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Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso

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Cornejo Ibergallartu

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Alfonso

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Ciencias

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InaMat2. Instituto de Investigación en Materiales Avanzados y Matemáticas

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0000-0001-8810-0062

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2417

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
  • PublicationEmbargo
    A new oxidative pathway of nitric oxide production from oximes in plants
    (Cell Press, 2024) López Gómez, Pedro; Buezo Bravo, Javier; Urra Rodríguez, Marina; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Esteban Terradillos, Raquel; Fernández de los Reyes, Jorge; Urarte Rodríguez, Estíbaliz; Rodríguez-Dobreva, Estefanía; Chamizo Ampudia, Alejandro; Eguaras, Alejandro; Wolf, Sebastian; Marino Bilbao, Daniel; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Morán Juez, José Fernando; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
    Nitric oxide (NO) is an essential reactive oxygen species and a signal molecule in plants. Although several studies have proposed the occurrence of oxidative NO production, only reductive routes for NO production, such as the nitrate (NO-3) -upper-reductase pathway, have been evidenced to date in land plants. However, plants grown axenically with ammonium as the sole source of nitrogen exhibit contents of nitrite and NO3, evidencing the existence of a metabolic pathway for oxidative production of NO. We hypothesized that ox- imes, such as indole-3-acetaldoxime (IAOx), a precursor to indole-3-acetic acid, are intermediate oxidation products in NO synthesis. We detected the production of NO from IAOx and other oximes catalyzed by peroxidase (POD) enzyme using both 4-amino-5-methylamino-20,70-difluorescein fluorescence and chem- iluminescence. Flavins stimulated the reaction, while superoxide dismutase inhibited it. Interestingly, mouse NO synthase can also use IAOx to produce NO at a lower rate than POD. We provided a full mech- anism for POD-dependent NO production from IAOx consistent with the experimental data and supported by density functional theory calculations. We showed that the addition of IAOx to extracts from Medicago truncatula increased the in vitro production of NO, while in vivo supplementation of IAOx and other oximes increased the number of lateral roots, as shown for NO donors, and a more than 10-fold increase in IAOx dehydratase expression. Furthermore, we found that in vivo supplementation of IAOx increased NO pro- duction in Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type plants, while prx33-34 mutant plants, defective in POD33-34, had reduced production. Our data show that the release of NO by IAOx, as well as its auxinic effect, explain the superroot phenotype. Collectively, our study reveals that plants produce NO utilizing diverse molecules such as oximes, POD, and flavins, which are widely distributed in the plant kingdom, thus intro- ducing a long-awaited oxidative pathway to NO production in plants. This knowledge has essential impli- cations for understanding signaling in biological systems.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Systematic diffusion-ordered spectroscopy for the selective determination of molecular weight in real lignins and fractions arising from base-catalyzed depolymerization reaction mixtures
    (American Chemical Society, 2020) Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; García Yoldi, Íñigo; Galilea Gonzalo, Rebeca; Hablich Alvarracin, Karina Lissett; Gil Idoate, María José; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ciencias; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
    The valorization of biorefinery downstream lignin fractions is a key issue in increasing the sustainability of second-generation biofuels. The development of reliable methodologies for the selective determination of the apparent masses of the poly(hydroxy)-aromatic ethers arising from lignin depolymerization reaction is crucial. Diffusion-ordered spectroscopy (DOSY) has been tested to estimate the molecular weight in downstream biorefinery lignins and base-catalyzed depolymerization reaction mixtures. Excellent correlation was found in the calibration of molecular weight and diffusion coefficients with standards. DOSY permitted the selective estimation of the apparent masses of different fractions in the lignin and in the depolymerization reaction mixtures, providing a more profound knowledge of the reaction mixture composition than that obtained with traditional size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). Excellent correlations have been achieved in the estimation of the apparent masses of poly(hydroxy)-aromatic ethers between SEC and DOSY. This permits a reliable estimation of the molecular weight of different fractions in the lignin and in the depolymerization product, which is essential for their further applications.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Indole-3-acetaldoxime delays root iron-deficiency responses and modify auxin homeostasis in medicago truncatula
