Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, PR China; Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, PR China; SynBio Research Platform, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin, 300072, PR China.
Tianjin Research Institute of Forestry and Pomology, Tianjin, 300384, PR China; National Engineering Technology Research Center for Preservation of Agricultural Products, Tianjin, 300384, PR China; Key Laboratory of Storage of Agricultural Products, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin, 300384, PR China; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Postharvest Physiology and Storage of Agricultural Products, Tianjin, 300384, PR China.
Arch Biochem Biophys. 2021 Feb 15;698:108742. doi: 10.1016/j.abb.2020.108742. Epub 2020 Dec 25.
Mylia taylorii is an ancient nonseed land plant that accumulates various sesquiterpenes with insecticidal and antibacterial activities. Recently, microbial-type sesquiterpene synthases (STSs) with atypical aspartate-rich metal ion binding motifs have been identified in some liverworts. Here, transcriptome analysis of M. taylorii was performed to identify M. taylorii sesquiterpene synthases (MtSTSs) that are potentially involved in sesquiterpene biosynthesis and diversity. A total of 255,669 unigenes were obtained with an average length of 963 bp in the transcriptome data of M. taylorii, among which 148,093 (57.92%) unigenes had BLAST results. Forty-eight unigenes were related to the sesquiterpene backbone biosynthesis according to KEGG annotation. In addition, MtSTS1, MtSTS2 and MtSTS3 identified from putative MtSTSs display sesquiterpene catalytic activities on the basis of functional characterizations in yeast. Interestingly, MtSTSs exhibit a noncanonical metal ion binding motif and the structural composition of a single α-domain, which are features of microbial STSs instead of archetypical plant STSs. This study revealed new microbial-type STS members of nonseed plants, and functionally identified that MtSTSs may contribute to the investigation of the biosynthesis and biological role of sesquiterpenes in M. taylorii.
弥勒氏塔叶苔是一种古老的非种子陆生植物，它积累了各种具有杀虫和抗菌活性的倍半萜。最近，在一些地钱植物中发现了具有非典型天冬氨酸丰富金属离子结合基序的微生物型倍半萜合酶（STSs）。在这里，对弥勒氏塔叶苔进行了转录组分析，以鉴定可能参与倍半萜生物合成和多样性的弥勒氏塔叶苔倍半萜合酶（MtSTSs）。在弥勒氏塔叶苔的转录组数据中，共获得了 255669 条 unigene，平均长度为 963bp，其中 148093（57.92%）条 unigene有 BLAST 结果。根据 KEGG 注释，有 48 条 unigene与倍半萜骨架生物合成有关。此外，根据酵母中的功能特征，从假定的 MtSTSs 中鉴定出的 MtSTS1、MtSTS2 和 MtSTS3 显示出倍半萜催化活性。有趣的是，MtSTSs 表现出非典型的金属离子结合基序和单个α结构域的结构组成，这是微生物 STSs 的特征，而不是典型植物 STSs 的特征。本研究揭示了非种子植物的新型微生物型 STS 成员，并从功能上鉴定出 MtSTSs 可能有助于研究弥勒氏塔叶苔中倍半萜的生物合成和生物学作用。
