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Ushimaru R, Abe I. Assembling neuroactive alkaloids. NATURE PLANTS 2023; 9:1946-1947. [PMID: 38066291 DOI: 10.1038/s41477-023-01586-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Richiro Ushimaru
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Collaborative Research Institute for Innovative Microbiology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
| | - Ikuro Abe
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Collaborative Research Institute for Innovative Microbiology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
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2
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Yao L, Wu X, Jiang X, Shan M, Zhang Z, Li Y, Yang A, Li Y, Yang C. Subcellular compartmentalization in the biosynthesis and engineering of plant natural products. Biotechnol Adv 2023; 69:108258. [PMID: 37722606 DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Revised: 09/07/2023] [Accepted: 09/11/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
Plant natural products (PNPs) are specialized metabolites with diverse bioactivities. They are extensively used in the pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical and food industries. PNPs are synthesized in plant cells by enzymes that are distributed in different subcellular compartments with unique microenvironments, such as ions, co-factors and substrates. Plant metabolic engineering is an emerging and promising approach for the sustainable production of PNPs, for which the knowledge of the subcellular compartmentalization of their biosynthesis is instrumental. In this review we describe the state of the art on the role of subcellular compartments in the biosynthesis of major types of PNPs, including terpenoids, phenylpropanoids, alkaloids and glucosinolates, and highlight the efforts to target biosynthetic pathways to subcellular compartments in plants. In addition, we will discuss the challenges and strategies in the field of plant synthetic biology and subcellular engineering. We expect that newly developed methods and tools, together with the knowledge gained from the microbial chassis, will greatly advance plant metabolic engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lu Yao
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Xiuming Wu
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Xun Jiang
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Muhammad Shan
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Zhuoxiang Zhang
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Yiting Li
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Aiguo Yang
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China
| | - Yu Li
- Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
| | - Changqing Yang
- Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, Shandong 266100, China.
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3
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Nett RS, Dho Y, Tsai C, Passow D, Martinez Grundman J, Low YY, Sattely ES. Plant carbonic anhydrase-like enzymes in neuroactive alkaloid biosynthesis. Nature 2023; 624:182-191. [PMID: 37938780 PMCID: PMC10700139 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06716-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023]
Abstract
Plants synthesize numerous alkaloids that mimic animal neurotransmitters1. The diversity of alkaloid structures is achieved through the generation and tailoring of unique carbon scaffolds2,3, yet many neuroactive alkaloids belong to a scaffold class for which no biosynthetic route or enzyme catalyst is known. By studying highly coordinated, tissue-specific gene expression in plants that produce neuroactive Lycopodium alkaloids4, we identified an unexpected enzyme class for alkaloid biosynthesis: neofunctionalized α-carbonic anhydrases (CAHs). We show that three CAH-like (CAL) proteins are required in the biosynthetic route to a key precursor of the Lycopodium alkaloids by catalysing a stereospecific Mannich-like condensation and subsequent bicyclic scaffold generation. Also, we describe a series of scaffold tailoring steps that generate the optimized acetylcholinesterase inhibition activity of huperzine A5. Our findings suggest a broader involvement of CAH-like enzymes in specialized metabolism and demonstrate how successive scaffold tailoring can drive potency against a neurological protein target.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan S Nett
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- HHMI, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Yaereen Dho
- Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Chun Tsai
- HHMI, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Daria Passow
- Biophysics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | | | - Yun-Yee Low
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| | - Elizabeth S Sattely
- Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- HHMI, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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4
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Bagal D, Chowdhary AA, Mehrotra S, Mishra S, Rathore S, Srivastava V. Metabolic engineering in hairy roots: An outlook on production of plant secondary metabolites. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY : PPB 2023; 201:107847. [PMID: 37352695 DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2023.107847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2023] [Revised: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 06/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/25/2023]
Abstract
Plants are one of the vital sources of secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites have diverse roles in human welfare, including therapeutic implication. Nevertheless, secondary metabolite yields obtained through the exploitation of natural plant populations is insufficient to meet the commercial demand due to their accumulation in low volumes. Besides, in-planta synthesis of these important metabolites is directly linked with the age and growing conditions of the plant. Such limitations have paved the way for the exploration of alternative production methodologies. Hairy root cultures, induced after the interaction of plants with Rhizobium rhizogenes (Agrobacterium rhizogenes), are a practical solution for producing valuable secondary metabolite at low cost and without the influence of seasonal, geographic or climatic variations. Hairy root cultures also offer the opportunity to get combined with other yield enhancements strategies (precursor feeding, elicitation and metabolic engineering) to further stimulate and/or enhance their production potential. Applications of metabolic engineering in exploiting hairy root cultures attracted the interest of several research groups as a means of yield enhancement. Currently, several engineering approaches like overexpression and silencing of pathway genes, and transcription factor overexpression are used to boost metabolite production, along with the contextual success of genome editing. This review attempts to cover metabolic engineering in hairy roots for the production of secondary metabolites, with a primary emphasis on alkaloids, and discusses prospects for taking this research forward to meet desired production demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diksha Bagal
- Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Samba, 181143, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), India
| | - Aksar Ali Chowdhary
- Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Samba, 181143, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), India
| | - Shakti Mehrotra
- Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow, 226020, India.
| | - Sonal Mishra
- Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Samba, 181143, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), India.
| | - Sonica Rathore
- Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Samba, 181143, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), India
| | - Vikas Srivastava
- Department of Botany, School of Life Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Samba, 181143, Jammu and Kashmir (UT), India.
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5
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Yu JG, Tang JY, Wei R, Lan MF, Xiang RC, Zhang XC, Xiang QP. The first homosporous lycophyte genome revealed the association between the recent dynamic accumulation of LTR-RTs and genome size variation. PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2023:10.1007/s11103-023-01366-0. [PMID: 37380791 DOI: 10.1007/s11103-023-01366-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2023] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 06/30/2023]
Abstract
The contrasting genome size between homosporous and heterosporous plants is fascinating. Different from the heterosporous seed plants and mainly homosporous ferns, the lycophytes are either heterosporous (Isoetales and Selaginellales) or homosporous (Lycopodiales). Many lycophytes are the resource plants of Huperzine A (HupA) which is invaluable for treating Alzheimer's disease. For the seed-free vascular plants, several high-quality genomes of heterosporous Selaginella, homosporous ferns (maidenhair fern, monkey spider tree fern), and heterosporous ferns (Azolla) have been published and provided important insights into the origin and evolution of early land plants. However, the homosporous lycophyte genome has not been decoded. Here, we assembled the first homosporous lycophyte genome and conducted comparative genomic analyses by applying a reformed pipeline for filtering out non-plant sequences. The obtained genome size of Lycopodium clavatum is 2.30 Gb, distinguished in more than 85% repetitive elements of which 62% is long terminal repeat (LTR). This study disclosed a high birth rate and a low death rate of the LTR-RTs in homosporous lycophytes, but the opposite occurs in heterosporous lycophytes. we propose that the recent activity of LTR-RT is responsible for the immense genome size variation between homosporous and heterosporous lycophytes. By combing Ks analysis with a phylogenetic approach, we discovered two whole genome duplications (WGD). Morover, we identified all the five recognized key enzymes for the HupA biosynthetic pathway in the L. clavatum genome, but found this pathway incomplete in other major lineages of land plants. Overall, this study is of great importance for the medicinal utilization of lycophytes and the decoded genome data will be a key cornerstone to elucidate the evolution and biology of early vascular land plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ji-Gao Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China
| | - Jun-Yong Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China
| | - Ran Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China
| | - Mei-Fang Lan
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China
| | - Rui-Chen Xiang
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China
| | - Xian-Chun Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China.