    (Elsevier, 2023) Roman, Angela; Montenegro, Joaquín; Fraile, Laura; Urra Rodríguez, Marina; Buezo Bravo, Javier; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Morán Juez, José Fernando; Gogorcena, Yolanda; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
    Iron (Fe) is an essential plant micronutrient, being a major limiting growth factor in calcareous soils. To increase Fe uptake, plants induce lateral roots growth, the expression of a Fe(III)-chelate reductase (FCR), a Fe(II)-transporter and a H+-ATPase and the secretion of flavins. Furthermore, auxin hormone family is involved in the Fe-deficiency responses but the action mechanism remains elusive. In this work, we evaluated the effect of the auxin-precursor indole-3-acetaldoxime (IAOx) on hydroponically grown Medicago truncatula plants under different Fe conditions. Upon 4-days of Fe starvation, the pH of the nutrient solution decreased, while both the FCR activity and the presence of flavins increased. Exogenous IAOx increased lateral roots growth contributing to superroot phenotype, decreased chlorosis, and delayed up to 3-days the pH-decrease, the FCR-activity increase, and the presence of flavins, compared to Fe-deficient plants. Gene expression levels were in concordance with the physiological responses. Results: showed that IAOx was immediately transformed to IAN in roots and shoots to maintain auxin homeostasis. IAOx plays an active role in iron homeostasis delaying symptoms and responses in Fe-deficient plants. We may speculate that IAOx or its derivatives remobilize Fe from root cells to alleviate Fe-deficiency. Overall, these results point out that the IAOx-derived phenotype may have advantages to overcome nutritional stresses.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    IAOx induces the SUR phenotype and differential signalling from IAA under different types of nitrogen nutrition in Medicago truncatula roots
    (Elsevier, 2019) Buezo Bravo, Javier; Esteban Terradillos, Raquel; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; López Gómez, Pedro; Marino Bilbao, Daniel; Chamizo Ampudia, Alejandro; Gil Idoate, María José; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Morán Juez, José Fernando; Zientziak; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ciencias; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
    Indole-3-acetaldoxime (IAOx) is a particularly relevant molecule as an intermediate in the pathway for tryptophan-dependent auxin biosynthesis. The role of IAOx in growth-signalling and root phenotype is poorly studied in cruciferous plants and mostly unknown in non-cruciferous plants. We synthesized IAOx and applied it to M. truncatula plants grown axenically with NO3-, NH4+ or urea as the sole nitrogen source. During 14 days of growth, we demonstrated that IAOx induced an increase in the number of lateral roots, especially under NH4+ nutrition, while elongation of the main root was inhibited. This phenotype is similar to the phenotype known as “superroot” previously described in SUR1- and SUR2-defective Arabidopsis mutants. The effect of IAOx, IAA or the combination of both on the root phenotype was different and dependent on the type of N-nutrition. Our results also showed the endogenous importance of IAOx in a legume plant in relation to IAA metabolism, and suggested IAOx long-distance transport depending on the nitrogen source provided. Finally, our results point out to CYP71A as the major responsible enzymes for IAA synthesis from IAOx.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Tryptophan levels as a marker of auxins and nitric oxide signaling
    (MDPI, 2022) López Gómez, Pedro; Smith, Edward N.; Bota, Pedro; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Urra Rodríguez, Marina; Buezo Bravo, Javier; Morán Juez, José Fernando; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Ciencias; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
    The aromatic amino acid tryptophan is the main precursor for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), which involves various parallel routes in plants, with indole-3-acetaldoxime (IAOx) being one of the most common intermediates. Auxin signaling is well known to interact with free radical nitric oxide (NO) to perform a more complex effect, including the regulation of root organogenesis and nitrogen nutrition. To fathom the link between IAA and NO, we use a metabolomic approach to analyze the contents of low-molecular-mass molecules in cultured cells of Arabidopsis thaliana after the application of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), an NO donor or IAOx. We separated the crude extracts of the plant cells through ion-exchange columns, and subsequent fractions were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), thus identifying 26 compounds. A principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on N-metabolism-related compounds, as classified by the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The differences observed between controls and treatments are mainly explained by the differences in Trp contents, which are much higher in controls. Thus, the Trp is a shared response in both auxin- and NO-mediated signaling, evidencing some common signaling mechanism to both GSNO and IAOx. The differences in the low-molecularmass- identified compounds between GSNO- and IAOx-treated cells are mainly explained by their concentrations in benzenepropanoic acid, which is highly associated with IAA levels, and salicylic acid, which is related to glutathione. These results show that the contents in Trp can be a marker for the study of auxin and NO signaling.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Innovative flow-through reaction system for the sustainable production of phenolic monomers from lignocellulose catalyzed by supported Mo2C
