Title

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

Authors

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

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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

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