• Proceedings of the Botanical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.27-27
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• 2001

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.411-419
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• 2003

The potent biosynthetic precursors, 24$\alpha$-methylcholesterol and 24$\alpha$-methylcholestanol, and the endogenous brassinosteroids (BRs), castasterone (CS) and 6-deoxocastasterone (6-deoxoCS), were identified from shoots of maize seedlings. In addition, the presence for activities of several enzymes involved in the late C6-oxida-lion pathway from 24$\alpha$-methylcholestanol to CS was demonstrated in the plants. However, activity for brassinolide (BL) synthase which catalyze the conversion of CS to BL, the last step of the late C6-oxidation pathway, was not detected in the enzyme solution obtained from the maize shoots. Together with the fact that BL was not identified from the maize shoots, these results strongly suggested that BRs in the maize shoots are biosynthesized during seedling growth and the active BR in the shoots is not BL but CS.