    (Wiley, 2024) Maisterra Udi, Maitane; Atienza Martínez, María; Hablich Alvarracin, Karina Lissett; Moreira, Rui; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Gandía Pascual, Luis; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Bimbela Serrano, Fernando; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Universidad Pública de Navarra - Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
    Molybdenum carbide supported on activated carbon (β-Mo2C/AC) has been tested as catalyst in the reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF) of lignocellulosic biomass both in batch and in Flow-Through (FT) reaction systems. High phenolic monomer yields (34 wt.%) and selectivity to monomers with reduced side alkyl chains (up to 80 wt.%) could be achieved in batch in the presence of hydrogen. FT-RCF were made with no hydrogen feed, thus via transfer hydrogenation from ethanol. Similar selectivity could be attained in FT-RCF using high catalyst/biomass ratios (0.6) and high molybdenum loading (35 wt.%) in the catalyst, although selectivity decreased with lower catalyst/biomass ratios or molybdenum contents. Regardless of these parameters, high delignification of the lignocellulosic biomass and similar monomer yields were observed in the FT mode (13-15 wt.%) while preserving the holocellulose fractions in the delignified pulp. FT-RCF system outperforms the batch reaction mode in the absence of hydrogen, both in terms of activity and selectivity to reduced monomers that is attributed to the two-step non-equilibrium processes and the removal of diffusional limitations that occur in the FT mode. Even though some molybdenum leaching was detected, the catalytic performance could be maintained with negligible loss of activity or selectivity for 15 consecutive runs.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Kinetics of the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) by 29Si NMR spectroscopy and mathematical modeling
    (Springer, 2018) Echeverría Morrás, Jesús; Moriones Jiménez, Paula; Arzamendi Manterola, María Cruz; Garrido Segovia, Julián José; Gil Idoate, María José; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Química Aplicada; Kimika Aplikatua; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
    Tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) is widely used to synthesize siliceous material by the sol–gel process. However, there is still some disagreement about the nature of the limiting step in the hydrolysis and condensation reactions. The goal of this research was to measure the variation in the concentration of intermediates formed in the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis by 29Si NMR spectroscopy, to model the reactions, and to obtain the rate constants and the activation energy for the hydrolysis and early condensation steps. We studied the kinetics of TEOS between pH 3.8 and 4.4, and four temperature values in the range of 277.2–313.2 K, with a TEOS:ethanol:water molar ratio of 1:30:20. Both hydrolysis and the condensation rate speeded up with the temperature and the concentration of oxonium ions. The kinetic constants for hydrolysis reactions increased in each step kh1 < kh2 < kh3 < kh4, but the condensation rate was lower for dimer formation than for the formation of the fully hydrolyzed Si(OH)4. The system was described according to 13 parameters: six of them for the kinetic constants estimated at 298.2 K, six to the activation energies, and one to the equilibrium constant for the fourth hydrolysis. The mathematical model shows a steady increase in the activation energy from 34.5 kJ mol−1 for the first hydrolysis to 39.2 kJ mol−1 in the last step. The activation energy for the condensation reaction from Si(OH)4 was ca. 10 kJ mol−1 higher than the largest activation energy in the hydrolytic reactions. The decrease in the net positive charge on the Si atom contributes to the protonation of the ethoxy group and makes it a better leaving group.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Comprehensive kinetics of hydrolysis of organotriethoxysilanes by 29Si NMR
    (American Chemical Society, 2019) Moriones Jiménez, Paula; Arzamendi Manterola, María Cruz; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Garrido Segovia, Julián José; Echeverría Morrás, Jesús; Ciencias; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2