| | - Qiao-Ping Xiang
- State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
- China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China.
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6
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Delineating biosynthesis of Huperzine A, A plant-derived medicine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Biotechnol Adv 2022; 60:108026. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2022.108026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2022] [Revised: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 07/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
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Schenck CA, Busta L. Using interdisciplinary, phylogeny-guided approaches to understand the evolution of plant metabolism. PLANT MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2022; 109:355-367. [PMID: 34816350 DOI: 10.1007/s11103-021-01220-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/05/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
To cope with relentless environmental pressures, plants produce an arsenal of structurally diverse chemicals, often called specialized metabolites. These lineage-specific compounds are derived from the simple building blocks made by ubiquitous core metabolic pathways. Although the structures of many specialized metabolites are known, the underlying metabolic pathways and the evolutionary events that have shaped the plant chemical diversity landscape are only beginning to be understood. However, with the advent of multi-omics data sets and the relative ease of studying pathways in previously intractable non-model species, plant specialized metabolic pathways are now being systematically identified. These large datasets also provide a foundation for comparative, phylogeny-guided studies of plant metabolism. Comparisons of metabolic traits and features like chemical abundances, enzyme activities, or gene sequences from phylogenetically diverse plants provide insights into how metabolic pathways evolved. This review highlights the power of studying evolution through the lens of comparative biochemistry, particularly how placing metabolism into a phylogenetic context can help a researcher identify the metabolic innovations enabling the evolution of structurally diverse plant metabolites.
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Affiliation(s)
- Craig A Schenck
- Department of Biochemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA.
| | - Lucas Busta
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA
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Mora-Vásquez S, Wells-Abascal GG, Espinosa-Leal C, Cardineau GA, García-Lara S. Application of metabolic engineering to enhance the content of alkaloids in medicinal plants. Metab Eng Commun 2022; 14:e00194. [PMID: 35242556 PMCID: PMC8881666 DOI: 10.1016/j.mec.2022.e00194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2021] [Revised: 01/27/2022] [Accepted: 02/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Plants are a rich source of bioactive compounds, many of which have been exploited for cosmetic, nutritional, and medicinal purposes. Through the characterization of metabolic pathways, as well as the mechanisms responsible for the accumulation of secondary metabolites, researchers have been able to increase the production of bioactive compounds in different plant species for research and commercial applications. The intent of the current review is to describe the metabolic engineering methods that have been used to transform in vitro or field-grown medicinal plants over the last decade and to identify the most effective approaches to increase the production of alkaloids. The articles summarized were categorized into six groups: endogenous enzyme overexpression, foreign enzyme overexpression, transcription factor overexpression, gene silencing, genome editing, and co-overexpression. We conclude that, because of the complex and multi-step nature of biosynthetic pathways, the approach that has been most commonly used to increase the biosynthesis of alkaloids, and the most effective in terms of fold increase, is the co-overexpression of two or more rate-limiting enzymes followed by the manipulation of regulatory genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soledad Mora-Vásquez
- Tecnológico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, 64849, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
| | | | - Claudia Espinosa-Leal
- Tecnológico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, 64849, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
| | - Guy A. Cardineau
- Arizona State University, Beus Center for Law and Society, Mail Code 9520, 111 E. Taylor Street, Phoenix, AZ, 85004-4467, USA
| | - Silverio García-Lara
- Tecnológico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, 64849, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
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Parida IS, Takasu S, Nakagawa K. A comprehensive review on the production, pharmacokinetics and health benefits of mulberry leaf iminosugars: Main focus on 1-deoxynojirimycin, d-fagomine, and 2-O-ɑ-d-galactopyranosyl-DNJ. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2021:1-29. [PMID: 34658276 DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2021.1989660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Mulberry leaves are rich in biologically active compounds, including phenolics, polysaccharides, and alkaloids. Mulberry leaf iminosugars (MLIs; a type of polyhydroxylated alkaloids), in particular, have been gaining increasing attention due to their health-promoting effects, including anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, anti-hyperglycemic, anti-hypercholesterolemic, anti-inflammatory, and gut microbiota-modulatory activities. Knowledge regarding the in vivo bioavailability and bioactivity of MLIs are crucial to understand their role and function and human health. Therefore, this review is aimed to comprehensively summarize the existing studies on the oral pharmacokinetics and the physiological significance of selected MLIs (i.e.,1-deoxynojirimycin, d-fagomine, and 2-O-ɑ-d-galactopyranosyl-DNJ). Evidence have suggested that MLIs possess relatively good uptake and safety profiles, which support their prospective use for oral intake; the therapeutic potential of these compounds against metabolic and chronic disorders and the underlying mechanisms behind these effects have also been studied in in vitro and in vivo models. Also discussed are the biosynthetic pathways of MLIs in plants, as well as the agronomic and processing factors that affect their concentration in mulberry leaves-derived products.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Soo Takasu
- Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, Japan
| | - Kiyotaka Nakagawa
- Food and Biodynamic Chemistry Laboratory, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
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10
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Experimental evidence and mechanism of action of some popular neuro-nutraceutical herbs. Neurochem Int 2021; 149:105124. [PMID: 34245808 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuint.2021.105124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2020] [Revised: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Brain and neuronal circuits constitute the most complex organ networks in human body. They not only control and coordinate functions of all other organs, but also represent one of the most-affected systems with stress, lifestyle and age. With global increase in aging populations, these neuropathologies have emerged as major concern for maintaining quality of life. Recent era has witnessed a surge in nutritional remediation of brain dysfunctions primarily by "nutraceuticals" that refer to functional foods and supplements with pharmacological potential. Specific dietary patterns with a balanced intake of carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins and micronutrients have also been ascertained to promote brain health. Dietary herbs and their phytochemicals with wide range of biological and pharmacological activities and minimal adverse effects have gained remarkable attention as neuro-nutraceuticals. Neuro-nutraceutical potentials of herbs are often expressed as effects on cognitive response, circadian rhythm, neuromodulatory, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities that are mediated by effects on gene expression, epigenetics, protein synthesis along with their turnover and metabolic pathways. Epidemiological and experimental evidence have implicated enormous applications of herbal supplementation in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. The present review highlights the identification, experimental evidence and applications of some herbs including Bacopa monniera, Withania somnifera, Curcuma longa, Helicteres angustifolia, Undaria pinnatifida, Haematococcus pluvialis, and Vitis vinifera, as neuro-nutraceuticals.
