Molecular Cloning and Functional Analysis of and Genes from Maxim.

Maxim. () has attracted attention for its rich aroma. The aroma of is mainly volatile terpenes synthesized by plant terpene metabolic pathways. However, there is little information on terpene metabolic gene. In this study, the coding sequence of () and () were cloned from cv. 'Fengxiandahongpao.' and genes from with CDS lengths of 2172 bp and 1029 bp, respectively. The bioinformatics results showed that was closely related to citrus, and it was deduced that were hydrophilic proteins without the transmembrane domain. Subcellular localization prediction indicated that was most likely to be located in chloroplasts, and was most likely to be in mitochondria. Meanwhile, the 3D protein structure showed that and were mainly composed of α-helices, which were folded into a single domain. In vitro enzyme activity experiments showed that purified proteins and had the functions of enzyme and enzyme. Transient expression of and in tobacco significantly increased tobacco's terpene content. Moreover, and were expressed in different tissues of , and the relative expression of the two genes was the highest in fruits. Therefore, this suggests that and are positively related to terpene synthesis. This study could provide reference genes for improving breeding as well as for the Rutaceae research.