Remodeling the isoprenoid pathway in tobacco by expressing the cytoplasmic mevalonate pathway in chloroplasts

    Authors

    S. Kumar; F. M. Hahn; E. Baidoo; T. S. Kahlon; D. F. Wood; C. M. McMahan; K. Cornish; J. D. Keasling; H. Daniell;M. C. Whalen

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Metab. Eng.

    Keywords

    Plant metabolic engineering; Mevalonate pathway; Methylerythritol; phosphate pathway; Chloroplast engineering; Tobacco; Isoprenoid; biosynthesis; COENZYME-A REDUCTASE; CAROTENOID BIOSYNTHESIS; PLASTID TRANSFORMATION; ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA; PLANT ISOPRENOIDS; RUBBER PARTICLES; GENE; ACCUMULATION; INHIBITION; SYNTHASE; Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology

    Abstract

    Metabolic engineering to enhance production of isoprenoid metabolites for industrial and medical purposes is an important goal. The substrate for isoprenoid synthesis in plants is produced by the mevalonate pathway (MEV) in the cytosol and by the 2-C-methyl-o-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway in plastids. A multi-gene approach was employed to insert the entire cytosolic MEV pathway into the tobacco chloroplast genome. Molecular analysis confirmed the site-specific insertion of seven transgenes and homoplasmy. Functionality was demonstrated by unimpeded growth on fosmidomycin, which specifically inhibits the MEP pathway. Transplastomic plants containing the MEV pathway genes accumulated higher levels of mevalonate, carotenoids, squalene, sterols, and triacyglycerols than control plants. This is the first time an entire eukaryotic pathway with six enzymes has been transplastomically expressed in plants. Thus, we have developed an important tool to redirect metabolic fluxes in the isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway and a viable multigene strategy for engineering metabolism in plants. Published by Elsevier Inc.

    Journal Title

    Metabolic Engineering

    Volume

    14

    Issue/Number

    1

    Publication Date

    1-1-2012

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    19

    Last Page

    28

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000299112000003

    ISSN

    1096-7176

    Share

    COinS