ArticleeLife2015
Evolution of alternative biosynthetic pathways for vitamin C following plastid acquisition in photosynthetic eukaryotes.
Article in eLife, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 183 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vitamin C supplementation in patients with hypothyroidism requiring high-dose levothyroxine: a proof-of-concept pilot study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Trial
- Review
- CDs/FeCo-ONSs Composite with Peroxidase-like Activity for Ascorbic Acid Detection.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- Learning functional groups in complex microbiomes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Exogenous 2-Keto-L-Gulonic Acid Supplementation Promotes L-Ascorbic Acid Biosynthesis inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Loss of vitamin C biosynthesis protects from the pathology of a parasitic infection.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Metagenomics of the MAST-3 stramenopile,Microbial genomics · 2025Article
- Peculiar proteome of dark-cultivated Euglena gracilis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The physiological functions of ascorbate in the development of cancer.Disease models & mechanisms · 2025Review
- Exploring the Ascorbate Requirement of the 2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Dioxygenases.Journal of medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Vitamin C: From Self-Sufficiency to Dietary Dependence in the Framework of Its Biological Functions and Medical Implications.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Cold storage characteristics of hardy kiwifruit,Frontiers in plant science · 2025Article
- Fluorescence and colorimetric rapid dual-signal "on-off-on" switching detection of ascorbic acid based on TSPP/DCIP.Mikrochimica acta · 2024Article
- L-gulono-γ-lactone Oxidase, the Key Enzyme for L-Ascorbic Acid Biosynthesis.Current issues in molecular biology · 2024Review
- Inferences on the evolution of the ascorbic acid synthesis pathway in insects using Phylogenetic Tree Collapser (PTC), a tool for the automated collapsing of phylogenetic trees using taxonomic information.Journal of integrative bioinformatics · 2024Article
- Revisiting the role of ascorbate oxidase in plant systems.Journal of experimental botany · 2024Review
- Ascorbic acid metabolism and functions.Journal of experimental botany · 2024Article
- The ascorbate biosynthesis pathway in plants is known, but there is a way to go with understanding control and functions.Journal of experimental botany · 2024Review
- Quality preservation and decay reduction of minimally processed seedless barberry fruit via postharvest ultrasonic treatment.Food science & nutrition · 2023Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is an enzyme co-factor in eukaryotes that also plays a critical role in protecting photosynthetic eukaryotes against damaging reactive oxygen species derived from the chloroplast. Many animal lineages, including primates, have become ascorbate auxotrophs due to the loss of the terminal enzyme in their biosynthetic pathway, L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO). The alternative pathways found in land plants and Euglena use a different terminal enzyme, L-galactonolactone dehydrogenase (GLDH). The evolutionary processes leading to these differing pathways and their contribution to the cellular roles of ascorbate remain unclear. Here we present molecular and biochemical evidence demonstrating that GULO was functionally replaced with GLDH in photosynthetic eukaryote lineages following plastid acquisition. GULO has therefore been lost repeatedly throughout eukaryote evolution. The formation of the alternative biosynthetic pathways in photosynthetic eukaryotes uncoupled ascorbate synthesis from hydrogen peroxide production and likely contributed to the rise of ascorbate as a major photoprotective antioxidant.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.