Department of Material Chemistry, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan; email:
Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan; email:
Annu Rev Biochem. 2020 Jun 20;89:821-851. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-013118-111107. Epub 2020 Mar 30.
Natural rubber (NR), principally comprising -1,4-polyisoprene, is an industrially important natural hydrocarbon polymer because of its unique physical properties, which render it suitable for manufacturing items such as tires. Presently, industrial NR production depends solely on latex obtained from the Pará rubber tree, . In latex, NR is enclosed in rubber particles, which are specialized organelles comprising a hydrophobic NR core surrounded by a lipid monolayer and membrane-bound proteins. The similarity of the basic carbon skeleton structure between NR and dolichols and polyprenols, which are found in most organisms, suggests that the NR biosynthetic pathway is related to the polyisoprenoid biosynthetic pathway and that rubber transferase, which is the key enzyme in NR biosynthesis, belongs to the -prenyltransferase family. Here, we review recent progress in the elucidation of molecular mechanisms underlying NR biosynthesis through the identification of the enzymes that are responsible for the formation of the NR backbone structure.
天然橡胶（NR）主要由 -1,4-聚异戊二烯组成，由于其独特的物理性质，使其成为一种工业上重要的天然碳氢聚合物，适合制造轮胎等物品。目前，工业 NR 的生产完全依赖于从巴西橡胶树中提取的乳胶。在乳胶中，NR 被封闭在橡胶颗粒中，橡胶颗粒是一种特殊的细胞器，由疏水的 NR 核心组成，核心周围是一层脂质单层和膜结合蛋白。NR 与 dolichols 和 polyprenols 的基本碳骨架结构相似，而 dolichols 和 polyprenols 存在于大多数生物体中，这表明 NR 生物合成途径与聚异戊二烯生物合成途径有关，并且负责 NR 生物合成的关键酶——橡胶转移酶属于 -prenyltransferase 家族。在这里，我们通过鉴定负责 NR 骨架结构形成的酶，综述了阐明 NR 生物合成分子机制的最新进展。
