Elucidation of the melitidin biosynthesis pathway in pummelo  

作　　者：Shuangqian Shen Shouchuang Wang Chenkun Yang Chao Wang Qianqian Zhou Shen Zhou Ran Zhang Yufei Li Zixuan Wang Liupan Dai Wenjv Peng Yingchen Hao Hao Guo Guangping Cao Xianqing Liu Fan Yao Qiang Xu Alisdair RFernie Jie Luo 

机构地区：[1]Sanya Nanfan Research Institute of Hainan University,Hainan University,Sanya 572025,China [2]National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement,National Center of Plant Gene Research(Wuhan),Huazhong Agricultural University,Wuhan 430070,China [3]Hubei Hongshan Laboratory,College of Life Science and Technology,College of Biomedicine and Health,Huazhong Agricultural University,Wuhan 430070,China [4]Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology of Ministry of Education,Huazhong Agricultural University,Wuhan 430070,China [5]Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology,Potsdam-Golm 14476,Germany [6]Centre of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology,Plovdiv 4000,Bulgaria [7]Yazhouwan National Laboratory,Sanya 572025,China

出　　处：《Journal of Integrative Plant Biology》2023年第11期2505-2518,共14页植物学报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA0909600);the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (31625021 to J.L);the“111”Project (No.D20024);the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (2019QNRC001);the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX20220097);the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M710991);the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (323MS019);the Hainan Postdoctoral Grant Project (2022-BH-14);the Hainan Provincial Academician Innovation Platform Project (HD-YSZX-202003,HD-YSZX-202004);the Hainan University Startup Fund (KYQD (ZR)1866,KYQD (ZR)1916)。

摘　　要：Specialized plant metabolism is a rich resource of compounds for drug discovery.The acylated flavonoid glycoside melitidin is being developed as an anti-cholesterol statin drug candidate,but its biosynthetic route in plants has not yet been fully characterized.Here,we describe the gene discovery and functional characterization of a new flavonoid gene cluster(UDP-glucuronosyltransferases(Cg UGTs),1,2rhamnosyltransferase(Cg1,2Rha T),acyltransferases(Cg ATs))that is responsible for melitidin biosynthesis in pummelo(Citrus grandis(L.)Osbeck).Population variation analysis indicated that the tailoring of acyltransferases,specific for bitter substrates,mainly determine the natural abundance of melitidin.Moreover,3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-Co A reductase enzyme inhibition assays showed that the product from this metabolic gene cluster,melitidin,may be an effective anti-cholesterol statin drug candidate.Co-expression of these clustered genes in Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in the formation of melitidin,demonstrating the potential for metabolic engineering of melitidin in a heterologous plant system.This study establishes a biosynthetic pathway for melitidin,which provides genetic resources for the breeding and genetic improvement of pummelo aimed at fortifying the content of biologically active metabolites.

关 键 词：bioactive metabolites biosynthetic pathway FLAVONOIDS melitidin natural variation 

分 类 号：Q943.2[生物学—植物学]