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A metabolic regulon reveals early and late acting enzymes in neuroactive Lycopodium alkaloid biosynthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2102949118. [PMID: 34112718 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2102949118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Plants synthesize many diverse small molecules that affect function of the mammalian central nervous system, making them crucial sources of therapeutics for neurological disorders. A notable portion of neuroactive phytochemicals are lysine-derived alkaloids, but the mechanisms by which plants produce these compounds have remained largely unexplored. To better understand how plants synthesize these metabolites, we focused on biosynthesis of the Lycopodium alkaloids that are produced by club mosses, a clade of plants used traditionally as herbal medicines. Hundreds of Lycopodium alkaloids have been described, including huperzine A (HupA), an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor that has generated interest as a treatment for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Through combined metabolomic profiling and transcriptomics, we have identified a developmentally controlled set of biosynthetic genes, or potential regulon, for the Lycopodium alkaloids. The discovery of this putative regulon facilitated the biosynthetic reconstitution and functional characterization of six enzymes that act in the initiation and conclusion of HupA biosynthesis. This includes a type III polyketide synthase that catalyzes a crucial imine-polyketide condensation, as well as three Fe(II)/2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase (2OGD) enzymes that catalyze transformations (pyridone ring-forming desaturation, piperidine ring cleavage, and redox-neutral isomerization) within downstream HupA biosynthesis. Our results expand the diversity of known chemical transformations catalyzed by 2OGDs and provide mechanistic insight into the function of noncanonical type III PKS enzymes that generate plant alkaloid scaffolds. These data offer insight into the chemical logic of Lys-derived alkaloid biosynthesis and demonstrate the tightly coordinated coexpression of secondary metabolic genes for the biosynthesis of medicinal alkaloids.
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Chen Y, Hu B, Xing J, Li C. Endophytes: the novel sources for plant terpenoid biosynthesis. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 2021; 105:4501-4513. [PMID: 34047817 PMCID: PMC8161352 DOI: 10.1007/s00253-021-11350-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2021] [Revised: 05/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Terpenoids are natural compounds predominantly present in plants. They have many pharmaceutical and/or nutritional functions, and have been widely applied in medical, food, and cosmetics industries. Recently, terpenoids have been used in the clinical treatment of COVID-19 due to the good antiviral activities. The increasing demand for terpenoids in international markets poses a serious threat to many plant species. For environmentally sustainable development, microbial cell factories have been utilized as the promising platform to produce terpenoids. Nevertheless, the bioproduction of most terpenoids cannot meet commercial requirements due to the low cost-benefit ratio until now. The biosynthetic potential of endophytes has gained attention in recent decades owing to the continual discovery of endophytes capable of synthesizing plant bioactive compounds. Accordingly, endophytes could be alternative sources of terpenoid-producing strains or terpenoid synthetic genes. In this review, we summarized the research progress describing the main and supporting roles of endophytes in terpenoid biosynthesis and biotransformation, and discussed the current problems and challenges which may prevent the further exploitation. This review will improve our understanding of endophyte resources for terpenoid production in industry in the future. The four main research interests on endophytes for terpenoid production. A: Isolation of terpenoid-producing endophytes; B: The heterologous expression of endophyte-derived terpenoid synthetic genes; C: Endophytes promoting their hosts' terpenoid production. The blue dashed arrows indicate signal transduction; D: Biotransformation of terpenoids by endophytes or their enzymes. Key points• The mechanisms employed by endophytes in terpenoid synthesis in vivo and in vitro.• Endophytes have the commercial potentials in terpenoid bioproduction and biotransformation.• Synthetic biology and multiomics will improve terpenoid bioproduction in engineered cell factories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yachao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecule Science and Pharmaceutics Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China
| | - Bing Hu
- Key Laboratory of Medical Molecule Science and Pharmaceutics Engineering, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Institute of Biochemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
| | - Jianmin Xing
- CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering & State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China
| | - Chun Li
- Key Lab for Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
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Schultz CJ, Goonetilleke SN, Liang J, Lahnstein J, Levin KA, Bianco-Miotto T, Burton RA, Mather DE, Chalmers KJ. Analysis of Genetic Diversity in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Plant 'Kushen' ( Sophora flavescens Ait.). FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 12:704201. [PMID: 34413868 PMCID: PMC8369264 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.704201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 05/13/2023]
Abstract
Kushen root, from the woody legume Sophora flavescens, is a traditional Chinese medicine that is a key ingredient in several promising cancer treatments. This activity is attributed in part to two quinolizidine alkaloids (QAs), oxymatrine and matrine, that have a variety of therapeutic activities in vitro. Genetic selection is needed to adapt S. flavescens for cultivation and to improve productivity and product quality. Genetic diversity of S. flavescens was investigated using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) on 85 plants grown from seeds collected from 9 provinces of China. DArTSeq provided over 10,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers, 1636 of which were used in phylogenetic analysis to reveal clear regional differences for S. flavescens. One accession from each region was selected for PCR-sequencing to identify gene-specific SNPs in the first two QA pathway genes, lysine decarboxylase (LDC) and copper amine oxidase (CAO). To obtain SfCAO sequence for primer design we used a targeted transcript capture and assembly strategy using publicly available RNA sequencing data. Partial gene sequence analysis of SfCAO revealed two recently duplicated genes, SfCAO1 and SfCAO2, in contrast to the single gene found in the QA-producing legume Lupinus angustifolius. We demonstrate high efficiency converting SNPs to Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) markers developing 27 new KASP markers, 17 from DArTSeq data, 7 for SfLDC, and 3 for SfCAO1. To complement this genetic diversity analysis a field trial site has been established in South Australia, providing access to diverse S. flavescens material for morphological, transcriptomic, and QA metabolite analysis. Analysis of dissected flower buds revealed that anthesis occurs before buds fully open suggesting a potential for S. flavescens to be an inbreeding species, however this is not supported by the relatively high level of heterozygosity observed. Two plants from the field trial site were analysed by quantitative real-time PCR and levels of matrine and oxymatrine were assessed in a variety of tissues. We are now in a strong position to select diverse plants for crosses to accelerate the process of genetic selection needed to adapt kushen to cultivation and improve productivity and product quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carolyn J. Schultz
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Shashi N. Goonetilleke
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Jianping Liang
- Department of Chinese Medicine, College of Life Sciences, Shanxi Agricultural University, Shanxi, China
- *Correspondence: Jianping Liang,
| | - Jelle Lahnstein
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Kara A. Levin
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Tina Bianco-Miotto
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Rachel A. Burton
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Diane E. Mather
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Kenneth J. Chalmers
- School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
- Kenneth J. Chalmers,
