Sphingosine in plants – more riddles from the Sphinx?

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Abstract
• Sphingolipids are emerging as important mediators of cellular and developmental processes in plants, and advances in lipidomics have yielded a wealth of information on the composition of plant sphingolipidomes. Studies using Arabidopsis thaliana showed that the dihydroxy long‐chain base (LCB) is desaturated at carbon position 8 (d18:1Δ8). This raised important questions on the role(s) of sphingosine (d18:1Δ4) and sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (d18:1Δ4‐P) in plants, as these LCBs appear to be absent in A. thaliana. • Here, we surveyed 21 species from various phylogenetic groups to ascertain the position of desaturation of the d18:1 LCB, in order to gain further insights into the prevalence of d18:1Δ4 and d18:1Δ8 in plants. • Our results showed that d18:1Δ8 is common in gymnosperms, whereas d18:1Δ4 is widespread within nonseed land plants and the Poales, suggesting that d18:1Δ4 is evolutionarily more ancient than d18:1Δ8 in Viridiplantae. Additionally, phylogenetic analysis indicated that the sphingolipid Δ4‐desaturases from Viridiplantae form a monophyletic group, with Angiosperm sequences falling into two distinct clades, the Eudicots and the Poales. • We propose that efforts to elucidate the role(s) of d18:1Δ4 and d18:1Δ4‐P should focus on genetically tractable Viridiplantae species where the d18:1 LCB is desaturated at carbon position 4.

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