Metabolic Engineering of Plant Alkaloid Biosynthesis

Plant alkaloids, one of the largest groups of natural products, provide many pharmacologically active compounds. Several genes in the biosynthetic pathways for scopolamine, nicotine, and berberine have been cloned, making the metabolic engineering of these alkaloids possible. Expression of two branc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2001-01, Vol.98 (1), p.367-372
Main Authors: Sato, Fumihiko, Hashimoto, Takashi, Hachiya, Akira, Tamura, Ken-ichi, Choi, Kum-Boo, Morishige, Takashi, Fujimoto, Hideki, Yamada, Yasuyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alkaloids
Alkaloids - biosynthesis
Alkaloids - chemistry
Alkaloids - metabolism
Biological Sciences
Biology
Biosynthesis
Cell lines
Cells, Cultured
Cellular metabolism
Cloning, Molecular
Enzymes
Flowers & plants
Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
Genes
Genetic Engineering
Isoquinolines - chemistry
Isoquinolines - metabolism
Mass Spectrometry
Metabolism
Methyltransferases - genetics
Methyltransferases - metabolism
Molecular Structure
Nicotine
Nicotine - chemistry
Nicotine - metabolism
Plant Cells
Plant Proteins - analysis
Plants
Plants - enzymology
Plants - genetics
Plants - metabolism
Plants, Genetically Modified
Polyamines
RNA, Plant - analysis
Transformation, Genetic
Transgenic plants
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Summary:Plant alkaloids, one of the largest groups of natural products, provide many pharmacologically active compounds. Several genes in the biosynthetic pathways for scopolamine, nicotine, and berberine have been cloned, making the metabolic engineering of these alkaloids possible. Expression of two branching-point enzymes was engineered: putrescine N-methyltransferase (PMT) in transgenic plants of Atropa belladonna and Nicotiana sylvestris and (S)-scoulerine 9-O-methyltransferase (SMT) in cultured cells of Coptis japonica and Eschscholzia californica. Overexpression of PMT increased the nicotine content in N. sylvestris, whereas suppression of endogenous PMT activity severely decreased the nicotine content and induced abnormal morphologies. Ectopic expression of SMT caused the accumulation of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in E. californica. The prospects and limitations of engineering plant alkaloid metabolism are discussed.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.011526398