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Wang J, Zhang ZK, Jiang FF, Qi BW, Ding N, Hnin SYY, Liu X, Li J, Wang XH, Tu PF, Abe I, Morita H, Shi SP. Deciphering the Biosynthetic Mechanism of Pelletierine in Lycopodium Alkaloid Biosynthesis. Org Lett 2020; 22:8725-8729. [PMID: 33104367 DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.0c03339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Pelletierine, a proposed building block of Lycopodium alkaloids (LAs), was demonstrated to be synthesized via the non-enzymatic Mannich-like condensation of Δ1-piperideine and 3-oxoglutaric acid produced by two new type III PKSs (HsPKS4 and PcPKS1) characterized from Huperzia serrata and Phlegmariurus cryptomerianus, respectively. The findings provide new insights for further understanding the biosynthesis of LAs such as huperzine A.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan Wang
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Ze-Kun Zhang
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Fang-Fang Jiang
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Bo-Wen Qi
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Ning Ding
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Saw Yu Yu Hnin
- Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Sugitani-2630, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - Xiao Liu
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Jun Li
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Xiao-Hui Wang
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Peng-Fei Tu
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Ikuro Abe
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Morita
- Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, Sugitani-2630, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
| | - She-Po Shi
- Modern Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China
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15
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Kaminski KP, Bovet L, Laparra H, Lang G, De Palo D, Sierro N, Goepfert S, Ivanov NV. Alkaloid chemophenetics and transcriptomics of the Nicotiana genus. PHYTOCHEMISTRY 2020; 177:112424. [PMID: 32526514 DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2020.112424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In this study, we determined the pyridine alkaloid content (nicotine, nornicotine, anabasine, anatabine, cotinine, and myosmine) of 58 species and 2 subspecies of the Nicotiana genus by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. We observed clear correlation between Noctiflorae and Suaveolentes sections and their above average accumulation of anabasine in the genus. In addition, the results demonstrated the presence of not only trace amounts but quantifiable levels of myosmine, an alkaloid previously detected in only minute quantities, in the leaves and roots of 16 species. In this study, analysis of gene expression of 58 species and 2 subspecies from the Nicotiana genus by mRNA sequencing was performed for the first time. Sequencing reads were mapped against annotated genes of a Nicotiana tabacum reference genome and expression values were subsequently calculated. Hierarchical clustering of alkaloid biosynthesis pathway genes and alkaloid content composition revealed patterns clearly segregating Nicotiana sections. Correlation of gene expression with alkaloid accumulation phenotypes was evident, including low putrescine methyltransferase expression for all species in the Suaveolentes section or clear correlation of nicotine demethylase with conversion rates of nicotine to nornicotine in the majority of species. Multiple additional correlations between alkaloid accumulation and gene expression values were identified, which makes this study an important fundament toward future scientific exploration of the Nicotiana genus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kacper Piotr Kaminski
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Lucien Bovet
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Helene Laparra
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Gerhard Lang
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Damien De Palo
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Nicolas Sierro
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Simon Goepfert
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Nikolai V Ivanov
- PMI R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A., Quai Jeanrenaud 5, CH-2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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16
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Lichman BR. The scaffold-forming steps of plant alkaloid biosynthesis. Nat Prod Rep 2020; 38:103-129. [PMID: 32745157 DOI: 10.1039/d0np00031k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Alkaloids from plants are characterised by structural diversity and bioactivity, and maintain a privileged position in both modern and traditional medicines. In recent years, there have been significant advances in elucidating the biosynthetic origins of plant alkaloids. In this review, I will describe the progress made in determining the metabolic origins of the so-called true alkaloids, specialised metabolites derived from amino acids containing a nitrogen heterocycle. By identifying key biosynthetic steps that feature in the majority of pathways, I highlight the key roles played by modifications to primary metabolism, iminium reactivity and spontaneous reactions in the molecular and evolutionary origins of these pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin R Lichman
- Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, Department of Biology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
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17
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Wu XD, Li XN, Peng LY, Zhao QS. Huperserratines A and B, Two Macrocyclic Lycopodium Alkaloids with an Unusual Skeleton from Huperzia serrata. J Org Chem 2020; 85:6803-6807. [PMID: 32295348 DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.0c00623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Huperserratines A (1) and B (2), two Lycopodium alkaloids with an unprecedented 5-aza-bicyclo[10.4.0]hexadecane skeleton and an oxime function, were isolated from Huperzia serrata. Their structures including absolute configurations were determined by extensive NMR spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 were the first examples of macrocyclic Lycopodium alkaloids with an aza-12-membered ring. A plausible biogenetic pathway of these compounds was also proposed. Compound 1 exhibited moderate anti-HIV-1 activity with an EC50 of 52.91 μg/mL and a therapy index greater than 3.78.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xing-De Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China.,Yunnan Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiao-Nian Li
- State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China
| | - Li-Yan Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China.,Yunnan Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China
| | - Qin-Shi Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China.,Yunnan Key Laboratory of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, People's Republic of China
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18
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Shirai K, Hanada K. Contribution of Functional Divergence Through Copy Number Variations to the Inter-Species and Intra-Species Diversity in Specialized Metabolites. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2019; 10:1567. [PMID: 31850041 PMCID: PMC6902010 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Accepted: 11/08/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
There is considerable diversity in the specialized metabolites within a single plant species (intra-species) and among different plant species (inter-species). The functional divergence associated with gene duplications largely contributes to the inter-species diversity in the specialized metabolites, whereas the intra-species diversity is due to gene dosage changes via gene duplications [i.e., copy number variants (CNVs)] at the intra-species level of evolution. This is because CNVs are thought to undergo associated with less functional divergence at the intra-species level of evolution. However, functional divergence caused by CNVs may induce specialized metabolite diversity at the intra-species and inter-species levels of evolution. We herein discuss the functional divergence of CNVs in metabolic quantitative trait genes (mQTGs). We focused on 5,654 previously identified mQTGs in 270 Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. The ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous variations tends to be higher for mQTGs with CNVs than for mQTGs without CNVs within A. thaliana accessions, suggesting that CNVs are responsible for the functional divergence among mQTGs at the intra-species level of evolution. To evaluate the contribution of CNVs to inter-species diversity, we calculated the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions in the Arabidopsis lineage. The ratio tends to be higher for the mQTGs with CNVs than for the mQTGs without CNVs. Additionally, we determined that mQTGs with CNVs are subject to positive selection in the Arabidopsis lineage. Our data suggest that CNVs are closely related to functional divergence contributing to adaptations via the production of diverse specialized metabolites at the intra-species and inter-species levels of evolution.
