Enhancing terpenoid indole alkaloid production by inducible expression of mammalian Bax in Catharanthus roseus cells  

作　　者：XU MaoJun & DONG JuFang Department of Biotechnology,Zhejiang Gongshang University,Hangzhou 310035,China 

出　　处：《Science China(Life Sciences)》2007年第2期234-241,共8页中国科学（生命科学英文版）

基　　金：the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 30572331);the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. 302785);the Key Scientific Project of Zhejiang High Education Commission

摘　　要：Bax,a mammalian pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family,triggers hypersensitive reactions when expressed in plants.To investigate the effects of Bax on the biosynthesis of clinically important natural products in plant cells,we generate transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells overexpressing a mouse Bax protein under the β-estradiol-inducible promoter.The expression of Bax in transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells is highly dependent on β-estradiol concentrations applied.Contents of catharanthine and total terpenoid indole alkaloid of the transgenic cells treated with 30 μmol/L β-estradiol are 5.0-and 5.5-fold of the control cells.Northern and Western blotting results show that expression of mammalian Bax induces transcriptional activation of Tdc and Str,two key genes in terpenoid indole alkaloid bio-synthetic pathway of Catharanthus roseus cells,and stimulates the accumulation of defense-related protein PR1 in the cells,showing that the mouse Bax triggers the defense responses of Catharanthus roseus cells and activates the terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthetic pathway.Thus,our data suggest that the mammalian Bax might be a potential regulatory factor for secondary metabolite biosynthesis in plant cells and imply a new secondary metabolic engineering strategy for enhancing the metabolic flux to natural products by activating the whole biosynthetic pathway rather than by engineering the single structural genes within the pathways.Bax,a mammalian pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family,triggers hypersensitive reactions when expressed in plants.To investigate the effects of Bax on the biosynthesis of clinically important natural products in plant cells,we generate transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells overexpressing a mouse Bax protein under the β-estradiol-inducible promoter.The expression of Bax in transgenic Catharanthus roseus cells is highly dependent on β-estradiol concentrations applied.Contents of catharanthine and total terpenoid indole alkaloid of the transgenic cells treated with 30 μmol/L β-estradiol are 5.0-and 5.5-fold of the control cells.Northern and Western blotting results show that expression of mammalian Bax induces transcriptional activation of Tdc and Str,two key genes in terpenoid indole alkaloid bio-synthetic pathway of Catharanthus roseus cells,and stimulates the accumulation of defense-related protein PR1 in the cells,showing that the mouse Bax triggers the defense responses of Catharanthus roseus cells and activates the terpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthetic pathway.Thus,our data suggest that the mammalian Bax might be a potential regulatory factor for secondary metabolite biosynthesis in plant cells and imply a new secondary metabolic engineering strategy for enhancing the metabolic flux to natural products by activating the whole biosynthetic pathway rather than by engineering the single structural genes within the pathways.

关 键 词：CATHARANTHUS roseus CELLS TERPENOID INDOLE alkaloid metabolic engineering BAX 

分 类 号：Q943.2[生物学—植物学]