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Tocochromanols in Plants: Functional Diversity of

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Encyclopedia of Lipidomics
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Definitions

Tocochromanols:

Tocochromanols comprise lipid molecules that contain an aromatic head group originating from the amino acid tyrosine and a saturated or unsaturated C20 isoprenoid sidechain, all of which also are known collectively as vitamin E.

Structure and Occurrence

Tocopherols and tocotrienols, a class of prenyl lipids, collectively also addressed as tocochromanols, represent plant metabolites that have been recognized as essential vitamins for human nutrition but also can be found as characteristic metabolites in all photosynthetic organisms. All tocopherol and tocotrienol derivatives are also collectively known as vitamin E. They are synthetized in the photosynthetic membrane system of cyanobacteria and the inner envelope membrane in the plastids of eukaryotes (Meyer and Kinney 2009). They consist of a diterpene C20side chain, which is saturated in case of tocopherols and unsaturated with three double bonds in case of tocotrienols. The side chain is linked to a...

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Abbreviations

DOXP:

1-Deoxy-d-xylulose-5-phosphate

TC:

Tocopherol cyclase

References

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Correspondence to Franz Hadacek .

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Hadacek, F. (2017). Tocochromanols in Plants: Functional Diversity of. In: Wenk, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lipidomics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_135-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_135-1

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