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19
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Shimizu Y, Rai A, Okawa Y, Tomatsu H, Sato M, Kera K, Suzuki H, Saito K, Yamazaki M. Metabolic diversification of nitrogen-containing metabolites by the expression of a heterologous lysine decarboxylase gene in Arabidopsis. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2019; 100:505-521. [PMID: 31364191 PMCID: PMC6899585 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2018] [Revised: 05/03/2019] [Accepted: 06/25/2019] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Lysine decarboxylase converts l-lysine to cadaverine as a branching point for the biosynthesis of plant Lys-derived alkaloids. Although cadaverine contributes towards the biosynthesis of Lys-derived alkaloids, its catabolism, including metabolic intermediates and the enzymes involved, is not known. Here, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis lines by expressing an exogenous lysine/ornithine decarboxylase gene from Lupinus angustifolius (La-L/ODC) and identified cadaverine-derived metabolites as the products of the emerged biosynthetic pathway. Through untargeted metabolic profiling, we observed the upregulation of polyamine metabolism, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and the biosynthesis of several Lys-derived alkaloids in the transgenic lines. Moreover, we found several cadaverine-derived metabolites specifically detected in the transgenic lines compared with the non-transformed control. Among these, three specific metabolites were identified and confirmed as 5-aminopentanal, 5-aminopentanoate and δ-valerolactam. Cadaverine catabolism in a representative transgenic line (DC29) was traced by feeding stable isotope-labeled [α-15 N]- or [ε-15 N]-l-lysine. Our results show similar 15 N incorporation ratios from both isotopomers for the specific metabolite features identified, indicating that these metabolites were synthesized via the symmetric structure of cadaverine. We propose biosynthetic pathways for the metabolites on the basis of metabolite chemistry and enzymes known or identified through catalyzing specific biochemical reactions in this study. Our study shows that this pool of enzymes with promiscuous activities is the driving force for metabolite diversification in plants. Thus, this study not only provides valuable information for understanding the catabolic mechanism of cadaverine but also demonstrates that cadaverine accumulation is one of the factors to expand plant chemodiversity, which may lead to the emergence of Lys-derived alkaloid biosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yohei Shimizu
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science1‐7‐22 Suehiro‐cho, Tsurumi‐kuYokohama230‐0045Japan
| | - Amit Rai
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
| | - Yuko Okawa
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
| | - Hajime Tomatsu
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
- Present address:
Human Metabolome Technologies, Inc.246‐2 Mizukami, KakuganjiTsuruokaYamagata997‐0052Japan
| | - Masaru Sato
- Kazusa DNA Research Institute2‐6‐7 Kazusa‐KamatariKisarazuChiba292‐0818Japan
| | - Kota Kera
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
- Present address:
Department of Biomolecular EngineeringGraduate School of EngineeringTohoku UniversityAobayama 6‐6‐07Sendai980‐8579Japan
| | - Hideyuki Suzuki
- Kazusa DNA Research Institute2‐6‐7 Kazusa‐KamatariKisarazuChiba292‐0818Japan
| | - Kazuki Saito
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science1‐7‐22 Suehiro‐cho, Tsurumi‐kuYokohama230‐0045Japan
| | - Mami Yamazaki
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical SciencesChiba University1‐8‐1 Inohana, Chuo‐kuChiba260‐8675Japan
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20
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Zhao T, Wang C, Bai F, Li S, Yang C, Zhang F, Bai G, Chen M, Lan X, Liao Z. Metabolic Characterization of Hyoscyamus niger Ornithine Decarboxylase. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2019; 10:229. [PMID: 30873201 PMCID: PMC6400997 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2018] [Accepted: 02/11/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) catalyzes ornithine decarboxylation to yield putrescine, a key precursor of polyamines, and tropane alkaloids (TAs). Here, to investigate in depth the role of ODC in polyamine/TA biosynthesis and to provide a candidate gene for engineering polyamine/TA production, the ODC gene (HnODC) was characterized from Hyoscyamus niger, a TA-producing plant. Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that HnODC was clustered with ODC enzymes of plants. Experimental work showed HnODC highly expressed in H. niger roots and induced by methyl jasmonate (MeJA). In the MeJA treatment, the production of both putrescine and N-methylputrescine were markedly promoted in roots, while contents of putrescine, spermidine, and spermine were all significantly increased in leaves. By contrast, MeJA did not significantly change the production of either hyoscyamine or scopolamine in H. niger plants. Building on these results, the 50-kDa His-tagged HnODC proteins were purified for enzymatic assays. When ornithine was fed to HnODC, the putrescine product was detected by HPLC, indicating HnODC catalyzed ornithine to form putrescine. Finally, we also investigated the enzymatic kinetics of HnODC. Its K m, V max, and K cat values for ornithine were respectively 2.62 ± 0.11 mM, 1.87 ± 0.023 nmol min-1 μg-1 and 1.57 ± 0.015 s-1, at pH 8.0 and at 30°C. The HnODC enzyme displays a much higher catalytic efficiency than most reported plant ODCs, suggesting it may be an ideal candidate gene for engineering polyamine/TA biosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tengfei Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Changjian Wang
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Feng Bai
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Siqi Li
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Chunxian Yang
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Fangyuan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Ge Bai
- Tobacco Breeding and Biotechnology Research Center, Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Agricultural Sciences, Key Laboratory of Tobacco Biotechnological Breeding, National Tobacco Genetic Engineering Research Center, Kunming, China
| | - Min Chen
- College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Xiaozhong Lan
- TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, Xizang Agricultural and Husbandry College, Nyingchi of Tibet, China
| | - Zhihua Liao
- Key Laboratory of Eco-Environments in Three Gorges Reservoir Region (Ministry of Education), Chongqing Engineering Research Centre for Sweet Potato, TAAHC-SWU Medicinal Plant Joint R&D Centre, School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
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21
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Yang M, Wu S, You W, Jaisi A, Xiao Y. Selection of Reference Genes for Expression Analysis in Chinese Medicinal Herb Huperzia serrata. Front Pharmacol 2019; 10:44. [PMID: 30774594 PMCID: PMC6367274 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2019.00044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2018] [Accepted: 01/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Huperzine A (HupA) is a powerful and selective inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase. It has attracted widespread attention endangering the ultimate plant sources of Lycopodiaceae family. In this study, we used Huperzia serrata, extensively used in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a slow growing vascular plant as the model plant of the Lycopodiaceae family to develop and validate the reference genes. We aim to use gene expression platform to understand the gene expression of different tissues and developmental stages of this medicinal herb. Eight candidate reference genes were selected based on RNA-seq data and evaluated with qRT-PCR. The expression of L/ODC and cytochrome P450s genes known for their involvement in lycopodium alkaloid biosynthesis, were also studied to validate the selected reference genes. The most stable genes were TBP, GAPDH, and their combination (TBP + GAPDH). We report for the first time the reference gene of H. serrata’s different tissues which would provide important insights into understanding their biological functions comparing other Lycopodiaceae plants and facilitate a good biopharming approach.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengquan Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Shiwen Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Wenjing You
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Amit Jaisi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
| | - Youli Xiao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Sciences, Shanghai, China
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22
