hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) and strongly inhibits SHMT and other folate-dependent
enzymes in vitro. The only enzyme known to metabolize 5-CHO-THF is 5-CHO-THF
cycloligase (5-FCL), which catalyzes its conversion to 5, 10-methenyltetrahydrofolate.
Because 5-FCL is mitochondrial in plants and mitochondrial SHMT is central to
photorespiration, we examined the impact of an insertional mutation in the Arabidopsis 5 …