine is most avid in the partly reduced state (Hemmerich, Veeger and Wood, 1965). Spermine (//. ), and the simpler diamines such as spermidine and cadaverine, are widely distributed metal-binders. 

Crystals of spermine phosphate were first seen by van Leeuwenhoek (1678) in human semen. Since then several other di- and polyamines have been discovered in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It now seems probable that putrescine and spermidine are biologically ubiquitous. In general, prokaryotes have a higher concentration of putrescine than spermidine, and lack spermine. Eukaryotes, on the other hand, usually have little putrescine, but high concentrations of spermidine and spermine. Cadaverine, which normally arises from decarboxylation of lysine, has a limited occurrence and its distribution has not... 

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