The Metabolism of Abscisic Acid

The light-catalysed isomerization of (+)-abscisic acid (ABA)to its trans isomer during isolation from leaves was monitoredby the addition of (±)-[2-¹⁴C]ABA to the extraction medium.(+)Trans-abscisic acid (t-ABA) was found to occur naturallyin rose (Rosa arvensis) leaves at 20µg/kg fresh weight;(+)-ABA was present at 594µg/kg. (±)-[2-¹⁴D]Trans-abscisicacid was not isomerized enzymically to ABA in tomato shoots. (±)-Abscisic acid was converted by tomato shoots to awater-soluble neutral product, ‘Metabolite B’, whichwas identified as abscisyl-ß-D-glucopyranoside. When(±)-[2-¹⁴C]trans-abscisic acid in an equimolar mixturewith (±)-[2-¹⁴C}ABA was fed to tomato shoots it was convertedto its glucose ester 10 times faster than was ABA. Trans-abscisyl-ß-D-glucopyrano8ide only was formedfrom (±)-[2-¹⁴C]t-ABA in experiments lasting up to 30h. Glucosyl abscisate was formed slowly from ABA and the freeacid fraction contained an excess of the unnatural (–).ABAas did the ABA released from abscisyl-ß-D-glucopyranosideby alkaline hydrolysis. The (+).ABA appeared to be the solesource of the acidic ‘Metabolite C" previously noted. The concentrations of endogenous (+)-, (+)-[2-¹⁴C]-, and (–)-[2-¹⁴C]ABAremaining as free acid, and also in the hydrolysate of abscisyl-ß-D-glucopyranoside,were measured by the ORD, UV absorption, and scintillation spectrometryof highly purified extracts of ABA from tomato shoots whichhad been supplied with racemic [2-^l4C]ABA.