Metabolism of Transpired Ethanol by Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr.)

Ethanol has previously been shown to be present in the xylem sap of flooded and nonflooded trees. Because of the constitutive presence of alcohol dehydrogenase in the mature leaves of woody plants, we hypothesized that the leaves and shoots of trees had the ability to metabolize ethanol supplied by the transpiration stream. 1-[14C]Ethanol was supplied to excised leaves and shoots of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides Bartr.) in short- and long-term experiments. More than 99% of the radiolabel was incorporated into plant tissue in short-term experiments, with more than 95% of the label remaining in plant tissue after 24 h. In all experiments, less than 5% of the label was transpired as ethanol and less than 1% was emitted as CO2. In excised leaf experiments, less than 0.5% of the radiolabel escaped from the leaf. Fifty percent of the label was incorporated into the petioles of excised leaves; 56% was incorporated into the stems of excised shoots. Very little label reached the leaf mesophyll cells of excised shoots, as revealed by autoradiography. Radiolabel appeared primarily in the water- and chloroform-soluble fractions in short-term experiments, whereas in long-term experiments, label was also incorporated into protein. These results demonstrate that the leaves and stems of trees appear to have substantial ability to scavenge ethanol from the transpiration stream, allowing efficient recovery of ethanol produced elsewhere by hypoxic tissues. When labeled ethanol was supplied to excised petioles in a 5-min pulse, 41% of the label was incorporated into organic acids. Some label was also incorporated into amino acids, protein, and the chloroform-soluble fraction, with very little appearing in neutral sugars, starch, or the insoluble pellet. Labeled organic acids were separated by high performance liquid chromatography and were composed of acetate, isocitrate, [alpha]-ketoglutarate, and succinate. There was no apparent incorporation of label into phosphorylated compounds. We conclude that, in higher plants, ethanol is metabolized to acetaldehyde and then to acetate by alcohol and aldehyde dehydrogenases, and then into general metabolism.