Occurrence and Biosynthesis of Glyoxysomal Enzymes in Ripening Cucumber Seeds

Glyoxysomal enzymes, being necessary during seed germination, are already synthesized at the stage of seed maturation. Two stages of embryogenesis of cucumber seeds (Cucumis sativus) were investigated. One was characterized by the presence of microbodies showing catalase and enoyl-CoA hydratase activities. Microbodies at a later stage contained, in addition, malate synthase and isocitrate lyase. The biosynthesis of three microbody components was followed in a pulse chase-labelling experiment which demonstrated that the biosynthesis of cytosolic species of malate synthase, isocitrate lyase and enoyl-CoA hydratase preceded the appearance of these proteins in microbodies.