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Identification of a Novel Gene Encoding the Specialized Alanine Decarboxylase in Tea ( Camellia sinensis) Plants. Molecules 2019; 24:molecules24030540. [PMID: 30717241 PMCID: PMC6384637 DOI: 10.3390/molecules24030540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2018] [Revised: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2019] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Theanine, a unique amino acid in Camellia sinensis, accounts for more than 50% of total free amino acids in tea and has a significant contribution to the quality of green tea. Previous research indicated that theanine is synthesized from glutamic acid (Glu) and ethylamine mainly in roots, and that theanine accumulation depends on the availability of ethylamine which is derived from alanine (Ala) decarboxylation catalyzed by alanine decarboxylase (AlaDC). However, the specific gene encoding AlaDC protein remains to be discovered in tea plants or in other species. To explore the gene of AlaDC in tea plants, the differences in theanine contents and gene expressions between pretreatment and posttreatment of long-time nitrogen starvation were analyzed in young roots of two tea cultivars. A novel gene annotated as serine decarboxylase (SDC) was noted for its expression levels, which showed high consistency with theanine content, and the expression was remarkably high in young roots under sufficient nitrogen condition. To verify its function, full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) of this candidate gene was cloned from young roots of tea seedlings, and the target protein was expressed and purified from Escherichia coli (E. coli). The enzymatic activity of the protein for Ala and Ser was measured in vitro using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The results illustrated that the target protein could catalyze the decarboxylation of Ala despite of its high similarity with SDC from other species. Therefore, this novel gene was identified as AlaDC and named CsAlaDC. Furthermore, the gene expression levels of CsAlaDC in different tissues of tea plants were also quantified with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The results suggest that transcription levels of CsAlaDC in root tissues are significantly higher than those in leaf tissues. That may explain why theanine biosynthesis preferentially occurs in the roots of tea plants. The expression of the gene was upregulated when nitrogen was present, suggesting that theanine biosynthesis is regulated by nitrogen supply and closely related to nitrogen metabolism for C. sinensis. The results of this study are significant supplements to the theanine biosynthetic pathway and provide evidence for the differential accumulation of theanine between C. sinensis and other species.
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23
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Joob B, Wiwanitkit V. Lycopodium clavatum for urolithiasis. INDIAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN HOMOEOPATHY 2019. [DOI: 10.4103/ijrh.ijrh_78_19] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
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24
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Shirai K, Matsuda F, Nakabayashi R, Okamoto M, Tanaka M, Fujimoto A, Shimizu M, Shinozaki K, Seki M, Saito K, Hanada K. A Highly Specific Genome-Wide Association Study Integrated with Transcriptome Data Reveals the Contribution of Copy Number Variations to Specialized Metabolites in Arabidopsis thaliana Accessions. Mol Biol Evol 2018; 34:3111-3122. [PMID: 28961930 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msx234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Lineage-specific gene duplications contribute to a large variation in specialized metabolites among different plant species. There is also considerable variability in the specialized metabolites within a single plant species. However, it is unclear whether copy number variations (CNVs) derived from gene duplication events contribute to the diversity of specialized metabolites within species. We identified metabolome quantitative trait genes (mQTGs) associated with quantitative metabolite variations and examined the relationship between mQTGs and CNVs. We obtained 1,335 specialized metabolite signals from 53 worldwide A. thaliana accessions using liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. In this study, genes associated with specialized metabolites were inferred by either a generally authorized genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach or a novel analysis of the association between gene expression and metabolite accumulation. Genes qualified by both analyses are defined to be mQTGs. The integrated method enabled us to detect mQTGs with a low false positive rate (=5.71 × 10-4). We also identified 5,654 genes associated with 1,335 specialized metabolites. Of these genes, 4.4% were affected by CNVs, which was more than expected (χ2 test: P < 0.01). This result suggests that CNVs contribute to variations in specialized metabolites within a species. To assess the contribution of CNVs to adaptive evolution in A. thaliana, we examined the selective sweeps around the mQTGs. We observed that the mQTGs with CNVs tended to undergo selective sweeps. These observations imply that variations in specialized metabolites caused by CNVs contribute to the adaptive evolution of A. thaliana.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazumasa Shirai
- Frontier Research Academy for Young Researchers, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Fumio Matsuda
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan.,Department of Bioinformatic Engineering, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
| | - Ryo Nakabayashi
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Masanori Okamoto
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan.,Center for Bioscience Research and Education, Utsunomiya University, Utsunomiya, Japan
| | - Maho Tanaka
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Akihiro Fujimoto
- Department of Drug Discovery Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.,Center for Integrative Medical Sciences, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Minami Shimizu
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Kazuo Shinozaki
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Motoaki Seki
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
| | - Kazuki Saito
- Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan.,Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
| | - Kousuke Hanada
- Frontier Research Academy for Young Researchers, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan.,Center for Sustainable Resource Science, RIKEN, Kanagawa, Japan
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Ishiuchi K, Hirose D, Suzuki T, Nakayama W, Jiang WP, Monthakantirat O, Wu JB, Kitanaka S, Makino T. Identification of Lycopodium Alkaloids Produced by an Ultraviolet-Irradiated Strain of Paraboeremia, an Endophytic Fungus from Lycopodium serratum var. longipetiolatum. JOURNAL OF NATURAL PRODUCTS 2018; 81:1143-1147. [PMID: 29676580 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.7b00627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
12- epi-Lycopodine (1), a Lycopodium alkaloid, along with lycopodine (2) and huperzine A (3), were discovered in the mycelium of Paraboeremia sp. Lsl3KI076, a UV-irradiated strain of Paraboeremia sp. Lsl3, an endophytic fungus from Lycopodium serratum Thunb. var. longipetiolatum Spring. Additionally, a trace of 1 was isolated from Phlegmariurus nummulariifolius (Blume) Ching, and the structure was elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data. This is the first report proving that a new naturally occurring Lycopodium alkaloid can be obtained from an endophytic fungus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kan'ichiro Ishiuchi
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Nagoya City University , 3-1, Tanabe-Dori , Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603 , Aichi , Japan
| | - Dai Hirose
- School of Pharmacy , Nihon University , 7-7-1, Narashinodai , Funabashi , 274-8555 , Chiba , Japan
| | - Takuma Suzuki
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Nagoya City University , 3-1, Tanabe-Dori , Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603 , Aichi , Japan
| | - Waka Nakayama
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Nagoya City University , 3-1, Tanabe-Dori , Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603 , Aichi , Japan
| | - Wen-Ping Jiang
- School of Pharmacy , China Medical University , No. 91, Hsueh-Shih R. , Taichung 40402 , Taiwan
| | - Orawan Monthakantirat
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Khon Kaen University , Khon Kaen 40002 , Thailand
| | - Jin-Bin Wu
- School of Pharmacy , China Medical University , No. 91, Hsueh-Shih R. , Taichung 40402 , Taiwan
| | - Susumu Kitanaka
- School of Pharmacy , Nihon University , 7-7-1, Narashinodai , Funabashi , 274-8555 , Chiba , Japan
| | - Toshiaki Makino
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences , Nagoya City University , 3-1, Tanabe-Dori , Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603 , Aichi , Japan