    The kinetics of several representative hybrid precursors were studied via 29Si NMR: three alkyl precursors, methyltriethoxysilane, ethyltriethoxysilane, and propyltriethoxysilane; as well as two unsaturated radicals, vinyltriethoxysilane and phenyltriethoxysilane. The reaction rate is related to the chemical shift of 29Si in the NMR spectra, which gives information about the electronic density of the Si atoms and the inductive effects of substituents. The concentration of the precursors decreased exponentially with time, and the intermediate products of hydrolysis and the beginning of the condensation reactions showed curves characteristic of sequential reactions, with a similar distribution of the species as a function of the fractional conversion. For all of the precursors, condensation started when the most hydrolyzed species reached a maximum concentration of 0.30 M, when the precursor had run out. A prediction following the developed mathematical model fits the experimental results in line with a common pathway described by eight parameters.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    Extraction of phenolic compounds from populus salicaceae bark
    (MDPI, 2022) Autor, E.; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; Bimbela Serrano, Fernando; Maisterra Udi, Maitane; Gandía Pascual, Luis; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Ciencias; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate
    Lignocellulosic residues have the potential for obtaining high value-added products that could be better valorized if biorefinery strategies are adopted. The debarking of short-rotation crops yields important amounts of residues that are currently underexploited as low-grade fuel and could be a renewable source of phenolic compounds and other important phytochemicals. The isolation of these compounds can be carried out by different methods, but for attaining an integral valorization of barks, a preliminary extraction step for phytochemicals should be included. Using optimized extraction methods based on Soxhlet extraction can be effective for the isolation of phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties. In this study, poplar bark (Populus Salicaceae) was used to obtain a series of extracts using five different solvents in a sequential extraction of 24 h each in a Soxhlet extractor. Selected solvents were put in contact with the bark sample raffinate following an increasing order of polarity: n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and water. The oily residues of the extracts obtained after each extraction were further subjected to flash chromatography, and the fractions obtained were characterized by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The total phenolic content (TPC) was determined using the Folin–Ciocalteu method, and the antioxidant activity (AOA) of the samples was evaluated in their reaction with the free radical 2,2-Diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH method). Polar solvents allowed for higher individual extraction yields, with overall extraction yields at around 23% (dry, ash-free basis). Different compounds were identified, including hydrolyzable tannins, phenolic monomers such as catechol and vanillin, pentoses and hexoses, and other organic compounds such as long-chain alkanes, alcohols, and carboxylic acids, among others. An excellent correlation was found between TPC and antioxidant activity for the samples analyzed. The fractions obtained using methanol showed the highest phenolic content (608 g of gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/mg) and the greatest antioxidant activity.
  • PublicationOpen Access
    The importance of the urea cycle and its relationships to polyamine metabolism during ammonium stress in Medicago truncatula
    (Oxford University Press, 2022) Urra Rodríguez, Marina; Buezo Bravo, Javier; Royo Castillejo, Beatriz; Cornejo Ibergallartu, Alfonso; López Gómez, Pedro; Cerdán Ruiz, Daniel; Esteban Terradillos, Raquel; Martínez Merino, Víctor; Gogorcena, Yolanda; Tavladoraki, Paraskevi; Morán Juez, José Fernando; Zientziak; Institute for Advanced Materials and Mathematics - INAMAT2; Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Applied Biology - IMAB; Ciencias; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernuaren
    The ornithine–urea cycle (urea cycle) makes a signifcant contribution to the metabolic responses of lower photosynthetic eukaryotes to episodes of high nitrogen availability. In this study, we compared the role of the plant urea cycle and its relationships to polyamine metabolism in ammonium-fed and nitrate-fed Medicago truncatula plants. High ammonium resulted in the accumulation of ammonium and pathway intermediates, particularly glutamine, arginine, ornithine, and putrescine. Arginine decarboxylase activity was decreased in roots, suggesting that the ornithine decarboxylase-dependent production of putrescine was important in situations of ammonium stress. The activity of copper amine oxidase, which releases ammonium from putrescine, was signifcantly decreased in both shoots and roots. In addition, physiological concentrations of ammonium inhibited copper amine oxidase activity in in vitro assays, supporting the conclusion that high ammonium accumulation favors putrescine synthesis. Moreover, early supplementation of plants with putrescine avoided ammonium toxicity. The levels of transcripts encoding urea-cyclerelated proteins were increased and transcripts involved in polyamine catabolism were decreased under high ammonium concentrations. We conclude that the urea cycle and associated polyamine metabolism function as important protective mechanisms limiting ammonium toxicity in M. truncatula. These fndings demonstrate the relevance of the urea cycle to polyamine metabolism in higher plants.