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Li Y, Li Z, Zhang F, Li S, Gu Y, Tian W, Tian W, Wang J, Wen J, Li J. Integrated evolutionary pattern analyses reveal multiple origins of steroidal saponins in plants. Plant J 2023; 116:823-839. [PMID: 37522396 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 07/22/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
Steroidal saponins are a class of specialized metabolites essential for plant's response to biotic and abiotic stresses. They are also important raw materials for the industrial production of steroid drugs. Steroidal saponins are present in some monocots, such as Dioscorea and Paris, but their distribution, origin, and evolution in plants remain poorly understood. By reconstructing the evolutionary history of the steroidal saponin-associated module (SSAM) in plants, we reveal that the steroidal saponin pathway has its origin in Asparagus and Dioscorea. Through evaluating the distribution and evolutionary pattern of steroidal saponins in angiosperms, we further show that steroidal saponins originated multiple times in angiosperms, and exist in early diverged lineages of certain monocot lineages including Asparagales, Dioscoreales, and Liliales. In these lineages, steroidal saponins are synthesized through the high copy and/or high expression mechanisms of key genes in SSAM. Together with shifts in gene evolutionary rates and amino acid usage, these molecular mechanisms shape the current distribution and diversity of steroidal saponins in plants. Consequently, our results provide new insights into the distribution, diversity and evolutionary history of steroidal saponins in plants, and enhance our understanding of plants' resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Additionally, fundamental understanding of the steroidal saponin biosynthesis will facilitate their industrial production and pharmacological applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi Li
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Zihao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Furui Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Song Li
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Yongbing Gu
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Weijun Tian
- Yunnan Baotian Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd, Kunming, 650101, China
| | - Weirong Tian
- Yunnan Baotian Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd, Kunming, 650101, China
| | - Jianbo Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
| | - Jun Wen
- Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 20013-7012, DC, USA
| | - Jiaru Li
- State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China
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Heiling S, Li J, Halitschke R, Paetz C, Baldwin IT. The downside of metabolic diversity: Postingestive rearrangements by specialized insects. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022; 119:e2122808119. [PMID: 35666864 PMCID: PMC9214519 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2122808119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Deploying toxins in complex mixtures is thought to be advantageous and is observed during antagonistic interactions in nature. Toxin mixtures are widely utilized in medicine and pest control, as they are thought to slow the evolution of detoxification counterresponses in the targeted organisms. Here we show that caterpillars rearrange key constituents of two distinct plant defense pathways to postingestively disable the defensive properties of both pathways. Specifically, phenolic esters of quinic acid, chlorogenic acids (CAs), potent herbivore and ultraviolet (UV) defenses, are reesterified to decorate particular sugars of 17-hydroxygeranyllinalool diterpene glycosides (HGL-DTGs) and prevent their respective anti–herbivore defense functions. This was discovered through the employment of comparative metabolomics of the leaves of Nicotiana attenuata and the frass of this native tobacco’s specialist herbivore, Manduca sexta larvae. Feeding caterpillars on leaves of transgenic plants abrogated in each of the two pathways, separately and together, revealed that one of the fully characterized frass conjugates, caffeoylated HGL-DTG, originated from ingested CA and HGL-DTGs and that both had negative effects on the defensive function of the other compound class, as revealed by rates of larval mass gain. This negative defensive synergy was further explored in 183 N. attenuata natural accessions, which revealed a strong negative covariance between the two defense pathways. Further mapping analyses in a biparental recombinant inbred line (RIL) population imputed quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for the two pathways at distinct genomic locations. The postingestive repurposing of defense metabolism constituents reveals a downside of deploying toxins in mixtures, a downside which plants in nature have evolved to counter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sven Heiling
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Jiancai Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032 China
| | - Rayko Halitschke
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Christian Paetz
- Department of Biosynthesis/NMR, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Ian T. Baldwin
- Department of Molecular Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 07745 Jena, Germany
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Romsuk J, Yasumoto S, Fukushima EO, Miura K, Muranaka T, Seki H. High-yield bioactive triterpenoid production by heterologous expression in Nicotiana benthamiana using the Tsukuba system. Front Plant Sci 2022; 13:991909. [PMID: 36082301 PMCID: PMC9447470 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.991909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 07/27/2022] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Oleanolic acid is a pentacyclic triterpenoid found in numerous plant species and is a precursor to several bioactive triterpenoids with commercial potential. However, oleanolic acid accumulates at low levels in plants, and its chemical synthesis is challenging. Here, we established a method for producing oleanolic acid in substantial quantities via heterologous expression of pathway enzymes in Nicotiana benthamiana. The "Tsukuba system" is one of the most efficient agroinfiltration-based transient protein expression systems using the vector pBYR2HS, which contains geminiviral replication machinery and a double terminator for boosting expression. Additionally, the pBYR2HS vector contains an expression cassette for the gene-silencing suppressor p19 protein from tomato bushy stunt virus, which can also contribute to enhancing the expression of target proteins. In this study, we evaluated the applicability of this system to heterologous triterpenoid production in N. benthamiana. Medicago truncatula cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP) 716A12 is the first enzyme to be functionally characterized as β-amyrin C-28 oxidase producing oleanolic acid. A mutant CYP716A12 (D122Q) with improved catalytic activity engineered in our previous study was co-expressed with other enzymes in N. benthamiana leaves. Using pBYR2HS, oleanolic acid yield was increased 13.1-fold compared with that using the conventional binary vector, indicating the advantage of the Tsukuba system. We also demonstrated the efficacy of co-expressing a mutant Arabidopsis thaliana HMGR1 catalytic domain, additional NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR) transferring electrons to heterologous CYPs, and application of ascorbic acid for preventing leaf necrosis after agroinfiltration, to improve product yield. As a result, the product yields of both simple (β-amyrin) and oxidized (oleanolic acid and maslinic acid) triterpenoids were significantly improved compared with the previously reported yield in heterologous triterpenoid production in N. benthamiana leaves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jutapat Romsuk
- Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Shuhei Yasumoto
- Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Industrial Biotechnology Initiative Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Ery Odette Fukushima
- Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Plant Translational Research Group, Universidad Regional Amazónica IKIAM, Tena, Ecuador
| | - Kenji Miura
- Tsukuba-Plant Innovation Research Center, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
| | - Toshiya Muranaka
- Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Industrial Biotechnology Initiative Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
| | - Hikaru Seki
- Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- Industrial Biotechnology Initiative Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
- *Correspondence: Hikaru Seki,
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