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Abstract
A variety of chemicals produced by plants, often referred to as 'phytochemicals', have been used as medicines, food, fuels and industrial raw materials. Recent advances in the study of genomics and metabolomics in plant science have accelerated our understanding of the mechanisms, regulation and evolution of the biosynthesis of specialized plant products. We can now address such questions as how the metabolomic diversity of plants is originated at the levels of genome, and how we should apply this knowledge to drug discovery, industry and agriculture. Our research group has focused on metabolomics-based functional genomics over the last 15 years and we have developed a new research area called 'Phytochemical Genomics'. In this review, the development of a research platform for plant metabolomics is discussed first, to provide a better understanding of the chemical diversity of plants. Then, representative applications of metabolomics to functional genomics in a model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, are described. The extension of integrated multi-omics analyses to non-model specialized plants, e.g., medicinal plants, is presented, including the identification of novel genes, metabolites and networks for the biosynthesis of flavonoids, alkaloids, sulfur-containing metabolites and terpenoids. Further, functional genomics studies on a variety of medicinal plants is presented. I also discuss future trends in pharmacognosy and related sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuki Saito
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University.,RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science
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Wu S, Fan Z, Xiao Y. Comprehensive relative quantitative metabolomics analysis of lycopodium alkaloids in different tissues of Huperzia serrata. Synth Syst Biotechnol 2017; 3:44-55. [PMID: 29911198 PMCID: PMC5884255 DOI: 10.1016/j.synbio.2017.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2017] [Revised: 12/08/2017] [Accepted: 12/13/2017] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Qian ceng Ta, the whole plant of Huperzia serrata, is an important landscape and medicinal herbs and contains abundant bioactive lycopodium alkaloids. Although the structures of more than 100 lycopodium alkaloids in Huperzia serrata have been isolated and identified, the content and distribution of these alkaloids in different tissues are still unclear. In current study, an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based comprehensive metabolomics strategy was developed, including the extraction, separation, identification, and statistical analysis. The results showed that different types lycopodium alkaloids could be separated at different time-windows, which was helpful for further metabolite identification. Peak4388 and peak3954 were metabolite biomarkers for the different tissues according to the principle component analysis and partial least squares-discriminant analysis model. A computational tool based in-house database was also built up and used for putative identification. Of the 2354 true peaks after four-step filtration, 118 peaks were putatively identified as lycopodium alkaloids by using in-house database, and four of which was identified by authentic standards. Alternatively, another computational software was used to predict the fragmentation pattern, to dereplicate the structure of identified peaks, and identified the peak3585 to N-methylhuperzine A. The integration of both computational tools could be used for more metabolites identification.
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Key Words
- CAO, copper amine oxidase
- Different tissues
- HPLC-MS, high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
- HupA, huperzine A
- HupB, huperzine B
- Huperzia serrata
- IS, internal standard
- In-silico fragmentations prediction
- L/ODC, Lysine/Ornithine decarboxylase
- Lycop C, lycoposerramine C
- Lycop D, lycoposerramine D
- Metabolite identification
- Metabolomics
- PCA, principle component analysis
- PLS-DA, partial least squares-discriminant analysis
- UPLC-MS, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
- m/z, mass over charge
- tR, retention time
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Affiliation(s)
- Shiwen Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Zhen Fan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Youli Xiao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China.,CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
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Rai A, Saito K, Yamazaki M. Integrated omics analysis of specialized metabolism in medicinal plants. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2017; 90:764-787. [PMID: 28109168 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.13485] [Citation(s) in RCA: 125] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2016] [Revised: 01/10/2017] [Accepted: 01/11/2017] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Medicinal plants are a rich source of highly diverse specialized metabolites with important pharmacological properties. Until recently, plant biologists were limited in their ability to explore the biosynthetic pathways of these metabolites, mainly due to the scarcity of plant genomics resources. However, recent advances in high-throughput large-scale analytical methods have enabled plant biologists to discover biosynthetic pathways for important plant-based medicinal metabolites. The reduced cost of generating omics datasets and the development of computational tools for their analysis and integration have led to the elucidation of biosynthetic pathways of several bioactive metabolites of plant origin. These discoveries have inspired synthetic biology approaches to develop microbial systems to produce bioactive metabolites originating from plants, an alternative sustainable source of medicinally important chemicals. Since the demand for medicinal compounds are increasing with the world's population, understanding the complete biosynthesis of specialized metabolites becomes important to identify or develop reliable sources in the future. Here, we review the contributions of major omics approaches and their integration to our understanding of the biosynthetic pathways of bioactive metabolites. We briefly discuss different approaches for integrating omics datasets to extract biologically relevant knowledge and the application of omics datasets in the construction and reconstruction of metabolic models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amit Rai
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8675, Japan
| | - Kazuki Saito
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8675, Japan
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, 230-0045, Japan
| | - Mami Yamazaki
- Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8675, Japan
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Xu B, Lei L, Zhu X, Zhou Y, Xiao Y. Identification and characterization of L-lysine decarboxylase from Huperzia serrata and its role in the metabolic pathway of lycopodium alkaloid. PHYTOCHEMISTRY 2017; 136:23-30. [PMID: 28089246 DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2016.12.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2016] [Revised: 12/23/2016] [Accepted: 12/29/2016] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Lysine decarboxylation is the first biosynthetic step of Huperzine A (HupA). Six cDNAs encoding lysine decarboxylases (LDCs) were cloned from Huperzia serrata by degenerate PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). One HsLDC isoform was functionally characterized as lysine decarboxylase. The HsLDC exhibited greatest catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km, 2.11 s-1 mM-1) toward L-lysine in vitro among all reported plant-LDCs. Moreover, transient expression of the HsLDC in tobacco leaves specifically increased cadaverine content from zero to 0.75 mg per gram of dry mass. Additionally, a convenient and reliable method used to detect the two catalytic products was developed. With the novel method, the enzymatic products of HsLDC and HsCAO, namely cadaverine and 5-aminopentanal, respectively, were detected simultaneously both in assay with purified enzymes and in transgenic tobacco leaves. This work not only provides direct evidence of the first two-step in biosynthetic pathway of HupA in Huperzia serrata and paves the way for further elucidation of the pathway, but also enables engineering heterologous production of HupA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baofu Xu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Lei Lei
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Xiaocen Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Yiqing Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Youli Xiao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China; CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Sciences, China.
