Indole‐3‐butyric acid in plants: occurrence, synthesis, metabolism and transport
Authors: Epstein Ephraim , Ludwig‐Müller Jutta 
Published: May 2006

Indole‐3‐butyric acid (IBA) was recently identified by GC/MS analysis as an endogenous constituent of various plants. Plant tissues contained 9 ng g−1 fresh weight of free IBA and 37 ng g−1 fresh weight of total IBA, compared to 26 ng g−1 and 52 ng g−1 fresh weight of free and total indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA), respectively. IBA level was found to increase during plant development, but never reached the level of IAA. It is generally assumed that the greater ability of IBA as compared with IAA to promote rooting is due to its relatively higher stability. Indeed, the concentrations of IAA and IBA in autoclaved medium were reduced by 40% and 20%, respectively, compared with filter sterilized controls. In liquid medium, IAA was more sensitive than IBA to non‐biological degradation. However, in all plant tissues tested, both auxins were found to be metabolized rapidly and conjugated at the same rate with amino acids or sugar.

Studies of auxin transport showed that IAA was transported faster than IBA. The velocities of some of the auxins tested were 7. 5 mm h−1 for IAA, 6. 7 mm h−1 for naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and only 3. 2 mm h−1 for IBA. Like IAA, IBA was transported predominantly in a basipetal direction (polar transport). After application of 3H‐IBA to cuttings of various plants, most of the label remained in the bases of the cuttings. Easy‐to‐root cultivars were found to absorb more of the auxin and transport more of it to the leaves.

It has been postulated that easy‐to‐root, as opposed to the difficult‐to‐root cultivars, have the ability to hydrolyze auxin conjugates at the appropriate time to release free auxin which may promote root initiation. This theory is supported by reports on increased levels of free auxin in the bases of cuttings prior to rooting. The auxin conjugate probably acts as a ‘slow‐release’ hormone in the tissues. Easy‐to‐root cultivars were also able to convert IBA to IAA which accumulated in the cutting bases prior to rooting. IAA conjugates, but not IBA conjugates, were subject to oxidation, and thus deactivation. The efficiency of the two auxins in root induction therefore seems to depend on the stability of their conjugates. The higher rooting promotion of IBA was also ascribed to the fact that its level remained elevated longer than that of IAA, even though IBA was metabolized in the tissue.

IAA was converted to IBA by seedlings of corn and Arabidopsis. The Km value for IBA formation was low (approximately 20 μM), indicating high affinity for the substrate. That means that small amounts of IAA (only a fraction of the total IAA in the plant tissues) can be converted to IBA. It was suggested that IBA is formed by the acetylation of IAA with acetyl‐CoA in the carboxyl position via a biosynthetic pathway analogous to the primary steps of fatty acid biosynthesis, where acetyl moieties are transferred to an acceptor molecule. Incubation of the soluble enzyme fraction from Arabidopsis with 3H‐IBA, IBA and UDP‐glucose resulted in a product that was identified tentatively as IBA glucose (IBGIc). IBGIc was detected only during the first 30 min of incubation, showing that it might be converted rapidly to another conjugate.