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Yang M, You W, Wu S, Fan Z, Xu B, Zhu M, Li X, Xiao Y. Global transcriptome analysis of Huperzia serrata and identification of critical genes involved in the biosynthesis of huperzine A. BMC Genomics 2017; 18:245. [PMID: 28330463 PMCID: PMC5361696 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-017-3615-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2017] [Accepted: 03/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Huperzia serrata (H. serrata) is an economically important traditional Chinese herb with the notably medicinal value. As a representative member of the Lycopodiaceae family, the H. serrata produces various types of effectively bioactive lycopodium alkaloids, especially the huperzine A (HupA) which is a promising drug for Alzheimer's disease. Despite their medicinal importance, the public genomic and transcriptomic resources are very limited and the biosynthesis of HupA is largely unknown. Previous studies on comparison of 454-ESTs from H. serrata and Phlegmariurus carinatus predicted putative genes involved in lycopodium alkaloid biosynthesis, such as lysine decarboxylase like (LDC-like) protein and some CYP450s. However, these gene annotations were not carried out with further biochemical characterizations. To understand the biosynthesis of HupA and its regulation in H. serrata, a global transcriptome analysis on H. Serrata tissues was performed. RESULTS In this study, we used the Illumina Highseq4000 platform to generate a substantial RNA sequencing dataset of H. serrata. A total of 40.1 Gb clean data was generated from four different tissues: root, stem, leaf, and sporangia and assembled into 181,141 unigenes. The total length, average length, N50 and GC content of unigenes were 219,520,611 bp, 1,211 bp, 2,488 bp and 42.51%, respectively. Among them, 105,516 unigenes (58.25%) were annotated by seven public databases (NR, NT, Swiss-Prot, KEGG, COG, Interpro, GO), and 54 GO terms and 3,391 transcription factors (TFs) were functionally classified, respectively. KEGG pathway analysis revealed that 72,230 unigenes were classified into 21 functional pathways. Three types of candidate enzymes, LDC, CAO and PKS, responsible for the biosynthesis of precursors of HupA were all identified in the transcripts. Four hundred and fifty-seven CYP450 genes in H. serrata were also analyzed and compared with tissue-specific gene expression. Moreover, two key classes of CYP450 genes BBE and SLS, with 23 members in total, for modification of the lycopodium alkaloid scaffold in the late two stages of biosynthesis of HupA were further evaluated. CONCLUSION This study is the first report of global transcriptome analysis on all tissues of H. serrata, and critical genes involved in the biosynthesis of precursors and scaffold modifications of HupA were discovered and predicted. The transcriptome data from this work not only could provide an important resource for further investigating on metabolic pathways in H. serrata, but also shed light on synthetic biology study of HupA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengquan Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Wenjing You
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Shiwen Wu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Zhen Fan
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Baofu Xu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Mulan Zhu
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Xuan Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China
| | - Youli Xiao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China. .,CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence in Plant and Microbial Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China. .,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China.
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31
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Frick KM, Kamphuis LG, Siddique KHM, Singh KB, Foley RC. Quinolizidine Alkaloid Biosynthesis in Lupins and Prospects for Grain Quality Improvement. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2017; 8:87. [PMID: 28197163 PMCID: PMC5281559 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2017.00087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2016] [Accepted: 01/16/2017] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Quinolizidine alkaloids (QAs) are toxic secondary metabolites found within the genus Lupinus, some species of which are commercially important grain legume crops including Lupinus angustifolius (narrow-leafed lupin, NLL), L. luteus (yellow lupin), L. albus (white lupin), and L. mutabilis (pearl lupin), with NLL grain being the most largely produced of the four species in Australia and worldwide. While QAs offer the plants protection against insect pests, the accumulation of QAs in lupin grain complicates its use for food purposes as QA levels must remain below the industry threshold (0.02%), which is often exceeded. It is not well understood what factors cause grain QA levels to exceed this threshold. Much of the early work on QA biosynthesis began in the 1970-1980s, with many QA chemical structures well-characterized and lupin cell cultures and enzyme assays employed to identify some biosynthetic enzymes and pathway intermediates. More recently, two genes associated with these enzymes have been characterized, however, the QA biosynthetic pathway remains only partially elucidated. Here, we review the research accomplished thus far concerning QAs in lupin and consider some possibilities for further elucidation and manipulation of the QA pathway in lupin crops, drawing on examples from model alkaloid species. One breeding strategy for lupin is to produce plants with high QAs in vegetative tissues while low in the grain in order to confer insect resistance to plants while keeping grain QA levels within industry regulations. With the knowledge achieved on alkaloid biosynthesis in other plant species in recent years, and the recent development of genomic and transcriptomic resources for NLL, there is considerable scope to facilitate advances in our knowledge of QAs, leading to the production of improved lupin crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen M. Frick
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationFloreat, WA, Australia
- School of Plant Biology, The University of Western AustraliaCrawley, WA, Australia
- The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western AustraliaPerth, WA, Australia
| | - Lars G. Kamphuis
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationFloreat, WA, Australia
- The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western AustraliaPerth, WA, Australia
| | | | - Karam B. Singh
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationFloreat, WA, Australia
- The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western AustraliaPerth, WA, Australia
| | - Rhonda C. Foley
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research OrganisationFloreat, WA, Australia
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[Dedicated to Prof. T. Okada and Prof. T. Nishioka: data science in chemistry]Classification of Alkaloid Compounds Based on Subring Skeleton (SRS) Profiling: On Finding Relationship of Compounds with Metabolic Pathways. JOURNAL OF COMPUTER AIDED CHEMISTRY 2017. [DOI: 10.2751/jcac.18.58] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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Rusanov K, Atanassov A, Atanassov I. Engineering Cell and Organ Cultures from Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Toward Commercial Production of Bioactive Metabolites. REFERENCE SERIES IN PHYTOCHEMISTRY 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-32004-5_8-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
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